Shelby Miller exits with injury in St. Louis Cardinals loss

St. Louis Cardinals rookie pitcher Shelby Miller had an early exit as the St. Louis Cardinals fell 13-4 to the Los Angeles Dodgers last night.
Aug 7, 2013; St. Louis, MO, USA; St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Shelby Miller (40) is checked out by a trainer after being hit by a line drive hit off the bat of Los Angeles Dodgers left fielder Carl Crawford (not pictured) during the first inning at Busch Stadium. Miller was removed from the game after the play. Image Credit: Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports
It was Star Wars night at Busch Stadium and the Force was not with the Cardinals. Not at all. Miller was injured in his right elbow when Carl Crawford lined a ball straight to him.

This forced manager Mike Matheny to make a decision about making it a bullpen game or not. With Joe Kelly in the rotation, it left the Cardinals without a long reliever. Michael Blazek replaced Miller immediately and finished out the inning. Blazek allowed 1 hit, 1 walk, and struck out 1 batter in his only inning. Blazek, theoretically, could have pitched longer as he was starter in the minors but he’s been appearing as reliever since being called up to the big leagues.

Immediately as Blazek finished out the first inning, Jake Westbrook started getting loose in the bullpen. Westbrook came in during the bottom of the 2nd inning. He pitched into the 6th inning before getting pulled. As a result, the Cardinals have called up Carlos Martinez from Memphis for his first career start in the big leagues.

Westbrook was beaten up in the 2nd inning as he allowed 6 runs. He allowed 3 more runs to score by the time that he was pulled in the 6th inning. It was far from pretty but somebody had to do the job.

Matt Carpenter, Jon Jay, and Carlos Beltran all had multi-hit games. Jay is 16 of 41 at the plate in his last 10 games and has gone from a .250 to .265 batting average in that span.

Unless Don Mattingly decides to give Yasiel Puig the day off today, he’ll have to face Martinez tonight.