The St. Louis Cardinals' Spring Training surprise turned unlikely roster glue, Matt Carpenter, was placed on the 15-day disabled list Wednedsay; he's suffering from a strained right oblique, and was replaced on the 25-man roster by AAA catcher Steven Hill. Carpenter suffered the injury hitting a double in the Cardinals' May 22 victory over the San Diego Padres; he grimaced running the bases and was pulled immediately for Daniel Descalso, who figures to soak up most of the time Carpenter would have spent at third base.
The injury could hardly come at a worse time for the Cardinals, who were leaning heavily on Carpenter to replace not only Lance Berkman—scheduled for surgery Thursday to repair a torn meniscus and some potential ACL damage—but Allen Craig, who was placed on the 15-day disabled list with a tweaked hamstring and will miss a little more than a week at minimum due to roster rules.
Carpenter, 26 and known in the minors mostly for his high walk rates, was hitting a surprisingly muscular .288/.356/.519, with three home runs, three triples, and nine doubles, in 104 at-bats as the Cardinals' jack-of-all-trades behind Berkman, Craig, David Freese, and even Carlos Beltran.