MILWAUKEE -- Against a talented young pitcher, the Milwaukee Brewers ran themselves out of scoring opportunities in two of the first three innings Friday.
Carlos Martinez settled in from there, allowing just four hits and striking out eight over seven scoreless innings to pitch the St. Louis Cardinals to a 3-0 victory over the Brewers at Miller Park.
"He's a good pitcher," Brewers manager Ron Roenicke said of Martinez. "He has a tremendous fastball with movement on it. Good changeup, good slider. But really, first four innings we had people in scoring position. First inning, third inning -- ran into outs.
"We can't do that. When we get people in scoring position and we have chances, we've just got to deliver better."
With the way the Brewers are scoring runs this season, they can ill afford to kill innings with base running mistakes the way they did Friday.
Milwaukee had runners in scoring position with less than two outs in each of the first three innings against Martinez, beginning with the first inning when a dropped catch error by Cardinals shortstop Jhonny Peralta put runners at first and second with one out.
Adam Lind narrowly missed a three-run home run, flying out to the fence in the deepest part of the park in center field. The throw back into the infield got away, sending Gerardo Parra to third. Ryan Braun tried to advance to second on the play but was thrown out easily by third baseman Matt Carpenter.
"You want them to be aggressive and Parra did a nice job; you could tell he knew he was going to be safe," Roenicke said. "But on the back end you've just got to watch the play. If you start running and you see -- it was Carpenter -- a player there then you just stop and go back to first."
After leading off the second with a double, Khris Davis was standing on third with one out. With the infield drawn in, Martinez got Elian Herrera to hit a ground ball right to second baseman Kolten Wong for the second out. Martin Maldonado then struck out looking to end the inning.
Martinez walked Matt Garza and gave up a single to Jean Segura to start the third, but still managed to work a 1-2-3 inning thanks to outs on the bases.
With Gerardo Parra up, Garza ventured too far off second base and was caught stealing third by Yadier Molina. Third-base umpire Lance Barrett initially called Garza safe at third but the play was overturned after a challenge by Cardinals manager Mike Matheny.
"I screwed up by running into an out in the (third inning) and killed a rally right there," Garza said. "Two guys on, no outs, and I can't do that. If I want to win a ballgame, I have to do everything right. So we can't give away outs, and that's exactly what I did."
Davis drew a walk and advanced to second on a wild pitch with two outs in the fourth, but Aramis Ramirez struck out to end the inning.
Martinez retired 10 of the last 11 batters he faced, only surrendering a leadoff single to Adam Lind in the seventh inning. The hard-throwing 23-year-old is putting his raw talent together in the early going of his second full season in the big leagues. He's allowed just three earned runs in 20 innings over four appearances and three starts for a 1.35 ERA.
"He throws a lot of stuff with a lot of confidence up there, but he does make mistakes," Davis said. "He's human.
"As an offense, we can't make (pitchers) feel comfortable. We have to put some pressure on them somehow."
Garza struck out six but allowed three earned runs on seven hits over six innings to fall to 1-3 on the season. Two mistakes defined the right-hander's outing, as he allowed a solo home run to Jason Heyward in the third and a towering solo shot to Peralta in the sixth.
"I was alright, you know?" Garza said. "It sucks we lost. That's all there is. I made progress, but it's about time for that progress to kick in to results. I threw the ball well, but not well enough. Their guy was better. You tip your cap and wear it."
After breaking out for 10 runs Wednesday and getting a few timely hits in Thursday's victory over Cincinnati, Milwaukee went back to struggling offensively in the series opener against St. Louis.
The Brewers went 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position Friday, as Martinez and relievers Jordan Walden and Trevor Rosenthal combined on a five-hit shutout.
"I think we are still trying to find our identity," Davis said. "Individually we'll have good ABs but we don't string them along together back-to-back-to-back-to-back. We have to find a way to come through and do the small things."
Milwaukee is now 3-14 on the season and 3-11 against the National League Central. As the losses continue to pile up, Davis admitted it is hard to continue to stay positive.
"Yeah, it is hard, mainly because it is all about winning," Davis said. "If you are not doing the job, it is stressful."
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