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The St. Louis Cardinals have had some terrible luck with injuries this season.

Pitcher Chris Carpenter, center fielder Jon Jay and very first basemen Lance Berkman and Allen Craig have all spent time on the DL so far. 

With injury-prone players like David Freese and Carlos Beltran on the roster, the Cardinals require to get healthier in case of an injury to one of these stars. So far, Beltran and Freese have been healthful and productive, but they are going to require some support to pull the Redbirds out of their recent slump.

They will not be finding any assist from the players presently on the DL anytime in the close to future though, and there’s a opportunity Berkman may be out the complete season, pending Sunday’s MRI.

So which injury hurts the Cardinals the most?

It is not the injury to Jay. Although the team surely misses his defense in center field and his enhanced bat, Skip Schumaker and Shane Robinson can shoulder the load for a couple weeks. Robinson isn’t as good as Jay at the plate and Schumaker is a little bit rusty in the outfield immediately after becoming mainly a second baseman, but they’re holding up just fine.

It’s also not the injury to Chris Carpenter. Although his last two outings have been disappointing, Lance Lynn has much more than picked up the slack for the Cardinals rotation. Lynn has a 6-1 record with a two.31 ERA and 49 strikeouts so far this season. While he’s still not on the identical level as Carpenter, he really should be in a position to hold down that rotation spot until Carp comes back about the All-Star break.

Jamie Squire/Getty Pictures

So that leaves the two very first basemen. Who do the Cardinals miss far more: Craig or Berkman?

Surprisingly, it is Allen Craig. In his two weeks of wholesome play this season, he’s hitting .373 with 5 residence runs and 19 RBI. He’s becoming one particular of the finest young power hitters in the game and his hit a couple of monster residence runs.

But, his inability to stay healthful is hampering his improvement. Hopefully, he can get wholesome soon and remain wholesome for the rest of the year.

If he can keep on the field, the sky is the limit for Craig. The Cardinals undoubtedly could use him in the cleanup spot in the order.

Berkman is surely still a player the Cardinals will greatly miss, but Craig has far more upside at this point of their respective careers.

Without Craig in the lineup, the Cardinals aren’t rather as intimidating to opposing pitchers.

So: Lance Berkman is injured, and while he’s not on the disabled list however the injury did not look excellent at the time. Meanwhile: The Memphis Redbirds pulled leading St. Louis Cardinals 1st base prospect Matt Adams off the field in mid-game, something they would not do lightly because he is perhaps their only competent hitter. I suppose they could be trading Matt Adams for a very first baseman, or finding Mark Hamilton some further reps at first, but I’m willing, here on Sunday, to assume that their strategy is to contact Matt Adams up should filling Berkman’s roster spot turn into needed.

So: Matt Adams is listed at 6’3″, 230, which is almost certainly not appropriate. He’s not Prince Fielder, and he gets excellent marks for athleticism, but he is a massive, huge man and will not be playing the outfield. He can hit the ball really tough, but he’s interesting because he can also hit the ball really regularly he hit .300/.357/.566 last year, with 32 house runs and 101 RBI, and upon earning this year’s promotion to AAA he’s hit .340/.375/.603, with nine home runs so far and 19 additional-base hits. (He does not walk as significantly as you’d like to see, but that hasn’t been a problem however.)

His walk rate implies it is challenging to see him as a future All-Star with his existing skill-set, but he could properly be an average—and very exciting—first baseman in the extremely close to future. Which is excellent, given Lance Berkman’s nebulous knee injury.

As a six-time All-Star and nine-time Gold Glove Award-winner, Dodgers manager Don Mattingly knows how to win.

Prior to Saturday’s 6- victory against the defending World Series champion St. Louis Cardinals, Mattingly learned he had lost his fourth starter to the disabled list. Peppered with concerns about how he was going to combat the injury bug, Mattingly didn’t panic.

“You feel like you are going to win each and every day,” Mattingly said. “It was the exact same feeling when we were winning 80 games in New York. We can pitch and catch the ball well no matter what lineup we place out there offensively. That’s the way our team looks at it. We have to uncover a way to win a game somehow, someway.”

Immediately after steady second baseman Mark Ellis was placed on the 15-day disabled list with a left leg injury he sustained in Friday’s win over St. Louis, staff ace Clayton Kershaw pitched the Dodgers to their third straight win.

The Dodgers keep plugging along with out the services of outfielders Matt Kemp and Juan Rivera as nicely as infielders Juan Uribe, Jerry Hairston and Ellis, clinching the series win Saturday more than St. Louis, leader of the National League’s Central Division.

“There are two schools of thought when guys go down,” Mattingly mentioned. “Either everybody steps up or individuals try to do as well much. Everybody just has to do what they do. We cannot ask guys to give 110 percent. They just need to have to do their issue and string together at-bats.”

Mattingly’s Dodgers took a shine

to the latter philosophy Saturday, rallying in the bottom of the fourth inning to take over the game.

Cardinals starter Jake Westbrook got items started for the Dodgers by walking Bobby Abreu in a grueling, nine-pitch at-bat. Cleanup man Andre Ethier then laced a ground-rule double to left field. A costly error by Cardinals substitute first baseman Matt Carpenter – starter Lance Berkman left the game with a right knee injury in the bottom of the second inning – on a difficult-hit ball from Adam Kennedy allowed both runs to score.

Having the defending Cy Young Award winner on the hill never ever hurts when trying to keep a slight lead. Kershaw blew via the Cardinals lineup inning right after inning in his fourth career shutout and seventh total game.

He never allowed a baserunner past second base and by no means had to face far more than 4 batters in an inning. Kershaw improved to four-1 in nine begins.

“The initial couple innings, they were hitting some balls tough,” Kershaw said. “I threw some a lot more breaking balls. You try to establish your fastball and they had been showing that they had been going to swing at it so you make adjustments.”

Second-year infielder Justin Sellers hit a solo property run, his first of the season, to left field in the bottom of the seventh.

“I just tried to put a excellent swing on it,” Sellers said.

Kershaw helped himself in the identical inning when he followed up Sellers’ shot with a double to left field, the very first further-base hit of his profession.

“He was pretty great tonight but his swing is finding a tiny bit long,” Mattingly mentioned with a laugh. “He threw a shutout against the Cardinals. They have a pretty great hitting club over there.”

Kershaw was driven in by an up-the-middle single from Tony Gwynn Jr. One more walk issued to Abreu, a wild pitch and an Ethier single later, the Dodgers found themselves up 6-.

Despite the fact that they nonetheless hold a modest lead in the NL Central, the Cardinals have lost seven of their past nine games.

“We had a fairly excellent pitcher tonight,” Mattingly mentioned. “We’re catching them at a time when they have some injuries but they have weapons. When you make pitches, you get individuals out. Kershaw is a handful, I do not care who he’s facing.”

The Dodgers finish their series against St. Louis these days at five p.m. on ESPN just before traveling to Arizona for a 3-game series against the Diamondbacks beginning Monday.

St. Louis vs. Los Angeles

St. Louis Cardinals (22-17) at Los Angeles Dodgers (26ᆡ), 10:10 p.m. (ET)

(Sports Network) – Clayton Kershaw will try to build off a prior scoreless outing this evening when the reigning National League Cy Young winner takes the hill for the Los Angeles Dodgers in the second contest of a 3-game series with the St. Louis Cardinals.

The 24-year-old Kershaw is 3-1 with a 2.22 earned run average through eight begins this season, permitting two runs or much less in six of those games. That contains Monday versus the Diamondbacks as he threw seven innings and scattered 4 hits and three walks, striking out six.

The left-hander has won 11 of his past 12 choices overall and 13 of his final 14 at residence.

“He’s been pretty solid. He appears to be acquiring stronger and better as we go,” Dodgers manager Don Mattingly mentioned about Kershaw.

Kershaw, a 21-game winner final year, is 3-two with a three.28 ERA in eight starts versus the Cardinals, who counter tonight with Jake Westbrook.

The proper-hander threw seven scoreless innings of 4-hit ball to beat the Diamondbacks on Could 8, but allowed 4 runs on a season-high 11 hits six days later more than 5 frames of a no-choice against the Cubs. It was Westbrook’s shortest outing of the season and left him 4-2 on the season with a two.35 ERA in seven begins.

Westbrook, 34, will make his very first career start off versus the Dodgers possessing faced them twice prior to in relief.

The Dodgers beat the Cardinals for a fifth straight time dating back to last season by taking Friday’s opener 6-five. After Kanley Jansen allowed a game-tying homer to pinch-hitter Lance Berkman in the top of the ninth, the slugger’s initial of the season for the Cardinals, A.J. Ellis worked a four-pitch walk with the bases loaded in the bottom of the frame off Fernando Salas.

“As soon as he fell behind in the count I waited for a good pitch to hit but no 1 was to my liking,” stated Ellis, who had two RBI in the Los Angeles’ seventh victory in nine games.

Matt Vacation also homered for St. Louis, which has dropped six of its last eight.

“The bulk of the cause why we lost, we had been letting them get deep in the count,” mentioned Cardinals manager Mike Matheny. “That and defensive mistakes genuinely price us.”

With Allen Craig (strained left hamstring) joining fellow outfielder Jon Jay (sprained correct shoulder) on the disabled list Friday, Carlos Beltran returned to the starting lineup for the very first time in five games and went two-for-four for St. Louis.

Roy Oswalt has been operating himself into shape and plans to be pitching in the majors once again by June, according to sources close to the veteran pitcher. Additionally, he is mentioned to have a couple of “very good offers” already on the table.

Oswalt has auditioned for many teams near his Mississippi residence in current days, one of which is the Red Sox, according to a single supply. Oswalt also threw for the Phillies, according to Ken Rosenthal of FoxSports.com, and has two other clubs — but not the Yankees — for whom he will audition soon, colleague Jon Heyman says.

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