Cardinals Stay in Race, Despite Injuries

The Redbirds had Monday off before they welcome the Kansas City Royals for an inter-league series on Tuesday evening. The Cards will have to try and hold ground in the NL Central without a lot of familiar faces, however.

The Cardinals have been victims of an injury-plagued starting rotation for much of the year with the likes of Chris Carpenter, Mark Mulder, and Matt Clement not contributing a pitch at the major league level all season. Just as soon as the Redbirds welcomed back Joel Pineiro and Todd Wellemeyer to the rotation, Cardinals ace Adam Wainwright was placed on the 15-day disabled list with a sprained finger. Now, the Cardinals will be without Albert Pujols and Yadier Molina. Cards’ slugger Albert Pujols strained his left calf a week ago in a victory over the Cincinnati Reds and is likely to be out at least two more weeks. Another Cardinals victory on Sunday came at the expense of another key player, catcher Yadier Molina. Molina sustained a mild-concussion Sunday against the Phillies on a collision at home plate. The Cardinals have not placed Yadier on the disabled list and will have only one catcher on the active roster available in Jason LaRue.

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Through all of this, the Cardinals remain just 3 ½ games back of the surging Chicago Cubs despite having the services of several of the clubhouses’ leaders. Tony LaRussa’s ball club will try not to lose any ground to the Cubs until they get some of their weapons back. Until then, guys like Chris Duncan, who was called back up from Triple-A Memphis after the Pujols injury, will have to accelerate their play.

Series Pitching Probables: The Cardinals will send Braden Looper (8-5) to the hill tonight against Kyle Davies (2-0). Wednesday’s game features Joel Piniero (2-3) vs. Brian Bannister (5-6). The series concludes on Thursday as the Cards turn to Todd Wellemeyer (7-2) against Zack Greinke (5-4).

Cardinals (42-29) vs. Royals (28-42)

By Zack Estes
St. Louis Cardinals Correspondent

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