The St. Louis Cardinals have had quite a number of players hit the disabled list this season; despite that, they're at .500 and very much in the NL Central race, just four games behind the first-place Cincinnati Reds.
They'll get reinforcements back for Friday's game against the Royals:
Jon Jay has been out with a shoulder injury; Matt Carpenter with an oblique. Matt Adams is one of the Cardinals' better prospects, but they apparently want him to get more Triple-A seasoning. Adron Chambers is a spare-part outfielder who's been up and down between St. Louis and Memphis much of the last two seasons.
Jay went 3-for-7 in two rehab games with a home run. The Cardinals apparently figured that was enough to get him back in their lineup. Carpenter was 3-for-10 with Memphis in his rehab stint, also with a home run.
St. Louis Cardinals rookie Matt Carpenter got off to a great start in 2012, taking advantage of playing time received at the expense of the injured Carlos Beltran, Allen Craig, Jon Jay, and Lance Berkman. He's been invaluable, hitting .288/.356/.519 in 104 at-bats while playing four different positions. And, as is typical for the Cards this year, he'll go on the disabled list:
#STLCards with ANOTHER injury: Matt Carpenter to DL with right oblique strain.
Freak oblique tweaks can take a while to heal, though pitchers usually have a tougher time coming back from them. To replace Carpenter, the Cardinals called up Steven Hill. From Viva el Birdos:
Hill has played one big league game and that was in 2010. In it, he went 1-for-3 with a homer. The farmhand has been a player without a set position. In his first year as a pro, Hill played first base, catcher, and left field. Over the spant of his entire minor-league career, he has also seen playing time at third base and right field. Hill's career minor league hitting line is .287/.338/.516/.855. In 2012, with Memphis, he has hit .257/.303/.471/.774.
This is the part where Hill hits just as well as the guy he's replacing because that's what the Cardinals do.
