Cardinals infielder Matt Carpenter said he was pulled from the ninth inning of Saturday's game against the Pirates because of an oblique injury, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
"It tightened up on me a little bit," Carpenter said. "There in the ninth inning it was more of a precautionary move to make sure, to get me out of there in case I took a swing and it got worse. That's basically it."
Carpenter has been swinging a hot bat after ending a lengthy slump. He's hitting .500 (6 for 12) with one home run, one RBI and two doubles in his last three games after batting .108 (4 for 37) in his previous 10 games.