St Louis Cardinals: Tuesday is a big day for Carlos Martinez

The St Louis Cardinals need Carlos Martinez to step up in the first game of the series against Shane Bieber the Cleveland Indians.

The last time Carlos Martinez took the mound for the St Louis Cardinals, things did not go well. In fact, they went historically bad as Martinez gave up an astounding 10 earned runs without recording three outs against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

This blowout came in a game where the Cardinals could’ve won the series against their foes out West, but in the end, the loss set the tone for the series against the Reds that would follow. After getting swept in the four-game series over the weekend, the Cardinals are now in third place in the NL Central, 2.5 games back of the Brewers and are just two games over .500.

While some fans on Twitter will tell you the Cardinals should just pack it up and call it a year, things aren’t as bad as they feel despite the current five-game losing skid. All the Cardinals need is some positive momentum and some good news on the injury front.

Thankfully for us, every new game is a new chance to get back on track and that is why Tuesday is a big start for Carlos Martinez.

Martinez’s historic blowup came sandwiched in the middle of a horrible week for Cardinals’ starters. Last Monday, Jack Flaherty injured himself and will be gone until the beginning of August. Adding to that big blow, the Cardinals lost Kwang Hyun Kim to the IL on Friday.

After these two most recent injuries, the Cardinals are searching for outside help for the rotation, but what they really need is the players they have to perform, and that starts with Martinez.

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Overall, it hasn’t “felt” like a bad year for the 29-year-old, but when you take a look at actual stats, it kind of has been. His 5.83 ERA is ballooned by the start against the Dodgers, but it was still at 4.22 before then. Martinez isn’t giving up a ton of hits or homers, but he’s walking 3.3 batters per nine and only striking out 5.2. Martinez’s dirty secret is his hit-by-pitch numbers. If he was a qualified starter, he would lead the MLB with eight.

As Martinez has aged, he’s leaned into pitching more for contact than swings and misses, but the swings and misses have disappeared a little too much to this point. 54.0 innings isn’t a huge sample, but it’s enough to know that what Martinez has been doing isn’t enough to entice the Cardinals into picking up his $17M option for next season.

On Tuesday, Martinez will face off against Indians’ ace and 2020 Cy Young winner Shane Bieber. While Bieber has regressed some from his Cy Young numbers of last year, he’s still been dominant this season and it will be a tough task for Martinez.

No matter how he gets it done, the Cardinals need Martinez to end the skid of losing and bad starts on Tuesday.