MILWAUKEE -- Carlos Martinez badly wanted to end May on a high note.

Martinez, the St. Louis Cardinals' right-hander, had opened the season 4-0 with a 1.93 ERA. But in five May starts, he'd struggled, posting an 0-5 record and 6.84 ERA.

He looked more than ready to close the book on that stretch Monday, holding the Milwaukee Brewers to five hits while striking out eight over eight shutout innings in the Cardinals' 6-0 victory over their NL Central rivals at Miller Park.

"My main focus was to stay calm and stay focused on home plate," Martinez said. "The result was a great game."

Martinez issued just one walk and allowed a runner into scoring position just twice on the day. His defense did its part, thwarting potential rallies with a pair of late-inning double plays.

But it was the Cardinals' offense, specifically Matt Carpenter and Matt Holliday, that provided most of the support, combining for 12 hits including four from Carpenter and three from Holliday, who belted his ninth home run of the season.

"Just a matter of time for (Holliday) until things start falling into place and balls start getting through," Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said. "It was nice to see the ball carry for him. He's on pace to put some good numbers up there. That's Matt Holliday."

Milwaukee's defense struggled against the Cardinals. The Brewers were charged with an error, two wild pitches, a passed ball and blundered a pair of possible outs on the warning track.

"They were kind of woulda-coulda-shoulda plays but certainly not routine plays," Brewers manager Craig Counsell said. "But the way Martinez was pitching, we pretty much needed to make every play today."

Those issues made things even tougher for Milwaukee starter Junior Guerra (3-1), who didn't have his best stuff but managed to work into the seventh despite allowing four runs -- three earned -- on eight hits with six strikeouts.

The loss was Guerra's first of the year. He'd gone 3-0 with a 3.30 ERA in five starts since bring brought up from Triple-A Colorado Springs on May 3.

"I tried to keep the ball low, throw strikes," said Guerra, through team interpreter Carlos Brizuela. "They got a couple good hits, couple of hits when they needed to and they were fortunate."

He stranded a runner at third in the first, retired the side in the second and got Martinez on a grounder to open the third but then issued three straight singles to make it a 1-0 game.

An error on Chris Carter and a passed ball on Jonathan Lucroy kept the inning going and Matt Adams cashed in with a double before Guerra got out of it with a double play.

Holliday singled in an insurance run in the fifth and after a wild pitch from Jhan Marinez let Carpenter, who finished with four hits including a pair of doubles, score from second. Marinez struck out Aledmys Diaz for the second out but left an 0-1 fastball up to Holliday, who crushed it 466 feet to left center, making it 6-0.

"That ball was smashed," Matheny said. "That went a long way."

Martinez (5-5) stranded two in the sixth with a pair of strikeouts and got out of the seventh by getting Ramon Flores to bounce into his second double play of the day.

"He's a good pitcher," Counsell said. "He's had a couple of rough starts but he's got that in him; we've seen it before."

NOTES: A stiff neck kept LF Ryan Braun out of the Brewers' starting lineup for the third consecutive game. Braun has missed 15 of Milwaukee's last 19 games because of a sore right wrist, lower back tightness and now, the neck issue. ... Cardinals OF Stephen Piscotty was scratched from the starting lineup due to a bout of food poisoning. ... Brewers LHP Will Smith threw a simulated game Monday for Double-A Biloxi, his last step in the process of rehabbing a sprained left LCL suffered in spring training. He will get a few days of rest and could be reactivated from the DL Thursday when the Brewers open a four-game series in Philadelphia. ... St. Louis is 10-28 in its last 38 games at Miller Park and 75-47 there all-time, including a 7-2 mark in Milwaukee last season.