ST. LOUIS -- Carlos Martínez had a nose bleed Wednesday morning. He stopped it successfully and hoped it wouldn't bleed again when he started Game 1 of the Cardinals doubleheader Wednesday afternoon against the Padres.
His nose had other ideas as it began to bleed out with two outs in the second inning and delayed the game for roughly 12 minutes. He allowed three hits including a two-run homer to Ryan Schimpf prior to the incident, but went on to retire 15 of the next 18 batters in the Cardinals' 4-2 victory.
"It actually really helped me focus after the fact because I was trying to keep my mind in the game, so I do think my stuff got better," Martinez said through a translator.
Martinez wiped his jersey and squatted down behind the mound to alert the trainers something was wrong after Alexi Amarista grounded out to second base. Matt Adams and Kolten Wong brought cups of water out, as medical staff tried to stop the bleeding with Martinez nearly prone on his back.
Team doctors were on their way to the dugout with different ideas about how to stop the bleeding when Martinez's nose finally decided to cooperate according to Cardinals manager Mike Matheny.
Cotton and Vaseline finally did the trick according to Martinez, who still had Vaseline visible in his nose after the game.
"We were going to sit there and plug it until he pitched," Matheny said. "There wasn't another option."
Martinez added that his nose bleeds become more frequent when it gets hot outside and he usually loses a lot of blood when it happens. The bleed on Wednesday didn't cause any additional dizziness in spite of the heat according to Martinez.
Catcher Yadier Molina characterized the situation as "scary" as he and Matheny remained at Martinez's side through the duration of the incident. Reliever Tyler Lyons stirred in the bullpen, but he never threw. Matheny was unaware of Martinez's nose bleed prior to the game.
Martinez tossed a few warmup pitches with a piece of tissue in his nostril and struck out Padres pitcher Colin Rea looking to end the inning. He finished the game with five strikeouts in seven innings.
"[Matheny] obviously wanted to take care of me and put myself first and I showed him that I was able to stay in the game," Martinez said.
It was Martinez's second setback in as many days after he was scheduled to pitch Tuesday night before a rainout pushed his start to Wednesday afternoon.
"I really didn't change [my preparation], my mind was focused on the game," Martinez said. "I knew it was going to rain and I did the same routine as I did every day."