EMOTIONAL VICTORY IN ST. LOUIS
Martinez honors late Taveras, pitches Cards past Dodgers
ST. LOUIS—Once he wiped away the tears, Carlos Martinez went to work. Martinez watched an eme emotional pregame tr tribute to late teammate and best friend Oscar Taveras, then pitched one-hit ball for seven s shutout innings t to lead the St. Louis Cardinalsdi over the Los Angeles Dodgers 3-1 Sunday.
“When (I) went out to start, (I) was just about ‘OK, this is an opportunity to take this win for Oscar, to play hard, to compete, to get my focus and do it for him,’” Martinez said through an interpreter.
Jhonny Peralta homered and drove in all three runs for the Cardinals.
On the one-year anniversary of Taveras’ major league debut, his family was on the field to honor him. Taveras and his girlfriend were killed in a car accident in his native Dominican Republic in October.
Martinez was best friends with Taveras, and is wearing the outfielder’s No. 18 this season.
Martinez (5-2) struck out eight and extended his scoreless-inning streak to 20 1-3.
Trevor Rosenthal earned his 15th save in 16 tries. Justin Turner was ejected by plate umpire Marty Foster for arguing after looking at strike three to end the game.
The Cardinals improved to 20-6 at Busch Stadium, the best home start in team history.
Joc Pederson hit his 13th homer in the Dodgers eighth. He tied Orlando Cepeda (1958) for second place for the most homers by a rookie through the month of May—Albert Pujols hit 16 in 2001.
Brett Anderson (2-3) settled in after a shaky start. The lefty retired nine of the final 10 batters he faced, striking out five out of six during that stretch.
Anderson gave up two runs on five hits and three walks in six innings.
Peralta’s two-run homer in the first was his eighth this season, matching Matt Carpenter for the team lead. It was the seventh straight game in which the Cardinals scored in the opening inning.
Peralta also had to fight back his emotions during the Taveras tribute.
“It’s hard to see that on the board,” Peralta said. “Everything he do, in the first game he hit a home run, so it was good for he to hit a home run to give it him.”