The Clearwater Threshers outlasted the Palm Beach Cardinals to earn their fifth consecutive victory, as Kyle Martin led the offense with three hits in an 8-6 win on Wednesday afternoon at Roger Dean Stadium.

Clearwater (13-8) grabbed an early advantage and continued to tack on throughout, fending off multiple Cardinal rallies to go up two games to none in the four-game set.

The Threshers collected five consecutive hits to open the ballgame against Ian McKinney (6-6), with Scott Kingery bringing home the game's first run on a triple.

Kingery scored on a passed ball, and a Mitch Walding sacrifice fly followed by Jiandido Tromp's run-scoring grounder left the Threshers with a 4-0 lead after the opening frame.

Palm Beach (7-14) went down quickly against Luke Leftwich in the first, but surged back for three runs in the second inning.

Clearwater continued to pepper McKinney and the Cardinals throughout the afternoon. Each time the Cardinals crept closer, the Threshers had an answer.

Martin opened the third inning with an opposite-field double to left, and with one out Walding singled to put runners at the corners. Tromp added another fielder's choice grounder, scoring Martin with the Threshers' fifth run.

An inning later it was Drew Stankiewicz and Austin Bossart connecting for consecutive knocks to open the frame. An out later, Kingery grounded a single to center to bring in Stankiewicz and make it 6-3.

Palm Beach rallied back with two against Will Morris to pull within a run, but in the fifth inning a two-out RBI single from Stankiewicz extended the lead to 7-5.

Jimmy Cordero (1-0) earned the win in relief, tossing two hitless innings. He walked two and struck out two in his second appearance with the Threshers, as Cordero works his way back from a shoulder injury suffered in Spring Training.

Up a run in the ninth, Martin gave the Threshers some extra wiggle room with a single up the middle that scored Derek Campbell with two outs, making it 8-6 in favor of Clearwater.

Matt Hockenberry finished it off with a perfect bottom of the ninth, earning his first save with the Threshers.

Clearwater will have a chance to take the series on Friday, when the Threshers battle the Cardinals at 6:30 p.m. Ranfi Casimiro (7-6) has the ball against Austin Gomber (6-6).