ST. LOUIS — At this point, it’s hard to imagine Carlos Martinez pitching ano

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ST. LOUIS At this point, its hard to imagine Carlos Martinez pitching another important inning for the Cardinals in the NLDS. And after his disastrous ninth inning in Sundays 3-1 lo s to the Braves, if Game 4 on Monday afternoon starts poorly for St. Louis, there might not even be any more important innings left for him not to pitch.Martinez has thrown 2 1/3 innings through three games against the Braves, and hes allowed six runs in Micah Parsons Jersey those two appearances. Six runs, five hits, three walks, two home runs, if you want the extended totals. Another way to look at it: Of the 15 batters hes faced, eight reached base safely and six have scored.Its not been pretty.MORE: The first three runs werent costly he was working with a four-run lead in Game 1 and the Cardinals still won but Sundays trio of tallies has put St. Louis in a precarious situation. Martinez and his teammates now trail2-1in the best-of-five series. One more lo s and their season is finished.Youre not looking to see guys fail, Braves closer Mark Melancon told SN after the game. You want to do it the right way, big on big and beat somebody. Weve all been there. I cant say that I didnt want to win, but Carlos is an incredible pitcher. Weve got to come back strong tomorrow because hes going to come back, Im sure.Lets stop for a minute and be clear: Its far from solely Martinezs fault that the Cardinals are in this situation. The St. Louis Dallas Cowboys Golf Sporting Goods offense has scored a total of one run in the past two games. In Game 2, Mike Foltynewicz shut the Cardinals down. On Sunday, Mike Soroka was brilliant.And in both contests, the Atlanta bullpen made big plays when needed. Like Sunday evening, when a two-on and no-out situation in the eighth inning disappeared with a pop-out, pick-off (technically caught stealing, but a great move by Darren ODay to get Harrison Bader) and, after a single, a flyout.Its hard to win games without scoring multiple runs. But on Sunday, the Cardinals had a chance to do just that. Adam Wainwright was brilliant into the eighth inning, and Andrew Miller came in to make sure Atlanta was shut out into the final frame.Which put the spotlight on Martinez to nail down the 1-0 victory. That didnt happen. Dansby Swanson tied the game with a two-out RBI double, and Adam Duvall provided insurance with a two-run single. Dallas Cowboys Accessories Three runs with two outs.And now the Cardinals have decisions to make. Manager Mike Shildt was asked about Martinezs role going forward.We'll continue to evaluate it. It's a fine line, I get it, he said. Now we're in a do-or-die situation, and really looking forward to tomorrow's game, quite honestly. But guys have gotten us here, it's hard to look at them and say, oh, you didn't do something well. The proverbial, 'I've got your back until things don't go well.' But we've also got to recognize and evaluate what we see as well and compete in the moment. And had complete confidence that he was going to be able to make a pitch there to Swanson and didn't happen.A decision by Shildt backfired, but well come back to that in a moment. First, this: He has caught criticism for going to Martinez in that situation in Game 3 because of what had happened in Game 1, but thats hindsight speaking. Martinez was 24 of 27 in save opportunities this yearafter taking over for injured Jordan Hicks. He allowed runs in only one of his final 17 appearances during the regular season. Thats not a guy you ditch after one miscue in the postseason, in a game where he still got the final out.The 27th out is a tough out, says someone who knows about getting the 27th out.Hardest out there is. Hardest out there is to get, Wainwright said. Anybody who thinks anybody can go out there and get the last out, they dont know what theyre talking about. Its a different deal, getting those last three. Unle s you experience that, you dont know what youre talking about."Back to Shildt. After Josh Donaldson led off the ninth with a double off Martinez, the right-hander actually struck out the next two batters he faced, making Nick Markakis look silly swinging at Strike 3 and fanning Adeiny Hechavarria on an awkward attempt to check his swing. Instead of letting Troy Aikman T Shirts Martinez face Brian McCann Martinez struck out McCann the only time he faced him, in 2014 Shildt intentionally walked the veteran catcher.Consensus was that rather take a shot at Swanson, 0for6 at that point with Carlos, clearly that's the go-ahead run you're putting on, Shildt said after the game, explaining the decision. But you have two outs, and we play to win. Gotta play to win the game. Everybody felt like that was the best matchup, including the guy on the mound. Took our shot.Not for nothing, but 0for6 isnt exactly a large sample size. Especially when two of those plate appearances were in 2017. A larger sample size might have been McCanns last two months of the season, a span that produced a .183batting average in 83 plate appearances.Regardle s, Shildt made his decision and Swanson who had two of Atlanta's four hits against Wainwright, both smoked line drives made them pay. He jumped on Martinezs first pitch, which brought home the tying run, and Duvalls single scored Rafael Ortega the pinch-runner for McCann and Swanson to put the Braves up3-1.I just feel for Carlos, because hes been so great all year, Wainwright said. We had a chance in the (eighth) there to get a couple of insurance runs out there, and their guys did a Bob Lilly T Shirts great job. But a guy like Carlos, I feel for him, because hes so talented, hes so good and hes been great for us all year. Lets hope one moment doesnt define a season because Id like to see him get another chance.If the Cardinals somehow advance to the NLCS, that could happen. But it seems doubtful the rest of this series against the Braves.