Allen Craig, the St. Louis Cardinals' reserve slugger and high-value insurance for perennially gimpy Carlos Beltran and Lance Berkman, left their Wednesday night win over the San Francisco Giants with an injury the Post-Dispatch is reporting to be hamstring trouble. With Beltran out of Wednesday's game and Jon Jay on the 15-day disabled list the Cardinals are suddenly very thin in the outfield, and could be for the remainder of their weekend jaunt against the Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers.
Matt Carpenter, a third baseman by trade and a first baseman as the result of Lance Berkman's injury-shortened April, could see additional time in right field if Craig and Beltran both miss time, with Skip Schumaker's continued absence from the infield benefiting second basemen Tyler Greene and Daniel Descalso.
We should know more about the status of Craig and Beltran in time for Friday afternoon's series finale against the Giants, but if one of them needs to go on the disabled list to make room for a Mark Hamilton or Adron Chambers the Cardinals could regret pinch-hitting Carlos Beltran on each of his first two go-arounds with this current knee issue.