Carlos Martinez blows 5th save as St. Louis Cardinals fall 6-5

Relief pitcher Carlos Martinez blew his 5th save of the season as the St. Louis Cardinals fell to the San Francisco Giants in a 6-5 loss.

This was the first back-to-back losses for the Cardinals since losing on May 9 and 10 this season.

It wasn’t just that Martinez blew the save. During a play at home plate, in which he should have been backing up Yadier Molina BEHIND the plate, Martinez was in front of Molina. This led to the ball deflecting to the wall, Gregor Blanco scoring to tie the game, and a throwing error charged to Peter Bourjos rather than Martinez.

After walking Pablo Sandoval in the eighth inning, manager Mike Matheny had seen enough and replaced Martinez with Trevor Rosenthal. With the game already tied at 4, Michael Morse hit a liner to right field that score two runs to give the Giants a 6-4 lead.

During his postgame news conference, Matheny reflected on what positives Martinez did during the 2013 season, adding that “there’s some things that he’s going to have to sort through to get back there.”

Clearly, Martinez is not pitching that great but Jaime Garcia was only at 84 pitches after being pulled in the seventh inning. Garcia allowed three runs on five hits. He didn’t walk anybody and struck out seven batters. So why pull him and replace him with Martinez, who clearly needs to work on some things before his next appearance, rather than Pat Neshek? Neshek has been lights out of late.

After being unable to accomplish anything in the bottom of the eighth, the Cardinals rallied in the ninth inning. Jon Jay reached on a single, Daniel Descalso walked, and Matt Carpenter knocked in Jay on a single. Shane Robinson had the opportunity to tie or win the game but popped out to third base to end the game.

It’s a shame that the Cardinals lost tonight. They grinded it out in the ninth inning with a few chances to extend the game but it never should have gotten to that point. The Cardinals had a 4-3 lead before things went haywire in the ninth inning.

Allen Craig put the Cardinals on the board in the first inning when he drove in Carpenter on a ground-rule double.

The Cardinals would add two more runs in the fourth inning. With bases loaded and no outs, Jhonny Peralta grounded into a double play, scoring Matt Holliday. On a single, Jay drove in Craig.

In the bottom of the sixth inning, Craig gave the Cards a 4-3 lead when he hit a solo home run–his sixth home run of the season.