After an appendectomy last Friday St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Matt Holliday seems set to start Sunday, in the third game of the Cardinals heretofore-unpleasant series with the San Francisco Giants. The timing would be perfect—left-hander Barry Zito is due to start—but the Post-Dispatch notes that Tony La Russa has been cagier than Holliday about his return date, calling it "50-50 he may be able to play." Allen Craig and Jon Jay had been splitting time in left field during Holliday's absence.
On the Cardinals broadcast Saturday it was noted that Holliday would be available, in certain situations, as a pinch hitter, but it never came to that in the Cardinals' 3-2 loss to the Giants. Unwilling to send Holliday to the 15-day disabled list given his aggressive appendectomy return schedule—shared recently by the White Sox's Adam Dunn—the Cardinals were forced, on Friday, to bring Kyle Lohse into a pinch-hitting situation.
If Matt Holliday gets his way, Sunday will be the end of those roster heroics. At least until Tony La Russa decides to go back to the 13-man pitching staff, a vestigial organ all its own.