Washington, DC (My Sportsbook) - Shairon Martis allowed only one run over nine innings, and Ryan Zimmerman extended his hitting streak to 21 games, as the Washington Nationals defeated the St. Louis Cardinals, 6-1, at Nationals Park.

Martis (3-0) yielded just five hits while striking out six without issuing a walk in his first career complete game for the Nationals, who had lost four of five coming into the game. Zimmerman finished the game 2-for-4 to extend his Nationals record hitting streak.

"After the second inning, I knew I was going to have a good start," Martis said. "My fastball had good life, changeup was excellent, slider was good. So today was my day."

Adam Dunn blasted a three-run homer to pace the offense, while Austin Kearns and Anderson Hernandez each had a pair of hits and an RBI each in the win.

Cardinals starter Joel Piniero (4-1) failed to become the NL's first five-game winner, giving up four runs -- one earned -- on seven hits and a walk while fanning four in seven innings. Albert Pujols was given the day off after hitting two homers in the last two games, and highly-regarded prospect Colby Rasmus provided the only offense with his first career home run for St. Louis, which had won three in a row.

Martis stymied the Cardinals throughout the game, retiring the first 14 batters he faced until a two-out single by Yadier Molina in the fifth broke up the no-hitter. The runner didn't affect him, as he quickly retired Joe Thurston on a groundout to keep St. Louis off the board.

Pineiro matched him early, keeping the Nationals off the board for the first four innings, but Washington struck for four runs in the fifth.

"(Piniero) gave us a chance to win, as he does normally," Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said. "The other guy was just shutting us down completely. (Piniero) did a good job, we were overmatched because the other guy pitched better."

Wil Nieves singled to start the frame, and Cristian Guzman's single two batters later put runners on the corners. Nick Johnson followed with a sacrifice fly to give the Nats the slight edge.

Zimmerman batted next and hit a foul ball that Chris Duncan dropped in left field, giving the Nationals third baseman new life at the plate. The error proved to be costly, as Zimmerman singled and Dunn capped the big inning with a two-out three-run homer to left-center field.

Rasmus finally got to Martis in the seventh, hitting a leadoff homer to pull the Cardinals to within 4-1.

Washington added two insurance runs in the eighth. Dunn worked a leadoff walk and was lifted for pinch runner Elijah Dukes. Dukes then scored on Kearns' triple to left-center field, and Kearns scored two batters later on a Hernandez single.

Game Notes

Despite the loss, Cardinals starters are still 14-3 on the season and have allowed only six home runs, the lowest total in the majors...St. Louis still leads this four-game set, 2-1...Zimmerman is 29-for-89 with eight doubles, five homers and 16 runs batted in during his hitting streak...Martis had never pitched longer than 6 1/3 innings in any previous career start.