Molina c

Jay cf

Furcal ss

Westbrook p

Schumaker return uncertain

While there is no way of knowing when injured Cardinals ace Chris Carpenter can return, the same applies to infielder/outfielder Skip Schumaker, who has a torn muscle in his right rib-cage area.

After undergoing an MRI earlier in the week, Schumaker said he was told by doctors, "There's no timetable. They just know there's a significant injury in there. I kind of knew what it was."

One opinion advanced by someone familiar with the situation was that Schumaker would miss a month. He had heard that but he said, "It could be more. It could be less. It could be four weeks, it could be six weeks, it could be anything."

Schumaker suffered a similar injury last October during the fifth game of the National League division series. He missed the league championship series but then returned for the World Series.

"I came back way earlier than I thought I was going to in the playoffs," Schumaker said.