A day after being named the National League Rookie of the Month, St. Louis Cardinals Manager Mike Matheny explains that today is just a day off for infielder Paul DeJong.
“He’s been, obviously the League agrees, extremely good this last month,” said Matheny. “Hope to continue to watch him play like he has been.”
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In July, DeJong hit .298 and led qualified rookies with 28 hits and 8 home runs. He also drove in 16 runs. But yesterday, DeJong struck out four times.
“Yesterday was one of those games,” said Matheny. “You’re going to have some matchups that are just tough for guys. They go up there and say I have no idea how I missed those pitches, I was seeing them well. They jump in the next day and you see something completely different. But we are going to keep an eye on all our guys.”
Without DeJong batting third, Matt Carpenter will slide down in the lineup.
“Give Kolten another day at the top and yeah, I know he’ll be excited about the challenge of debunking all the theories that he can’t hit there,” said Matheny. “He can hit anywhere. He realizes too, with Paul out, we’ve just got to do what we have to do.”
#STLCards vs. Milwaukee (8/3):
Wong 2B
Pham CF
Carpenter 1B
Gyorko 3B
Molina C
J. Martinez LF
Piscotty RF
Garcia SS
Wacha P— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) August 3, 2017
WAINWRIGHT NEARING RETURN
–The exact date is still yet to be announced, but after throwing a bullpen session yesterday, Adam Wainwright is expected to rejoin the rotation soon.
“He looked really good again today and felt excellent,” said Matheny. “Let him finish today and by tomorrow we should have a pretty good idea where we’ll plug him in, or even later today. Just want to watch how the day progresses. Possibly plugging him in to this Cincinnati series.”
photo credit: Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports
