The St. Louis Cardinals make their first trip to the American League of 2012 Tuesday night, and now that we have their lineup for Game 1 vs. the Detroit Tigers, we know the answer to the ultimate interleague question: Who do you DH? For Tuesday night, at least, the Cardinals have settled on Matt Holliday as their designated hitter. Holliday left Sunday's extra-innings marathon with a hip flexor issue, and seems somewhere between healthy and day-to-day based on manager Mike Matheny's defensive-replacement routine over the last few games.
The Cardinals have a number of injured and injury-prone sluggers currently on the active roster, and all of them are likely to get DH time as a means of resting their shaky legs; in addition to Holliday, Carlos Beltran, dealing with knee soreness, and Allen Craig, recovering from a hamstring strain, are likely to see at-bats there.
That means the primary beneficiary of the extra at-bats won't be spending time at DH—it's Matt Adams, who'll get regular time at first base while all this is going on. Stuck in a bench role since Craig returned, Adams is hitting .257/.304/.419 with two home runs and 13 RBI since being called up a month ago.
St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Matt Holliday left Sunday's game in the ninth inning, and according to manager Mike Matheny, the reason was a leg-related injury. According to Joe Strauss, that's all that is known about Holliday's condition at this point.
Holliday left 9th inning with a persistent condition that has worsened or at least flared anew. It's not his back. Has roots to a month ago.
Holliday was having a nice day up until his departure: he collected a pair of hits, including a home run. The Cardinals lost 5-3 to Kansas City in 15 innings.
