The St. Louis Cardinals will have some reinforcements on the infield when they meet the Baltimore Orioles in a three-game interleague set at Camden Yards Tuesday. Starting third baseman David Freese will return from the hand fracture that kept him out of the lineup for all of May and most of June after going 3-13 with a double in four rehab starts with the Memphis Redbirds. Nick Punto, who missed more than a month after suffering a forearm strain that made it difficult for him to field his various positions, was 8-24 in seven games with the Springfield Cardinals, most of them as designated hitter.
The Cardinals will have a designated hitter of their own as they visit the Orioles and then the Tampa Bay Rays, and with a sudden glut of third baseman—rookie Daniel Descalso will roam the infield with Punto now that Freese is back, even though backup third baseman Albert Pujols remains sidelined with a broken wrist—it would be unsurprising for Freese to spend a game or two as designated hitter to work himself back into the lineup.
Freese and Punto replace rookies Pete Kozma and Andrew Brown, who both reached base in the Cardinals' shutout loss on Sunday.