MILWAUKEE (AP) – Luke Weaver settled in after a shaky first inning to win for the first time in eight starts and Jose Martinez hit a three-run homer to pace the St. Louis Cardinals to an 8-2 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers on Sunday.
Weaver (4-6) allowed two runs, both in the first, on five hits in 5 2/3 innings. He struck out a season-high nine and walked two for his first victory since May 11.
Martinez’s 11th homer capped a five-run fourth when St. Louis erased a 2-1 deficit. Dexter Fowler, who entered hitting .163, doubled twice and scored twice, and Harrison Bader reached four times, scoring twice for the Cardinals.
Fowler opened the fourth with a double to left and Bader walked. Both runners advanced on Kelton Wong’s fly out to right. After Weaver struck out, Matt Carpenter lined a two-run single to center to put the Cards up 3-2.
Jhoulys Chacin (6-3) issued his fifth walk to Greg Garcia and Martinez then drove an 0-2 pitch over the wall in center to make it 6-2.
The Cardinals extended it to 8-2 in the fifth. Fowler again led off with a double and Bader followed with an RBI single. Wong singled Bader to third and Weaver laid down an RBI sacrifice bunt.
Chacin allowed a season-high eight runs on nine hits in 4 1/3 innings, striking out five and walking five.
The Cardinals pushed across a run in the first when Carpenter walked, Garcia doubled and Marcell Ozuna lofted a one-out sacrifice fly to the wall in right-center.
Milwaukee answered with two runs in the bottom half. Christian Yelich tied it with his 10th home run, a one-out solo shot into the second deck in left. Ryan Braun followed with a double to right and scored on Hernan Perez’s two-out single. Jonathan Villar doubled Perez to third, but Weaver escaped by retiring Erik Kratz on a hard-hit liner to right.
