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Martinez Pitches Cards to Win, Rangers Blank Cubs

Published on March 24 2016 6:24 am
Last Updated on March 24 2016 9:12 am

Giancarlo Stanton's first home run of the spring wasn't enough to help Miami overcome a dazzling pitching performance by Carlos Martinez for the St. Louis Cardinals in a 4-1 win Wednesday.

An All-Star last season, Martinez threw five shutout innings, giving up two hits and striking out five.

"He was nasty," Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said. "It was effortless velocity. Every pitch he had today looked sharp."

Martinez was particularly pleased with his offspeed deliveries.

"I was able to use that changeup, especially behind in the count -- 2-1, 2-0," Martinez said via a translator. "I liked the fact that I threw it to right-handed hitters. That's something I've been working on. It feels pretty good, so hopefully I can continue to do that."

Stanton tied it at 1 in the seventh when he hit a 3-0 fastball from Trevor Rosenthal over the center field wall.

"It was good to get on top of a fastball. I've seemed to pop up the last couple," Stanton said.

Brandon Moss doubled home two runs in the bottom half of the inning. The Cardinals had been 0-6-2 in their last eight games.

Rangers 5, Cubs 0

Former top pick Matt Bush pitched two hitless innings, his latest step for Texas since spending more than three years in prison, and the Rangers beat the Chicago Cubs 5-0 Wednesday.

Bush was the No. 1 overall choice in the 2004 draft by San Diego as a shortstop and never made it above Double-A. In 2012, he was sentenced after pleading no-contest to driving under the influence with serious bodily injury to a motorcyclist.

The 30-year-old Bush was released from prison last October. The Rangers signed him to a minor league contract on Dec. 18, and he's been working with minor leaguers this spring.

Bush's fastball was clocked from 95-97 mph and nine of his first 10 pitches were strikes. He struck out two and walked one.

"It was very exciting," Bush said. "I had thought about it. It's been a long time since I've been in a major league spring training game. I was just happy to have the opportunity again. .just staying the course and keeping my head straight, so I don't have to go through the things I used to. It's day-by-day. There are things I have to take care of each day. I just follow through with that."

White Sox 6, Padres 1

Dioner Navarro tipped John Danks off to a problem. Since then, the Chicago White Sox left-hander has done just fine.

Danks threw six shutout innings for his second consecutive scoreless outing, and Avisail Garcia homered to help the White Sox defeat the San Diego Padres 6-1 on Wednesday.

Navarro, signed in the offseason to bolster Chicago's catching corps, told Danks that he was tipping his pitches.

"He told me exactly what I was doing. We fixed it and it hasn't been an issue since," Danks said.

The well-traveled Navarro has a .423 average (11 for 26) with three homers in his career against Danks. But he said he just noticed the pitch-tipping a couple of starts ago.

Wednesday, March 23 Scoreboard

Tampa Bay 5, Minnesota 2

Pittsburgh 6, Baltimore 5

St. Louis 4, Miami 1

Toronto 3, New York Mets 1

Chicago White Sox 6, San Diego 1

Cleveland 7, Kansas City 6

Texas 5, Chicago Cubs 0

Arizona 10, San Francisco 6

Washington 13, New York Yankees 0

Houston 2, Philadelphia 1

Oakland 13, Seattle 12

Thursday, March 24 Schedule (All Times Central)

Pittsburgh at Baltimore, 11:05 a.m.

New York at Boston, 11:05 a.m.

St. Louis at Washington, 11:05 a.m.

Minnesota at Miami, 11:05 a.m.

Detroit at Toronto, 11:07 a.m.

Houston at New York, 11:10 a.m.

Los Angeles at Chicago, 2:05 p.m.

Kansas City at Milwaukee, 2:05 p.m.

Cincinnati at Texas, 2:05 p.m.

Arizona at San Diego, 2:10 p.m.

Seattle at Colorado, 2:10 p.m.