LOS ANGELES -- The Los Angeles Dodgers snapped Carlos Martinez's scoreless streak, but they were unable to prevent the hard-throwing right-hander and the St. Louis Cardinals from beating them again.

Third baseman Matt Carpenter drove in the go-ahead run in the eighth inning, lifting the Cardinals to a 2-1 victory over the Dodgers before a crowd of 44,649 at Dodger Stadium on Friday night.

Second baseman Kolten Wong's infield single scored pinch-runner Pete Kozma to tie the score at 1 with one out in the eighth before Carpenter followed with a sacrifice fly to right, bringing home right fielder Jason Heyward with what proved to be the winning run.

The Cardinals (37-18), who own the best mark in the major leagues, captured their fourth consecutive win and handed the Dodgers (31-24) their fourth straight loss. Los Angeles has dropped four of five to St. Louis this season.

Carlos Martinez defeated the Dodgers for the second time in the past week. Martinez (6-2) recorded a career-high 11 strikeouts and limited Los Angeles to a run on three hits with four walks in seven innings. Last Sunday, Martinez blanked the Dodgers for seven innings and struck out eight on a one-hitter in a 3-1 win by the Cardinals in St. Louis.

"It was a little tough because they had a lot of lefties in the lineup, so I tried to throw different (pitches), throw more sliders than I usually do," said Martinez through an interpreter. "But everything went fine."

Closer Trevor Rosenthal retired the side in order, fanning two, in the ninth for his 18th save in 19 opportunities. Rosenthal has pitched 14 1/3 scoreless innings.

Martinez's scoreless stretch reached 21 1/3 innings until he gave up a run in the second inning. Martinez walked center fielder Joc Pederson on five pitches with the bases loaded, scoring third baseman Alberto Callaspo. However, he experienced little trouble after that.

"He was controlling that slider for strikes, particularly with two strikes," St. Louis catcher Yadier Molina said.

Martinez struck out five batters looking with off-speed pitches.

"He was also getting ahead with the fastball and using his off-speed stuff." Molina said. "He was able to successfully do that tonight."

Molina said Martinez sometimes falls in love with his fastball, which frequently reaches 96 to 98 miles per hour, but Molina encouraged him to back off of it.

"He's a young guy; sometimes he gets excited," Molina said. "When he's calm, he stays back (with the off-speed pitches) and controls the fastball better."

After allowing a run, Martinez got out of the lone jam he incurred by inducing shortstop Jimmy Rollins to line into an inning-ending double play to keep the deficit to a run.

"It was a little bit of a mess that could have turned out really bad, but he made some good pitches and then he got a great defensive play with (first baseman) Mark (Reynolds) starting the double play," Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said. "That was really the only inning he had a hiccup. We were watching how he was going about that particular inning, and it was a little bit of overthrowing and getting excited about his fastball.

"Just another good outing by him. That was quite a test."

It was the first run Martinez allowed since May 15, when he gave up two to the Detroit Tigers.

Dodgers starter Brett Anderson (2-4) had another solid outing against the Cardinals, but suffered defeat again. Anderson allowed two runs on four hits in 7 2/3 innings with five strikeouts and three walks. Anderson was the losing pitcher in the matchup Sunday, when he also gave up two runs.

"He pitched really (well)," Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said. "It's unfortunate that he ends up with (a loss)."

NOTES: Los Angeles RF Yasiel Puig homered and went 1-for-3 with a walk in his second rehab game with Class A Rancho Cucamo