"He had pretty good stuff", Carlos Correa said of Martinez's outing, "he had everything working, his changeup was good, his slider was good, he was commanding his fastball, he was tough".

The Astros would go to the bullpen the rest of the way and the Cardinals would tack on another run in the sixth inning and three more with a Bradon Moss home run in the seventh inning. Brandon Moss put the game away with a three-run home run in the sixth off Tony Sipp.

St. Louis Cardinals' Jeremy Hazelbaker is greeted by teammate Kolten Wong after his solo home run against the Houston Astros in the fourth inning of a baseball game Wednesday Aug. 17, 2016, in Houston. Altuve reached the milestone in a club-record 786 games and is second to Marlins outfielder Ichiro Suzuki (696 games) among active players in reaching the plateau in the fewest number of games.Keuchel and Garcia struggled through hard first innings, with Keuchel surrendering two runs on three hits before Garcia issued a walk, hit a batter and surrendered the first home run to Astros rookie Alex Bregman.For Keuchel, his issue was finding the strike zone.

"When he gets going, he's awesome", manager Mike Matheny said. Martinez threw just 79 pitches in seven innings of work. "We know we can get it done, and hopefully, we can do that for the rest of the year". He was yanked after Castro socked his eight homer 453 feet into the upper deck in right field, but the Cardinals had opened an 8-4 lead before Castro took Garcia deep.Left-hander Dallas Keuchel (7-12) scuffled for the Astros (61-58), allowing six runs on six hits and one walk with seven strikeouts before departing with two runners on and no outs in the sixth inning.Astros second baseman Jose Altuve finished 3-for-5 and reached 1,000 career hits with his single off Cardinals closer Seung Hwan Oh in the ninth inning. St. Louis last won three consecutive games July 27-29 (the finale against the New York Mets and the first two games of its series in Miami) and is 16-14 since the All-Star Game break. "I enjoy watching guys improve". I stayed focused and I felt really good. "When you see him pitch like that and maintain like that, that's improvement". A Yadier Molina double scored Piscotty, giving St. Louis a 3-0 lead through three. "I feel like it's just part of the game and I went out and did the best I could".

St. Louis is averaging 7.5 runs per game during this winning streak and began its offensive frenzy Wednesday in the third inning against starter Doug Fister.

Dodgers 7, Phillies 2 - At Philadelphia: Adrian Gonzalez hit two home runs and had five RBIs to help Los Angeles extend its lead in the NL West with a victory over Philadelphia.

White Sox 10, Indians 7 - At Cleveland: Tim Anderson hit a two-run home run in the third inning, and Adam Eaton blasted a grand slam in Chicago's five-run ninth inning as the White Sox rallied past Cleveland. "That was a bunch of homers. It's something you've just got to chew on and for me, I've got to come back better in five days". "The big numbers we've given up are obviously not helpful".

Astros: RHP Joe Musgrove (1-0, 1.47 ERA) starts against Baltimore on Thursday after getting his first major league win against Toronto on Friday.