Saturday tidbits - Lohse, Glaus, Memphis call-ups

B.J. Rains

MLB.com

ST. LOUIS - Manager Tony La Russa announced on Saturday that righty Kyle Lohse will get the start in Houston on Monday night.

Lohse, who was skipped on Friday night in favor of John Smoltz, is trying to work on his mechanics after a forearm injury has caused him to lose the location on his pitches.

"He's hoping to get healthy and stay healthy," La Russa said. "He's feeling better. He's missed so much time and had so many tough breaks that it's disrupted the natural flow of his pitching. He's got a better feel for his delivery right now.

"We're going to start him Monday. We're excited about him because he's feeling healthy for the first time in a while. He's feeling better about his delivery too."

Joel Pineiro will start on Tuesday and Smoltz will start the series finale on Wednesday.

Other Saturday tidbits:

*The Cardinals are expecting to have a few Triple-A call-ups join the team on Friday in Colorado. The Cardinals Triple-A Memphis affiliate will play in the one-game Triple-A Championship on Tuesday night after winning the Pacific Coast League Championship on Friday night with a 3-0 series sweep of Sacramento.

After Tuesday's game, the selected call-ups will head back to Memphis before joining the Cardinals in Denver.

"What an amazing run that was," La Russa said of Memphis. "I talked to (Manager Chris) Maloney last night and they were all real excited. They play Tuesday. Wednesday they will get back to Memphis and hopefully celebrate and collect themselves and get to Colorado on either Thursday or Friday."

La Russa also said that Double-A Springfield manager Pop Warner will join the team for their three-game series in Houston and Maloney will help out on the bench in Colorado and Cincinnati. Both Warner and Maloney will be in St. Louis for the final homestand of the season.

*Infielder Troy Glaus played catch for the first time in a couple of days and had a light workout on the field. He remains inactive with a strained rib-cage and TLR didn't know when he would be available.

"He can't hit," La Russa said. "He's working out today and we will see how he feels when it's over but he's not available to hit today."

*I'm not a big music guy so I don't have any music suggestions for you like my faithful leader Matthew Leach usually provides in his blog. You shouldn't be listening to music today anyway. Go watch some football.

*Don't forget you can follow me on twitter at www.twitter.com/bjrains. Not sure what I will bring to the table but I'll give it my best shot.

Have a good afternoon.

-B.J. Rains