Cardinals right-hander Carlos Martinez has followed three straight winning starts with three winless ones, but his latest provided encouragement.
Martinez allowed 14 runs on 16 hits in nine innings in losing his previous two outings. His ERA had soared from 1.73 to 4.89. But he could take comfort Friday after a solid effort against dangerous Detroit in which he gave up two runs in five innings and matched a season-high with eight strikeouts.
The difference was his sinker. "I felt a lot better than the last couple times that I threw," Martinez told MLB.com. I felt much better with the sinker. The sinker was working good today in the strike zone and down."
Matheny concurred, but added that Martinez is still simply throwing too many pitches to go deep into games. He threw just 63 percent of his pitches for strikes Friday.
"He just can't average 20 pitches an inning," Matheny said. "It's not going to work out real well for you ... the stuff is there. He looks good. He's just going to have to be more on the plate with it."
He also can't continue giving up home runs. The one blasted by Yoenis Cespedes was the seventh he has allowed in 40 innings - all solo jobs. The rest of the St. Louis rotation has yielded eight in a combined 165 1/3 innings.