Lance Berkman has been nursing a sore elbow for more than 2 weeks. The injury has limited the slugger to DH duties for a majority of the spring.
On Thursday the DH was taken away for game featuring National League teams, so Berkman promptly returned to right field.
And luckily for Cardinals fans, he made it through the game without an incident.
A lot of hoopla was made of the Cardinals signing Berkman to play the outfield, but after Thursdays 5-2 loss to the Florida Marlins, Berkman didn't want to hear anything about it.
"I've got almost 1,000 games in the outfield, so I can play the outfield," Berkman said. "I came up as an outfielder, I've played a full year of center field in the big leagues. I can play the outfield."
While having Berkman play right field today can be considered a success and a step forward for the Cardinals, the organization didn't sign the slugger for his defense.
Berkman was 0 for 3 at the plate on Thursday.
But the switch hitter has had a nice spring thus far, hitting .314 with 1 homer and 3 RBI's.
The Cardinals are hoping the risk of signing Berkman to play outfield pays off at the plate, but Berkman knows that he will continue to have has critics as the season draws closer to opening day.
"It's probably the people that are casual observers of the game. They look at your face on TV and they see cheeks, they don't see that you can run and you're a better athlete than people give you credit for," Berkman said.
Cardinals fans don't care how well you run in the outfield. They just want Berkman trotting around the bases.
Sources:
On Thursday the DH was taken away for game featuring National League teams, so Berkman promptly returned to right field.
And luckily for Cardinals fans, he made it through the game without an incident.
A lot of hoopla was made of the Cardinals signing Berkman to play the outfield, but after Thursdays 5-2 loss to the Florida Marlins, Berkman didn't want to hear anything about it.
"I've got almost 1,000 games in the outfield, so I can play the outfield," Berkman said. "I came up as an outfielder, I've played a full year of center field in the big leagues. I can play the outfield."
While having Berkman play right field today can be considered a success and a step forward for the Cardinals, the organization didn't sign the slugger for his defense.
Berkman was 0 for 3 at the plate on Thursday.
But the switch hitter has had a nice spring thus far, hitting .314 with 1 homer and 3 RBI's.
The Cardinals are hoping the risk of signing Berkman to play outfield pays off at the plate, but Berkman knows that he will continue to have has critics as the season draws closer to opening day.
"It's probably the people that are casual observers of the game. They look at your face on TV and they see cheeks, they don't see that you can run and you're a better athlete than people give you credit for," Berkman said.
Cardinals fans don't care how well you run in the outfield. They just want Berkman trotting around the bases.
Sources:
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