DENVER -- Carlos Martinez proved his value on the mound once again. He also showed he can pitch in at the plate, too.

Martinez pitched well into the seventh inning and had two hits, and the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Colorado Rockies 4-2 on Wednesday.

Outfielder Randal Grichuk homered and third baseman Matt Carpenter also had two hits for St. Louis, which avoided a sweep with another strong outing from Martinez.

"Carlos was terrific," St. Louis manager Mike Matheny said.

Outfielder Ben Paulsen homered for the Rockies, but that was the only damage against the 23-year-old Dominican. Martinez (7-2) pitched into the seventh inning for the fifth straight game by mixing a mid-90s fastball with his off-speed pitches. His only mistake was the homer, but he wasn't upset with his 88-mph changeup.

"It was a good pitch and the guy just hit the ball," Martinez said. "I didn't expect the ball to fly that far."

By then, the Cardinals had built a three-run lead despite being held in check until deep into the third inning.

Martinez broke the drought with a two-out single and went to third on second baseman Kolten Wong's single to right.

Carpenter followed with an RBI single, scoring Martinez and sending Wong to third. Wong scored on a wild pitch to make it 2-0.

Carpenter rebounded after going 0-for-4 with four strikeouts Tuesday.

"At any point something like that can happen," Carpenter said. "On the flip side you could go out and win a game for your team. I didn't necessarily do that but I had some opportunities to help us win the game today and I was able to do it."

St. Louis added another run on first baseman Mark Reynolds' two-out RBI double in the fifth.

The Cardinals' first three runs came on two outs.

"We talk about big hits, it's usually in those situations," Matheny said. "We get two outs and runners in scoring position we've got to get something done and we were able to pull those out."

It was enough for Martinez, who allowed eight hits, struck out four and walked one in 6 1/3 innings.

"I feel really good about it and I really battled at times," Martinez said of his outing.

His two hits tied a career high, and he showed a little emotion on his second one. He raced down the first baseline after hitting a grounder to deep short, and as he crossed the bag he gave the safe sign to help out umpire Tim Welke.

"I stepped on the bag and knew I was safe and I gave the safe sign out of instinct," he said.

Colorado, which scored 15 runs in the first two games of the series, struggled to generate any offense. Left fielder Carlos Gonzalez and second baseman DJ LeMahieu both had doubles and reached third but Martinez stranded them there.

He was cruising until Paulsen's fifth home run barely cleared the fence in left-center field.

"He kept throwing me changeups and finally stayed on one," Paulsen said

That was Colorado's last baserunner. Lefty Kevin Siegrist came on and got the final two outs of the inning and then struck out the side in the eighth.

Closer Trevor Rosenthal pitched the ninth for his NL-leading 20th save.

Grichuk gave the Cardinals a 4-2 lead when he led off the top of the eighth with his third home run of the season.

Rockies starter Chad Bettis (2-1) was sharp early before struggling in the third. He allowed three runs on six hits, struck out six and walked two. He failed to pitch into the sixth inning for the first time in five starts.

"I felt out of whack the whole day," Bettis said. "It was one of those days where it didn't seem like anything was right. Those days come and go."

NOTES: Cardinals RHP Lance Lynn was sent back to St. Louis early to have an MRI done on his sore right forearm. Lynn experienced tightness in the forearm during his start Sunday but still threw 9