As injuries mount, Cardinals play their most inspired baseball

12:09 AM ET

ST. LOUIS — The Cardinals have had their share of bloody noses lately. How many more can they take before they begin to stagger?

Matt Holliday tried to take first base and stay in the game a couple of minutes after Andrew Cashner ran a 95 mph sinker off his schnoz in the sixth inning, causing Holliday to hit the dirt in pain. It wasn’t going to happen, though, considering Holliday’s jersey was getting spackled with blood.

“He was bleeding pretty good. He needed to get out of there,” manager Mike Matheny said.

So, out came the Cardinals’ hulking slugger, who spent the next few minutes in an X-ray device, which determined his nose wasn’t broken, just a little battered. Sixty feet away and 30 hours earlier, Carlos Martinez had sat in the dirt of the mound, hot sun beating down, while trainers tried desperately to plug his nostrils from gushing blood. They eventually stuffed them with enough cotton gauze to allow the Cardinals’ most talented pitcher to stay in the game and pitch seven strong innings.

These Cardinals seem to have a knack for avoiding the eight count. With their infield and their lineup torn asunder by injuries, they somehow played their most complete series of the season, capping a four-game sweep of the San Diego Padres with a dramatic comeback and a 6-5 win Thursday night.

Stephen Piscotty celebrates with Yadier Molina after tying the game with a three-run homer in the eighth inning. Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images

The next-man-up philosophy once again is being pushed and once again it has responded. Utility infielder Jedd Gyorko carried the Cardinals to wins in the first three games of this series and Aledmys Diaz and Stephen Piscotty handled the rest. Piscotty hit a three-run home run to tie it in the eighth Thursday, and Diaz won it with a walk-off single in the ninth.

The Cardinals won 100 games with a relentless string of injuries last season, so maybe that’s what they …

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