NEW YORK • Cardinals starter Carlos Martinez again had difficulty in the early innings Thursday. Martinez wasn’t too good in the middle innings, either, at least the middle innings he pitched.
Notorious slow starter Martinez walked six, hit one and allowed five runs in 4 1/3 innings as the Cardinals succumbed to the New York Mets 9-4 in the season opener for both.
The Mets probably should have had more than the three runs they put up in the first three innings because Martinez hit one and walked five in that time. Martinez got through the fourth unscathed but his sixth walk, to Todd Frazier, with one out in the fifth, came home on Adrian Gonzalez’s double.