Carlos Martinez may be the least of the Cardinals’ worries

7:10 PM ET

ST. LOUIS – Carlos Martinez looked exhausted.

For the previous four days, he had been dealing with what he suspects was the flu. The previous 48 hours had been a blur of airline flights, meetings and coughing fits as he had to travel back to Miami in the wake of a potentially embarrassing civil lawsuit filed there against him.

When he left the clubhouse Saturday afternoon, he told manager Mike Matheny he thought he was too sick to make the next day’s start. He woke up the next morning feeling a little better, and called Matheny to tell him he would take the ball.

After five brilliant innings followed by a mediocre one and a bad one in a 6-1 St. Louis Cardinals loss, Martinez discussed the fallout of the lawsuit and how it might affect his season. He is 4-1 with a 2.60 ERA. Sunday was his first loss of the season and the first outing in which he has allowed more than three runs. As he spoke to reporters, he could barely keep his eyes open.

“I’m pretty sure I feel healthy. I know who I am,” Martinez said through an interpreter. “That’s up to my lawyer and my agent to take care of. I just simply have to battle against the hitters here.”

Max Scherzer looked buoyant. He had just fixed a mechanical flaw he blamed for his uncharacteristically bad April, in which the former Cy Young winner had a 4.35 ERA and had allowed five home runs and 12 walks.

It’s fair to say few of the hitters on either team had …

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