Cardinals 1, Braves 0
ST. LOUIS -- Shelby Miller's luckless string continued Saturday night for the Atlanta Braves, as did Carlos Martinez's breakout season for the St. Louis Cardinals.
Martinez threw eight scoreless innings and Miller's streak of winless starts reached 12 as St. Louis eked out a 1-0 win at sold-out Busch Stadium.
Pinch-hitter Stephen Piscotty's sacrifice fly to right fielder Nick Markakis in the bottom of the eighth inning off reliever Luis Avilan scored pinch-runner Pete Kozma with the night's only run. Kozma got a good jump off third and beat Markakis' strong throw on a close play.
Catcher Yadier Molina led off the inning with a single and center fielder Randal Grichuk walked. Kozma was inserted after Molina reached second and advanced to third on a flyout to center by first baseman Mark Reynolds.
Miller (5-7) was tagged with the loss despite allowing just two hits and two walks in 7 1/3 innings, fanning four.
Martinez (11-4) scattered six hits in a 93-pitch outing, giving up just one intentional walk while striking out six. With closer Trevor Rosenthal unavailable for a second straight game, Randy Choate induced a game-ending double play ball from catcher A.J. Pierzynski for his first save.
The Cardinals (63-34) won their fifth straight game and improved to 36-12 at home. Atlanta (45-52) lost its third consecutive game.
The young, hard-throwing pitchers ruled the first half of the game as Miller and Martinez took turns retiring the side efficiently.
A former Cardinal who was traded for right fielder Jason Heyward in November, Miller gave up one hit through the first five innings, fanning four and giving up one walk. Second baseman Kolten Wong blooped a double to left to start the first, but no one else reached scoring position.
After wriggling out of a bases-loaded jam in the second by slipping a called third strike past Miller, Martinez faced the minimum in the next three innings, helped by two double plays.
NOTES: Atlanta activated 1B Freddie Freeman (wrist) from the 15-day disabled list on Saturday, although he didn't start. Freeman missed 30 games because of the injury after going on the shelf June 23. ... St. Louis LHP Tim Cooney, who earned his first MLB win Friday night, was sent to Triple-A Memphis to make room for newly acquired RHP Steve Cishek on the 25-man roster. ... The Braves recalled OF Adonis Garcia and INF Daniel Castro from Triple-A Gwinnett and optioned 1B Joey Terdoslavich to Gwinnett.