The St. Louis Cardinals made the tough decision to leave injured slugger Matt Holliday on their postseason roster ahead of the NLDS, and after some painful pinch-hitting duties over the first three games of the series Holliday will finally get the start in Game 4, with the Cardinals down two games to one against the Philadelphia Phillies, according to reports on Twitter from B.J. Rains and Derrick Goold.
Holliday has been dealing since September with a tendon injury on his right middle finger, one that’s made it extremely difficult for him to throw, but the Cardinals were shielded from the worst of his absence by the emergence of Allen Craig, who’s gone 1-14 with a triple and four walks in three NLDS appearances.
If Holliday had been unable to go the Cardinals were apparently going to move second baseman Skip Schumaker to the outfield, so Holliday’s return—while still dangerous, as he remains uncomfortable throwing the baseball—has the secondary benefit of saving Tony La Russa from himself. Holliday hit .296/.388/.525 with 22 home runs and 36 doubles in 124 games in 2011, the second year on a long-term contract that takes him through 2016.