Cardinals' Lars Nootbaar: Dealing with intercostal injury

Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said that Nootbaar was unavailable Wednesday and again Thursday after receiving a pain-killing shot to combat an intercostal injury, Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat reports.

It explains why Nootbaar is absent from the lineup for a second straight day Thursday. The Cardinals are optimistic that they caught the injury early and expect Nootbaar to be ready to return to the lineup Friday when they begin a road trip in Cleveland.