ST. LOUIS – The way the Mets’ road trip went, Pedro Martinez considered pitching to avoid a series sweep more stressful than his start in the World Series last fall.

Martinez stopped his own two game skid as well as the Mets’ six game losing streak, working eight strong innings in a 7-2 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals yesterday. He beat the Cardinals with seven shutout innings in Game 3 of the World Series, helping the Red Sox sweep for their first championship since 1918.

“I think in the World Series it was easy for me to relax,” Martinez said. “I had a space to actually make mistakes. But the way we’re looking right now, we’re not going to last very long.”

Carlos Beltran homered and Mike Jacobs doubled twice with an RBI to help the Mets beat the Cardinals for the first time in 12 games on the road and avoid a four-game sweep. Victor Diaz added a three-run homer in the ninth off Adam Wainwright.

New York, which rested Mike Piazza a day after he was beaned, won for the third time in 15 games and completed a 2-8 road trip that damaged its wild-card hopes.

“There’s no reason obsessing about it now,” manager Willie Randolph said. “It’s over, done with, and you can move on, but obviously it was nowhere near what we were expecting to do.”

Martinez (14-7) allowed a run and eight hits with seven strikeouts and a walk. He had lost his previous two outings while allowing eight runs in 13 innings and had been 1-4 in his previous eight starts.

“I took it personally, I wanted to go out and try to do it and make it as easy as possible for us to win a ballgame,” Martinez said. “I battled with whatever I had so I could get away with a win, not only for myself but for my team.”

The Cardinals advanced only two runners into scoring position the first seven innings against Martinez, who benefited from four double plays. He tired a bit in the eighth, allowing an RBI double to Hector Luna and a run scoring groundout to John Gall that cut the gap to 4-2.

“You think you’ve got him figured out and he comes up with something new,” John Mabry said after going 0-for-3 with two strikeouts against Martinez. “Never the same pattern twice, never the same pitches twice.”

Matt Morris (14-8) held the Mets scoreless until the fifth before running into trouble the rest of his stint, giving up four runs and nine hits in 6 1/3 innings.