After suffering a mild left knee strain in the bottom of the first inning of Wednesday night's 3-1 win over the San Francisco Giants, St. Louis Cardinals right fielder Carlos Beltran will be out of the team's lineup for Game 4 on Thursday, according to a report from Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Beltran is "still sore," won't start, but will be available to pinch hit. #stlcards #nlcs #cardinals

— Derrick Goold (@dgoold) October 18, 2012

Beltran apparently hurt the knee while grounding into a double play against Matt Cain. He was replaced by Matt Carpenter, who crushed a key two-run blast off of Cain.

According to a report from Rick Hummel, also of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Beltran underwent an MRI on Wednesday night, and while results were negative, Beltran was still very sore after the injury and had hoped to play after receiving treatment on the knee before Thursday's game.

First pitch is slated for 7 p.m. PT at Busch Stadium and the game will be televised on FOX.