d him. But he is seeing more players emerge to challenge him

HOUSTON -- Its all going wrong at once for the Houston Astros.Cardinals starter Carlos Martinez took a no-hitter into the sixth inning, Astros right-hander Doug Fister had another tough start and St. Louis beat Houston 8-2 on Wednesday.Weve got to play better if we expect to make a push here, Astros manager A.J. Hinch said. The big numbers weve given up are obviously not helpful. On the offensive side, the more that we swing outside of the strike zone to try to do too much, we see some rough things. Its a tough league, tough schedule, and if we want to make a point of this season being a little more memorable, we need to be better.Fister (11-8) gave up four runs, seven hits and a walk while striking three in four innings.Fister has allowed four or more runs five times in his past 10 starts after reaching that mark once in his first 14 outings this season.It was a disappointing day, Fister said. Any loss is a tough loss to swallow. I felt good today. I felt strong, I felt in control, but they put a few good swings on balls, and the ball bounced their way today.Alex Bregman drove in Teoscar Hernandez with a single in the sixth. The rookie has seven RBI in the last 11 games and is batting .312 in that time.Houston has been outscored 29-11 during a four-game losing streak and surrendered eight or more runs in three straight games for the first time this season.We have confidence in the group of guys that we have here, Astros shortstop Carlos Correa said. We know we can get it done, and hopefully, we can do that for the rest of the year.Jeremy Hazelbaker and Brandon Moss hit home runs, and the Cardinals have won four straight. They have a slim lead for the second NL wild-card spot over the Pirates and Marlins.Martinez (11-7) pitched seven innings of three-hit ball, allowing a run while striking out seven. He retired 15 of the first 16 batters before giving up a leadoff double to Hernandez in the sixth. Martinez leads St. Louis pitchers with 11 starts of seven or more innings.Every day I go out on the hill focused on my work and ready to go through nine innings hopefully, Martinez said. Some days theres bad days, some days theres good days like today I stayed focused and I felt really good. I feel like its just part of the game and I went out and did the best I could.Martinez had allowed 14 runs over his previous three starts.Hes been impressive, Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said. I enjoy watching guys improve. When you see him pitch like that and maintain like that thats improvement.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.Eight Cardinals batted in the three-run third, highlighted by Stephen Piscottys two-run single and Yadier Molinas RBI double.Hazelbaker bashed a 3-2 pitch from Fister in the fourth for his first home run since July 29. Moss blew it open in the seventh with a three-run homer off Tony Sipp.Moss has hit four home runs in his last six games, while leading the Cardinals with 22.Seems like everybody discounted everything he did before he got to us, Matheny said. That was a bunch of homers. Then he comes over smoking the ball and not getting anything for it. You could just see where he was trending and where he continues to trend. This guys got legitimate big power.St. Louis has 49 home runs since the All-Star break to lead the National League.UP NEXTAstros: RHP Joe Musgrove (1-0, 1.47 ERA) starts against Baltimore on Thursday after getting his first major league win against Toronto on Friday. Cheap Nike Dunks For Sale . White came in fourth place in the event. He was the two-time defending gold medallist. The gold medal went to Swiss snowboarder Iouri Podladtchikov. Nike Dunk Low Mens . This should be celebrated because it will not always be this way. With the amount of money given to players by their clubs these days, it is a wonder that so many of those teams allow the sport to continue to take away many of their assets so they can play for a different team in the middle of their season. http://www.nikedunkscheap.com/ . Jordan Lynch, the all-purpose Heisman Trophy finalist from Northern Illinois, failed to make it into that exclusive club. Nike Dunk High Womens . -- The Sacramento Kings are set to become the first major professional sports franchise to accept Bitcoin virtual currency for ticket and merchandise purchases. [url=",http://www.nikedunkscheap.com/nike-dunk-sb-shoes.html]"Nike Sb Dunk Wholesale[/url] . With Parker having a quiet game for once, Nicolas Batum and Boris Diaw provided the scoring as France won its first major basketball title by beating Lithuania 80-66 on Sunday. It was a victory that ended a decade of frustration for Parker and a talented French generation, which lost the final against Spain two years ago and took bronze in 2005.One of the best players who never won a major would love a crack at one now. Colin Montgomerie used to say it was harder than ever to win a major because each year it seemed that Tiger Woods won two of them, Ernie Els, Phil Mickelson or Vijay Singh won another and that left only one for everyone else. Those days, at least for the moment, are gone. Over the last five years, 18 players have won the last 20 majors, none of them named Woods. And the winner? It could be anybody. Darren Clarke won in his 54th major. Keegan Bradley won in his first. Rory McIlroy won when he was 22. Els won when he was 42. The next chance is the 142nd British Open, which returns next week to Muirfield for the 16th time dating to 1892. Muirfield is reputed to be the fairest of the links courses on the rotation, mainly because there are no tricks and very few blind shots. The course consists of two loops running in opposite directions so that golfers will face the wind in every direction by the end of the day. Muirfield is perhaps more predictable than the others. Not so predictable is finding a player at the top of his game. The search ordinarily would start with Woods, and for good reason. The worlds No. 1 player already has won four times this year, and during a two-month span in the spring, he won three out of four tournaments, the exception a tie for fourth in the Masters. Now, more mystery envelops Woods. He offered limited details at the U.S. Open about an injury in his left elbow that had been bothering him for a month. Woods has not played since he tied for 32nd at the U.S. Open, and he cant guarantee hell be at full strength when he arrives at Muirfield. "I would like to be 100 per cent, but I dont know," he said this month. "It depends on how the body heals. Well see how it goes." McIlroy is one of two players to win multiple majors in the last five years -- Padraig Harrington, with back-to-back major wins in 2008 is the other -- only Boy Wonder has become an afterthought this year. After building a big lead atop the world ranking at the close of 2012, he made a wholesale equipment change at the start of the year and has had only one reasonable chance to win, at the Texas Open. After missing the cut at the Irish Open, he said he felt "lost." Graeme McDowell has three wins, second only to Woods this year, though even he isnt sure what to expect. In his last eight tournaments, McDowell has won three times and missed the cut the other five times. At this rate, theres simply no telling what kind of game hell bring to links along the Firth of Forth. "When its been good, its been really good," McDowell said. Graham DeLaet of Weyburn, Sask., is the only Canadian in the British Opens field. If there is a trend in this years majors, it is the emergence of quality players whose careers were elevated by winning a Grand Slam event. Most players would have been devastated to lose a four-shot lead with four holes to play as Adam Scott did last year in the British Open at Royal Lytham & St. Annes. Scott later said he would have been crushed had he been watching a performance like that from home. Poised as ever, he realized he played the best golf for 68 holes and took that to understand he could do it again.dddddddddddd And thats what he did, winning the Masters in a playoff to end more than a half-century of Australian misery at Augusta National. Scott hasnt been Down Under to celebrate since he slipped on that green jacket. In his mind, the year was still young. There was much left to achieve, more majors to win. And there is a feeling of redemption he brings to the Open, even though he seemingly atoned for that collapse by winning his first major. "Im really looking forward to going back and trying to get myself in a similar kind of situation, a chance to win the Open," Scott said. "The hardest thing is going to be curbing the expectations right from the start. But its exciting. Every tournament, I feel, is an opportunity for me now ... to just build on this." Not long after winning the Masters, he sent a text to Justin Rose that "this was our time." Rose lived up to his end of the prediction by winning the U.S. Open with three clutch shots at the end for a two-shot win. They have been friends and colleagues throughout their careers, born two weeks apart, both having endured their share of struggles. "It hit me really at the U.S. Open that if youre not willing to experience the heartache and heartbreak of losing a major, then you cant really truly play your best stuff and be free enough in the moment to get it done," Rose said. "If youre kind of apprehensive to what it might feel like to lose, I think for me thats just what struck me. I was good with the fact that you just have to put yourself in that moment time and time again, and be willing to just keep knocking down the door. "Thats kind of what I learned as well from Adam." Woods cant relate to any of this, of course. He won his first major as a pro with a record performance at the Masters. He had the career Grand Slam when he was 24. He was on his way to a calendar Grand Slam in 2002 when Muirfield and some fickle weather stopped him. But he is seeing more players emerge to challenge him -- McIlroy the last two years, Scott and Rose this year. During the 12 years that it took Woods to win 14 majors, only three players who won majors were younger than Woods -- Ben Curtis in the 2003 British Open, Geoff Ogilvy in the 2006 U.S. Open and Trevor Immelman in the 2008 Masters. Since his last major in the 2008 U.S. Open, there have been 12 players younger than Woods who won majors, including six of the last seven. This is as deep and well-rounded as golf has been in years. And Woods isnt getting any younger. "If you look at most golfers, their prime years are usually in their 30s," Woods said. "It takes a while to learn how to win at this level and learn how to do it consistently. I think that youve got to learn what you can and cant do. Theres so much to learn out there, and I think that generally you see some of the guys dont mature into their games until their 30s." That doesnt make this major any easier to predict. Even so, Muirfield has a way of bringing out the best. Dating to World War II, the seven players who won a British Open at Muirfield are all in the World Golf Hall of Fame. ' ' '

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