St. Louis Cardinals

Cardinals starting pitcher Jake Westbrook was able to throw off flat ground for about 15 minutes Tuesday, but did not take the mound as expected, according to MLB.com.

Westbrook has thrown a few times over the last few days, but is still working on progressing to the mound. He is expected to be out until early June due to scar tissue buildup in his right elbow. 

Cardinals third baseman David Freese was out of the lineup for Tuesday's game against the Padres, the second game he has missed due to inflammation near his right thumb.

He remains day-to-day due to the injury.  

The Cubs claimed reliever Eduardo Sanchez off waivers from the Cardinals Tuesday. Sanchez, who will be assigned to Triple-A Iowa, had a 3.72 ERA and one save in nine relief appearances for Triple-A Memphis.

Sanchez, who pitched in the majors from 2011-12, is 3-2 with a 3.40 ERA, 1.20 WHIP and five saves in 43 career appearances. He has struck out 48 batters in 45 innings.

Cardinals starting pitcher Shelby Miller failed to go six innings for the second straight start and for the fourth time in nine starts Monday against the Padres. The right-hander continues to be plagued by high pitch counts.

Miller exceeded 100 pitches for the third time in four May starts and for the fifth time this season. 

"Throwing 20 pitches every single inning is not what I'm here to do," Miller said, per MLB.com. "Facing a good hitting offense on a big league club, it's not going to be easy to just throw it and have then swing at it every single time. Something I have to realize is to get the ball around the zone and hopefully things happen better."

Outside of the complete-game shutout he threw May 10, Miller is averaging more than 17 pitches per inning in his eight other starts.

"There are some nights where they're picking it up a little bit better and fouling it off," manager Mike Matheny said. "They're still not squaring up a lot of them. I think taking some shots down in the bottom of the zone more often may be part of the way to help him because the foul balls are typically the ones at the top."

Cardinals outfielder Jon Jay had his ninth multi-hit game in his last 17 appearances Monday against the Padres. He's batting .414 (24 for 58) with two home runs, four doubles and 15 RBI in that span.

Jay has been thriving since being moved out of the leadoff spot in the lineup. He has hit .215 in 19 games as the leadoff hitter, but he's hitting .250 or better batting second, fifth, sixth, seventh and ninth. He's done exceptionally well hitting sixth (.385) or seventh (.407).

"Those numbers for his lack of production in the past were kind of false numbers," Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said, per the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "He takes good at-bats. You don’t see him do much different with guys in scoring position. I know the year before last, he was known as a guy who wasn’t driving in runs. I think he’s proved to himself that he’s able to do that when the situation presents itself."