By Chris Brown | @cbrown398 – STL Baseball Today

Cardinals starter Carlos Martinez has been scratched from his next scheduled start on Tuesday due to a back injury, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch was among the first to report. Marco Gonzales will start in Martinez’s place after being recalled on Tuesday, manager Mike Matheny told reporters prior to Monday night’s game against the Nationals.

The skipped start will provide a bit of rest for the young Martinez, who is currently on pace to throw 192 2/3 innings, more than 80 frames above than his previous career-high. The 23-year-old told Brian Stull of STL Baseball Weekly that he suffered the injury when landing awkwardly on the mound during his start against the Diamondbacks on Thursday, but that he has already played catch and fully expects to be ready to start early next week.

Gonzales has thrown just 75 1/3 innings this season due to a pectoral/shoulder injury, but has been effective when healthy, posting a 3.26 ERA since returning from a setback in mid-July. He could get the chance for more than one start as the team looks to rest young starters Martinez and Michael Wacha in the final month of the regular season.

The 23-year-old Gonzales will be one of a small handful of September callups the Cardinals will make on Tuesday. The team will also look to add some rehabbing players to the roster – such as Jon Jay, Matt Holliday, Randal Grichuk, and Matt Adams – in the next few weeks.

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