St. Louis shortstop David Eckstein was placed on the 15-day disabled list Saturday with a lower back strain, and the Cardinals called up Brendan Ryan from Triple-A Memphis to start in his place.
Eckstein left Wednesday's game at Kansas City with tightness in his lower back and sat out Thursday against the Royals and again in Friday's series opener with Oakland. Manager The move is retroactive to June 14, and Tony La Russa believes Eckstein will be back in the minimum time.
"We are really encouraged," La Russa said. "He's feeling better, but he's got enough bumps and bruises that if we don't give him an extended period, he's going to have a lot of lingering aches."
St. Louis also brought up right-hander Anthony Reyes and optioned righty reliever Kelvin Jimenez to Memphis. Reyes -- who won the World Series opener for the Cardinals last fall but has lost 10 straight regular-season decisions and was demoted to the minors -- is scheduled to start Sunday against the Athletics in place of Brad Thompson, who will be available out of the bullpen.
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