 gave up three runs and seven hits in six innings, snapping a career-high three game losing streak. Brandon Morrow got the last three outs for his 16th save in 17 chances.Chicago trailed 2-0 and then 3-2 before Kyle Schwarber's RBI single in the fifth tied the score for the second time. Happ's double off Sam Tuivailala (1-2) in the seventh gave the Cubs their first lead.Happ has three hits, including a homer, with two RBI and two runs scored in the last two games against the Cardinals, who dropped their season-high fourth in a row.Heyward's 410-foot, two-run homer in the eighth landed in the right field bullpen. It was the first career dinger allowed by Cardinals reliever Jordan Hicks.Addison Russell's leadoff home run in the fourth tied it at 2-2, snapping Cardinals starter Carlos Martinez's 47 inning homerless streak.Martinez struggled for third time since returning from a lat strain, giving up three runs and seven hits. He walked six, at least one in each inning, and needed 98 pitches to get through five innings. He was able to wriggle out of a bases loaded jam in the fifth as the Cubs stranded nine runners against him.Martinez helped himself with a two-out RBI single that broke a 2-2 tie in the fourth. Martinez' liner fell just short of the outstretched glove of a diving Heyward, scoring Dexter Fowler.Marcell Ozuna's two-run homer gave the Cardinals a 2-0 lead in the first. The blast extended Ozuna's home run streak to three games and his RBI streak to a career-high seven games. He is the first Cardinal to drive in a run in seven straight since Matt Holliday in 2013.Willson Contreras got the Cubs on the scoreboard in the third on a sharp infield single that deflected off first baseman Matt Carpenter. Ben Zobrist scored from third on the play.TRAINING ROOMCubs: RHP Yu Darvish (right triceps tendinitis) threw a 35-pitch bullpen session on Friday and is scheduled to throw another when the team returns home next week.Cardinals: SS Paul DeJong (left hand fracture) underwent a CT scan and hit off a tee. He will accompany the team on its next road trip.UP NEXTCubs: LHP Jose Quintana (6-4, 4.09 ERA) is 3-1 in five career starts against St. Louis.Cardinals: RHP Jack Flaherty (3-2, 2.96 ERA) has won three of his last four decisions and is making his first career start against Chicago.---More baseball: https://apnews.com/tag/MLBbaseball)
Cardinals send out Martinez after getting pounded by Cubs 1h ago• 2 min read In Carlos Martinez's first eight starts of the year, the St. Louis Cardinals right-hander pitched at a Cy Young Award level. While his record was only 3-2, his ERA was a miniscule 1.62 and he gave up only five earned runs in a seven-start stretch.But a strained right lat cost him four weeks, and Martinez hasn't been the same pitcher since being activated from the 10-day disabled list on June 5. He has walked a whopping 12 batters in 7 2/3 innings, including seven on Sunday in 3 2/3 innings during a 6-3 loss at Cincinnati.Martinez will need to be sharper Saturday night when St. Louis tries to square its three-game weekend series with the Chicago Cubs at Busch Stadium, where it absorbed a frightful 13-5 pounding Friday night.Chicago (39-27) produced seven extra-base hits, including homers by Kris Bryant, Kyle Schwarber and Ian Happ. Bryant's two-run blast over the Cubs' bullpen in the third snapped an 0-for-17 skid, and Schwarber's 465-foot moonshot to center in the fifth was one of the longest homers in stadium history.Bryant's homer also snapped a 24-game streak without a long ball. It came after manager Joe Maddon gave him two days off in Milwaukee, followed by a schedule-enforced off-day on Thursday."Rest in this game cures everything," Maddon said.Does that work for Martinez as well? Martinez (3-3, 2.50 ERA) admitted he didn't completely turn it loose in his return outing against Miami on June 5.He aired it out to 99 mph in his last appearance but simply couldn't control his breaking pitches and was reduced to a one-pitch pitcher by the time the Reds touched him for four runs in the fourth inning.While upset with umpire Gerry Davis' strike zone, Martinez knew command was a bigger issue than what was or wasn't being called."I think some of my breaking balls were not good," he said. "I couldn't find the strike zone with my breaking ball and cutter, too. That's why you saw a lot of four-seamers. They hit a lot of foul balls. I missed a lot." Martinez has been up and down in his career against Chicago, going 4-4 with a 4.53 ERA in 24 outings, 14 of them starts. It will be his first start of the year against the Cubs.Chicago counters with right-hander Kyle Hendricks (4-6, 3.48), who is coming off a 7-1 loss Sunday to Pittsburgh that had little to do with his performance. Hendricks permitted just three hits and a run in five innings, but Pittsburgh's Josh Harrison led off the game with a homer. The Pirates feasted on the Cubs' bullpen for five runs in the sixth.Hendricks has pitched fairly well in his career against the Cardinals (36-31) with little to show for it, going 2-2 in 10 starts with a 3.32 ERA. This will be his first appearance in 2018 against St. Louis.Chicago's Friday outburst against Michael Wacha, who had an eight-game winning streak snapped, led to the Cardinals running up the white flag early. They removed catcher Yadier Molina after five innings and even let reliever John Brebbia take an at-bat in the ninth after using all of their position players."We were trying to conserve arms and get a couple of guys off their feet," St. Louis manager Mike Matheny said.
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