Martínez shines before Mets rally to beat Cardinals 5-3

Adam Wainwright finally has company in the starting rotation.

Through the first seven games of their Grapefruit League season, the St. Louis Cardinals got only two strong starts on the mound, both from the 39-year-old Waino. A couple others, notably John Gant and, in his second start, Kwang Hyun Kim, recovered from early struggles to finish fairly well, but no one other than the veteran ace had been good from start to finish.

Add Carlos Martínez to the list. After allowing six runs in 1 2/3 innings in his spring debut, Martínez threw three shutout innings against the New York Mets. The right-hander struck out three batters and allowed only two hits and two walks Tuesday as the Cardinals lost 5-3 to the Mets at Clover Park in Port St. Lucie, Florida.

The strong St. Louis pitching continued for another three innings. Right-hander Alex Reyes pitched a scoreless fourth, striking out the side while allowing two singles and throwing a wild pitch. Left-hander Génesis Cabrera (fifth inning) and left-hander Tyler Webb (sixth) retired all six batters they combined to face.

The Cardinals’ run of excellence ended in the seventh when the Mets, trailing 3-0, scored five runs against right-handers Angel Rondón and Seth Elledge. All five runs were charged to Rondón, though only two were earned following a throwing error by third baseman Nolan Gorman.

The Cardinals, meanwhile, didn’t get much by way of hits, but when they did, they made them count.

The visitors scored two runs in the second on an Andrew Knizner RBI single and an Edmundo Sosa sacrifice fly that scored Justin Williams, who had singled. Williams, who is trying to carve out a spot for himself in the Cardinals’ young but crowded outfield, also hit a solo home run in the fourth.

And those three hits were all St. Louis got. The Cardinals appeared to be poised for a rally when the first three batters in the ninth walked to fill the bases, but there they stayed while Max Moroff (popout), José Rondón (strikeout) and Gorman (popout) went down in order.

Gorman, the only St. Louis starter to play the entire game, went 0 for 5 with two strikeouts. Second baseman Matt Carpenter went 0 for 2 with a walk. He remains hitless in 11 Grapefruit League at-bats.

The Cardinals, now 2-3-3 this spring, will visit the Washington Nationals on Wednesday afternoon.