Carlos Martinez went old-school Tuesday night at Busch Stadium. High socks, with the horizontal stripes showing. Standard hair-do. Perfect mixture of high-octane, four-seam fastball with sinker, slider and changeup. Pitching rather than throwing.
The Cardinals’ righthander, anointed the staff ace as a result of his new five-year contract and opening-night start, hadn’t won in any of his first five outings this year, although he had struck out an impressive 39 in 28 2/3 innings. On perhaps the last lovely night we’ll see here for a while, Martinez discerned that he didn’t need to strike out the Milwaukee Brewers.