Homers Lead Cardinals, Cubs To Wins

By ESPN

Playing time in the Cardinals' outfield has been hard to come by for Jose Martinez lately. He earned some more Tuesday afternoon.

Martinez hit two solo homers, and St. Louis beat the Milwaukee Brewers 6-0 in the opener of a day-night doubleheader.

What made the day even better for Martinez was that his feat occurred with his mom watching him play in the majors for the first time.

"It's a really special day for me ... because my mom is watching," Martinez said of his mother, who is visiting from Venezuela. "For me, everything I do is for her. It's a great day today because she's going to be happy, for sure."

Martinez connected in the fifth and eighth innings for his first multihomer game. He added a sacrifice fly in the sixth inning.

"He's doing a nice job, even in the outfield," Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said. "He's doing everything we ask; and you talk about dangerous hitters, I think you can count him in that category."

Martinez had registered just one at-bat since June 7 entering the game. The 28-year-old had finally earned regular playing time earlier this season, before a groin injury sidelined him for three weeks. Since then, Dexter Fowler, Tommy Pham and Stephen Piscotty have solidified the Cardinals' outfield.

"When you're not playing, you've got to be ready for every opportunity," Martinez said. "Everything is mental. You've got to be mentally prepared 100 percent and try to make something happen every time and not try to do too much."

Martinez's 415-foot opposite field drive to right-center ignited a three-run Cardinals rally in the fifth. Matt Carpenter followed with an RBI double and scored on Fowler's single to make it 3-0.

Kolten Wong had an RBI double as the Cardinals extended their lead to 5-0 in the sixth.

Martinez's homer to left in the eighth traveled 436 feet.

"You never know what's going to happen tomorrow, and that's the deal for me," Martinez said. "You've got to go out there and do your best."

Right-hander Lance Lynn (5-3) struggled with his control with four walks, but he was able to get out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the fifth. Lynn struck out eight, including the side in the fourth inning.

"They put together some good at-bats," Lynn said. "There wasn't too many hard hit balls, either. I had good stuff; I was just missing here and there at times."

John Brebbia pitched a perfect sixth inning and Tyler Lyons pitched the final three innings to earn his first career save. The Cardinals' bullpen allowed three hits in four innings.

Lefty Brent Suter, recalled from Triple-A Colorado Springs as the Brewers' 26th man for the doubleheader, got the surprise start after right-hander Brandon Woodruff had his major league debut postponed during warm-ups because of right hamstring soreness.

Suter (0-1) started with four innings of one-hit ball, before running into trouble in the fifth. He also recorded his first major league hit with a single to left in the top of the fifth inning.

"I was surprised, to say the least," Suter said. "I was in there eating crackers getting ready for the game and got the call, 'Hey, Sute.' I thought it was like bad news or something. I thought something happened. It turns out it kind of was bad news Woody went down. But 25 minutes later, I'm starting at Busch Stadium."

Cubs 14, Mets 3

Joe Maddon had a big idea to turn around his slumping Chicago Cubs.

How big? About 240 pounds, right at the top of the batting order.

Anthony Rizzo began the game with a long home run after a surprising move to the leadoff spot, rookie Ian Happ hit his first career grand slam and the Cubs trounced the New York Mets 14-3 on Tuesday night.

"It just worked out perfectly," Maddon said.

Backed by a season-best seven-run second inning, the World Series champs snapped a nine-game skid on the road and moved back to .500 through 64 games. The Cubs had lost five of six overall.

Jon Lester (4-4) earned his 150th win and matched a season high with 10 strikeouts. He allowed a run and five hits over seven innings.

Rizzo, batting leadoff for the first time in his career, had two hits, three RBI and a bases-loaded walk. He's reached safely in 21 of his last 36 plate appearances.

"The thing is, he's not impacted by that," Maddon said of moving Rizzo around the lineup. "He kind of has fun with it. He doesn't look at it in any other ways except it's going to be fun."

Rizzo got the Cubs rolling with a 462-foot shot to center field off Zack Wheeler (3-4). Chicago then batted around in the second, and the biggest blow came when Happ went the opposite way with the bases loaded for his sixth homer.

Every starter for the Cubs had at least one hit by the fourth inning, including Lester, who also drew a walk in the sixth. Jason Heyward, Kris Bryant and Javier Baez also went deep for Chicago, which matched a season high for runs and had 15 hits. Albert Almora Jr. had three hits and a walk.

"They all looked better," Maddon said.

Rizzo became the seventh Cubs player to bat leadoff this season, getting the nod from Maddon because Ben Zobrist is nursing a left wrist injury, and Kyle Schwarber and Happ have been struggling.

Except for his thick frame, Rizzo looked the part of a traditional leadoff man in his second plate appearance. After falling behind 0-2, he choked way up the bat and battled back for a bases-loaded, two-out walk. Happ's slam came in the next at-bat against Wheeler.

"He sets a great example of how to work an at-bat," Maddon said of Rizzo.

Rizzo also legged out an RBI double in the third.

Rizzo entered Tuesday with a .390 on-base percentage this season, while Chicago had a .306 OBP from the leadoff spot -- which ranked 24th in the majors. Dexter Fowler was a regular atop the lineup when the Cubs won the World Series last year, but he signed a free agent contract with St. Louis in the offseason.

Maddon plans to keep Rizzo in the leadoff spot Wednesday against New York, and he's ready for an extended stay up there.

"You know what? Let's go on a run now," Rizzo said. "That'd be great. Just keep winning, no matter what."

White Sox 6, Orioles 1

Like many young power hitters, Matt Davidson's focus at the plate is not to get himself out.

"When I stay in the zone, I do pretty well, and so does everybody," Davidson said. "You want to swing at the ones in the zone."

The rookie definitely was in the zone on Tuesday night.

Davidson hit his first career grand slam, Derek Holland scattered eight hits over six innings and the Chicago White Sox beat the Baltimore Orioles 6-1.

Jose Abreu went 3 for 4 and Avisail Garcia had a two-run double as Chicago won its second straight after dropping nine of 11.

Davidson leads the White Sox with 12 homers in 163 at-bats.

"I know he has some days where it might seem like he's off kilter a little bit, but his mindset and his approach doesn't change," Chicago manager Rick Renteria said. "He goes in there very confident and wanting to do some damage. When he gets a pitch he can handle, he's able to drive it out of the ballpark."

Manny Machado had an RBI-single for the Orioles, who dropped to 31-32 with the loss -- the first time they've been under .500 since Oct. 3, 2015.

Holland (5-6) faced trouble in every inning, but managed to give up just one run. The left-hander had lost his three previous starts, allowing 15 earned runs in 13 innings (10.38 ERA) during that span.

Baltimore starter Alec Asher (2-5) allowed six runs and six hits in five-plus innings following a fast start.

The Orioles grabbed a 1-0 lead in the top of the first. Joey Rickard had a leadoff double, was sacrificed to third and scored on a long single by Machado that one-hopped the wall in left field. Machado was thrown out trying to stretch it into a double.

Chicago strung together three straight hits to begin the fourth inning to take a 2-1 lead. Melky Cabrera and Abreu singled to put runners on first and second. Garcia then doubled to the left-center gap to score both runners.

The Orioles seemed poised to answer in the fifth, but Holland worked out of a jam -- runners on first and third with no outs -- by getting Machado to pop up to second and cleanup hitter Mark Trumbo to bounce into a double play.

"The first-and-third situation was tough," Baltimore manager Buck Showalter said. "Guys are pushing and pushing. But just scoring one run, you can't put it all on one inning, that was more than that. You have to tip your hat to their pitcher, but we seem to be doing a lot of that lately."

Davidson's slam in the bottom of the inning made it 6-1 and knocked Asher out of the game.

"The first five innings were really good," Asher said. "The last inning, I kind of maybe tried to do a little too much and fell behind some hitters and made a mistake."

Abreu started the sixth with a single, Garcia was hit by a pitch and Todd Frazier walked to load the bases. Davidson worked the count to 3-2 and cracked a fastball deep into the left-field bleachers, a blast estimated at 438 feet.

"That one felt pretty good," he said. "You don't really feel anything when you hit balls like that."

Tuesday, June 13 Scoreboard

St. Louis 6, Milwaukee 0

Washington 10, Atlanta 5

Pittsburgh 5, Colorado 2

Tampa Bay 8, Toronto 1

Boston 4, Philadelphia 3 (F/12)

Los Angeles Dodgers 7, Cleveland 5

Arizona 7, Detroit 6

Chicago  Cubs 14, New York Mets 3

Miami 8, Oakland 1

Chicago White Sox 6, Baltimore 1

Minnesota 20, Seattle 7

Texas 4, Houston 2

Milwaukee 8, St. Louis 5

Los Angeles Angels 3, New York Yankees 2 (F/11)

San Diego 6, Cincinnati 2

Kansas City 8, San Francisco 1

Wednesday, June 14 Schedule (All Times Central)

Oakland at Miami, 11:10 a.m.

Cincinnati at San Diego, 2:40 p.m.

Kansas City at San Francisco, 2:45 p.m.

Atlanta at Washington, 3:05 p.m.

Boston at Philadelphia, 6:05 p.m.

Colorado at Pittsburgh, 6:05 p.m.

Tampa Bay at Toronto, 6:07 p.m.

Chicago Cubs at New York Mets, 6:10 p.m.

Los Angeles Dodgers at Cleveland, 6:10 p.m.

Arizona at Detroit, 6:10 p.m.

Baltimore at Chicago White Sox, 7:10 p.m.

Seattle at Minnesota, 7:10 p.m.

Texas at Houston, 7:10 p.m.

Milwaukee at St. Louis, 7:15 p.m.

New York Yankees at Los Angeles Angels, 9 p.m.