MILWAUKEE - Luke Weaver seemed to regain his old form. It just took a while.
He settled in after a shaky first inning to win for the first time in eight starts and Jose Martinez hit a three-run homer to pace the St. Louis Cardinals to an 8-2 victory Sunday against the Milwaukee Brewers.
Weaver (4-6) allowed two runs, both in the first, on five hits in 52/3 innings. He struck out a season-high nine and walked two for his first victory since May 11.
"I think it means a lot for him to right the ship," Matheny said. "The first inning, you could tell. It was once again, like, 'Here we go.' Got into the second, that was better. Gave up a walk and at that point he turned it around."
Martinez's 11th homer capped a five-run fourth when St. Louis erased a 2-1 deficit. Dexter Fowler, who entered hitting .163, doubled twice and scored twice, and Harrison Bader reached four times, scoring twice for the Cardinals, who won the final two games of the series to salvage a split.
Fowler snapped an 0-for-13 streak with a double to open the fourth and Bader walked. Both runners advanced on Kolten Wong's fly out to right. After Weaver struck out, Matt Carpenter lined a two-run single to center to put the Cards up 3-2.
Jhoulys Chacin (6-3) issued his fifth walk to Greg Garcia and Martinez then drove an 0-2 pitch over the wall in center to make it 6-2.
"That pitch ran into my bat 100 percent," Martinez said. "He actually caught me off-guard, got me off my timing. I just reacted to the ball. I got the barrel 100 percent. It was good for me that it actually happened like that. It was a good hit for us in that inning."
The Cardinals extended it to 8-2 in the fifth. Fowler again led off with a double and Bader followed with an RBI single. Wong singled Bader to third and Weaver laid down an RBI sacrifice bunt.
Chacin allowed a season-high eight runs on nine hits in 41/3 innings, striking out five and walking five. Chacin dropped to 0-7 with a 6.90 ERA in nine career appearances, including eight starts, against the Cardinals.
"When you walk five guys in four innings, you can't have much of a good game," Chacin said. "Just trying to battle from the first inning. I got runners on base every inning. Just battling with control with my pitches. You pay for it."
The Cardinals pushed across a run in the first when Carpenter walked, Garcia doubled and Marcell Ozuna lofted a one-out sacrifice fly to the wall in right-center.
Milwaukee answered with two runs in the bottom half. Christian Yelich tied it with his 10th home run, a one-out solo shot into the second deck in left. Ryan Braun followed with a double to right and scored on Hernan Perez's two-out single. Jonathan Villar doubled Perez to third, but Weaver escaped by retiring Erik Kratz on a hard-hit liner to right.
"Being able to get out of that inning with just two runs, it's obviously not ideal, but the way we've kind of been swinging and getting hot, I knew we were going to score some runs," Weaver said. "It was just about putting up zeroes from there."
Notes: Cardinals OF Tommy Pham was not in the lineup after feeling ill before the game. "He is just under the weather," Matheny said. "It has been going through our clubhouse. Different guys are passing it around. Unfortunately when you spend this much time together, in this kind of space, on flights, it is going to run its course." Cardinals RHP John Gant (1-2, 4.39) opens the three-game series tonight at home against Cleveland. Gant, filling in for injured Michael Wacha, was sent down to Triple-A Memphis on May 31 and recalled Thursday. After an off-day today, Brewers rookie RHP Freddy Peralta (2-0, 2.30) makes his fourth start of the season to open a two-game series at home against Kansas City. Opponents are batting just .113 against him.