Good Cashner trade audition ends on a bad note when he hits Holliday in the face

Holliday would leave the game, but he's escaped with only an abrasion

A scary moment transpired in the sixth inning between the Padres and Cardinals when Matt Holliday was at the plate and took a pitch to the nose. Yeah, the nose.

It would appear Holliday made a valiant attempt to remain in the game, but was removed nonetheless. Fortunately, the Cardinals have announced that Holliday suffered "only" a facial abrasion and avoided a fracture. That's a 95-mph pitch from the hand of Andrew Cashner, so give Holliday credit for drinking his milk as a child, apparently.

Also of note in this one is the outing by Cashner. That Holliday pitch was the last one he threw. A strong trade candidate, it's possible his last pitch as a Padre was the one that hit Holliday's nose.

Cashner entered the game 4-7 with a 5.05 ERA, 1.48 WHIP and 53 strikeouts against 27 walks in 67 2/3 innings this season. Despite those poor numbers, he's considered one of the better starting pitchers available on the trade market -- a starting pitcher market that one report called the "worst ever."

Some of the better names known to definitely be available are Rich Hill and Jeremy Hellickson.

Well then. Maybe Cashner will have to do?

He made his case against one of the better offenses in baseball on Thursday. In 5 2/3 innings of work, Cashner surrendered only one run on three hits with eight strikeouts and zero walks. He was dominant, not even allowing a hit until there was one out in the fifth inning.

Really, it was a lot of what we've seen when Cashner is on over the years. There seems to be front-line starter stuff in there. He actually had a 2.87 ERA in 2013-14 combined (298 1/3 innings). He's also had injury issues throughout his career and has a 4.47 ERA and 1.43 WHIP in the past two seasons combined.

To further cloud matters for an acquiring team, Cashner is a free agent at the end of the season. So he would presumably be thrown right into a rotation for a contender.

On the flip-side, there are very few other places to turn for teams wanting a starting pitcher. Also, it's now been two straight very good starts for Cashner since the All-Star break (6 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 9 K vs. Giants on July 15).

Padres GM A.J. Preller will surely try to strike while the iron is hot here, but how much will come back?

It is but one of myriad storylines to watch on the trade front with the deadline 11 days away.