Pirates defeat Cardinals 6-1 after losing Liriano to nosebleed

Francisco Liriano couldn't stop his own bleeding, but the Pirates managed to stop theirs in a 6-1 victory over the Cardinals.

BOOM. That's called a lede. Take note, aspiring writers.

Russell Martin and Jason Grilli are now on the disabled list; that's probably no surprise to anyone given the way Martin struggled to run yesterday. Tony Sanchez and Jared Hughes are with the team to take their places. It looked like the Pirates might be losing Francisco Liriano, too, when he abruptly left the game in the third inning. It turned out Liriano was merely dizzy from a nosebleed.

He left with a man on and a hitter's count on another. Stolmy Pimentel came on in relief and walked the batter he inherited, then allowed a single to Matt Adams. But he whiffed Yadier Molina with a slider to end the inning in dramatic fashion.

And soon after Liriano's departure, the Pirates had a rare four-run inning. Starling Marte started the fourth with a walk, followed by singles by Josh Harrison and Andrew McCutchen. Gaby Sanchez followed with a two-run double to the gap, and Jose Tabata brought home another run on a single two batters later.

That was all the Pirates' bullpen would need, although the Bucs would go on to add two more runs in the ninth. Pimentel gave up one run over 2.2 innings, and then Jared Hughes, Justin Wilson, Tony Watson and Mark Melancon came on and kept the Cardinals at arm's length.

This game comes as a huge relief -- not only in that it's good to know the Pirates don't have to come up just short in every game from now to the end of time, but in that it appears Liriano's situation won't be a long-term problem.

(By the way, my apologies about the gamethread today. I hadn't realized it wasn't an evening game.)