St. Louis Cardinals fall as Carlos Martinez gets injured

The St. Louis Cardinals lost 5-1 to the Los Angeles Dodgers as starting pitcher Carlos Martinez left the game in the 5th inning with a muscle cramp in his pitching hand.

The cramping started in the 5th inning and Martinez lasted as long as he could on the mound. Following a home run to A.J. Ellis, Martinez exited the game. He pitched 4.2 innings. He allowed 7 hits, 4 runs, 3 walks, and struck out 2 batters. It was far from the performance that fans were expecting of Martinez, who has been nicknamed “Baby Pedro.

Matt Carpenter, Matt Holliday, and David Freese all had multi-hit games for the Cardinals.

“We haven’t been playing to the highest caliber baseball that we could play,” Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said to reporters after the game. “That’s what we’re more concerned about than anything. We’re trying, slowly but surely, to right the ship and get us back to playing the kind of game that we can play. Then it doesn’t matter who we play against.”

After hosting the hot-hitting Dodgers, the Cardinals now play hosts to the Chicago Cubs this weekend. The Cardinals are in need of some wins if they expect to get into the playoffs without the worries of battling the Cincinnati Reds for the Wild Card spot.

Former Cardinal star Jack Clark made some allegations, which I won’t reprint here, about Albert Pujols. Pujols’ trainer strongly denied the claims. I’m giving the benefit of the doubt to Pujols in the hopes that this is nothing but Clark wanting some attention by the press.