(The Spread) – The hits keep on coming for the St. Louis Cardinals, who will now be without one of their star hitters a month and a half after losing one of their star pitchers.
Outfielder Matt Holliday will likely miss 3-4 weeks after having appendectomy surgery on Friday. He will be evaluated after the surgery before the Cardinals will make an official announcement regarding how long he’ll be out, but players who have undergone similar surgeries have missed at least two weeks.
This news comes as a big blow to the Cardinals, who are already without one of their aces. On February 24, it was discovered that starter Adam Wainwright would need to have Tommy John surgery to fix an elbow injury. Wainwright will miss the entire 2011 season, which puts a ton of pressure on fellow starters Chris Carpenter and Jake Westbrook, as well as hitters Holliday and Albert Pujols.
Speaking of Pujols, he will now be without his main protection in the lineup for maybe a month or more. Holliday is coming off a game in which he went 3-for-4 with a home run in the Cardinals’ loss to the Padres on Opening Day. Now someone else will have to fill Holliday’s role in the order, which is no small task.
According to online sports book SBGGLOBAL.com, the Cardinals are currently 25/1 long shots to win the 2011 World Series. Just for comparisons sake, when the odds opened back in November, St. Louis was 14/1 to win. It just goes to show you how big a loss Wainwright and now Holliday is. (At least Holliday will be back at some point this season.
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