Martin's ninth-inning hit lifts Dodgers over Cardinals, 2-1

Russell Martin grounded a two-strike, two-out single up the middle in the ninth inning to score two runs and lift the Los Angeles Dodgers to a 2-1 win against the visiting St. Louis Cardinals, completing a sweep of the three-game series on Wednesday afternoon. Andrew Miller retired Cody Bellinger to start the ninth but then hit Corey Seager with a high fastball. Carlos Martinez (2-2) entered and gave up a two-strike single to rookie catcher Will Smith to put runners on first and second.

Edwin Rios struck out for the second out, but a wild pitch on the first pitch to Martin moved the runners to second and third, setting up the walk-off single. Jack Flaherty threw seven shutout innings for the second straight game for the Cardinals.

Flaherty allowed four hits, struck out 10 and walked one. The Los Angeles-area native has thrown 16 consecutive shutout innings while lowering his ERA to 0.94 over his past six starts. Marcell Ozuna homered and Matt Carpenter had two hits for the Cardinals, who have lost five straight.

The Dodgers have won five in a row and eight of nine. The Dodgers sent rookie right-hander Dustin May to the mound for his second major-league outing. May went 5 2/3 innings, allowing one run and five hits. He struck out seven and walked one. Casey Sadler (2-0) earned the win after pitching a scoreless ninth. Joc Pederson had two hits for Los Angeles.

Ozuna homered with one out in the sixth to give the Cardinals a 1-0 lead. The Dodgers previously had their best chance to score in the bottom half of the sixth after Cardinals first baseman Paul Goldschmidt couldn't catch a foul pop off the bat of Justin Turner as it drifted to the edge of the stands.

Turner then singled to center on the next pitch and Bellinger followed with another single to put runners on the corners with two outs. After a mound visit, Flaherty got Seager to ground out to second on the next pitch to end the inning. 

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