After missing Monday’s game and receiving an injection for pain in his lower back, Albert Pujols was already back in the lineup on Wednesday going 0 for 3 in the Cardinals 4-2 win over Baltimore.
It’s been a spring of nagging injuries. Not only Pujols’ back, but Matt Holliday’s sore rib muscles and now Yadier Molina’s strained oblique muscle on his right side which he injured after hitting a double in the third inning. The Cardinals will rest Molina and re-evaluate him on Friday. Molina doesn’t expect the strain to be serious and doesn’t think he’ll miss more than a couple of days.
In a battle for the fifth spot in the rotation, Rich Hill and Kyle McClellan each pitched three innings with the results quite the opposite for each player. Hill pitched three innings, gave up two runs on four hits with three walks and three strikeouts. His spring ERA is 6.30. McClellan then threw the next three innings and gave up just two runs. His ERA is 1.80.
Below are clips with a frustrated Hill talking first about his spring and then McClellan discussing his spring and his thoughts on if he was moved back to the bullpen by the start of the season.
Cardinals postgame sound.
