ST. LOUIS (AP) — Matt Holliday homered, Carlos Martinez threw seven strong innings and the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Chicago Cubs 5-3 on Wednesday to avoid a three-game sweep to their NL Central rival. The Cardinals scored twice in each of the first two innings against Kyle Hendricks (1-2). Chicago, the first team in the majors to 11 wins, had won three of its previous four.

Anthony Rizzo hit his fourth homer of the season in the fourth and added an RBI single in the eighth for Chicago. Rizzo was robbed of a home run in the first by Randal Grichuk, who reached over the wall in center. Martinez (3-0) allowed a run on three hits. Trevor Rosenthal got his fourth save by striking out the side in the ninth. It was his 100th career save.

The game was delayed 3 hours, 21 minutes by rain in the middle of the seventh.