St. Louis, MO – San Francisco Giants infielder Marco Scutaro will start at second base for Wednesday's Game 3 of the National League Championship Series, two days after being forced out of the team's matchup with the St. Louis Cardinals with a strained left hip.
Scutaro was injured in the first inning of Monday's 7-1 win over the Cardinals in Game 2 of the NLCS after being on the receiving end of a hard slide from Matt Holliday. The St. Louis slugger barreled into Scutaro while attempting to break up a double play.
The San Francisco second baseman initially stayed in the contest and delivered a pair of singles, including a two-RBI base hit as part of a four-run fourth inning. Scutaro exited after the fifth, however, and underwent x-rays on his hip that turned out negative.
Scutaro, who's gone 4-for-8 over the first two games of the NLCS and is currently riding a five-game postseason hitting streak, will bat in his usual No. 2 slot in the Giants' batting order for Wednesday's outing.
Hard collisions are a sensitive subject for the Giants, who saw their All-Star catcher Buster Posey suffer a broken bone in his left ankle during a play at the plate by the then-Florida Marlins' Scott Cousins in May of 2011. Posey missed the rest of that season.
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