Cardinals' Carlos Martinez: Baffled by early-season struggles

Martinez, who is 0-3 with a 4.76 ERA over his first four starts, is at a loss as to the source of his problems thus far this season, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports. "I'm not really sure what's going on," he said. "I'm just trying to find my rhythm and get the mechanics down right. It's just trying to locate that fastball."

Analysis:

The assumed ace of the Cardinals staff has been anything but early this season, failing to make it past the sixth inning in his last three trips to the mound after an excellent Opening Night start versus the Cubs. Martinez has had trouble consistently harnessing his fastball and also experienced control problems in the first inning during his last two starts, issuing six free passes and allowing four runs to the 15 hitters he's faced in the opening frames of that pair of games. There's been some speculation that Martinez's participation in the World Baseball Classic could have had a negative carryover effect, although manager Mike Matheny largely dismisses the notion, noting that the 25-year-old would have gotten about the same amount of work had he remained with the team during the spring. He'll try to begin righting the ship in a Tuesday home start versus the Blue Jays.