SAN DIEGO -- Though they are already stocked with an active roster 30 players deep, the Cardinals find themselves forced to consider calling up additional replacements after another two position players exited the club's 2-0 win over the Padres with injuries.
Already playing Monday's game without starting position players William Fowler and Kolten Wong, the Cardinals then watched Matt Carpenter and Tommy Pham exit the series opener with right shoulder injuries. Carpenter's injury, diagnosed as shoulder tendinitis, is considered the more concerning of the two.
Carpenter said after the game that his shoulder has been nagging at him throughout much of the season. It's gotten more aggravating as of late, though, to the point where Carpenter said a cortisone shot and/or MRI scan are both "on the table" as options.
He described the discomfort as "a sharp pain."
"I've been able to monitor it and mask it playing first [base]," Carpenter said. "But as we've progressed throughout the season and even shifting around the infield, it has just kind of gotten to a point where it's affecting what I do. … It's at a point where, I don't know if it's wear and tear at the end of the season or what, but it was just kind of biting today more than usual."
Carpenter has started at third base four times since Aug. 29, as the Cardinals have tried to tap into his defensive versatility in order to open up playing time for Luke Voit and Jose Martinez at first.
His start at third on Monday lasted until the fifth inning when, after a swinging strikeout, manager Mike Matheny decided Carpenter was too compromised to continue. Carpenter is hitless in his last 10 at-bats and 2-for-17 on the team's road trip.
"We'll have to keep an eye on it," Matheny said. "[It] is affecting the way he throws and now it's affecting the way he's swinging."
Pham was optimistic that stem therapy and treatment on his shoulder would have him ready to return to the field on Tuesday. He injured his shoulder on the same fourth-inning slide that brought out the team athletic trainer to control a bleeding nose. Pham's helmet came off as he finished his headfirst slide into the base and struck him on the face.
"It was a tough day on one play," Pham said.
Though it's the third time this season that his helmet has come off and hit him on a slide, Pham insisted he will not stop going headfirst into the base. Instead, the change will come by going with a smaller helmet size.
It was in Pham's at-bat an inning later that he realized his shoulder was also an issue.

"It felt like I had a dead arm when I was hitting," said Pham, who went 2-for-4 with a run scored before exiting. "My shoulder felt weak. I didn't feel a tear. Obviously, I have a lot of experience with that. I just felt like I had a dead arm, like someone punched me in my shoulder."
Pham had just returned to the Cardinals' lineup on Sunday after missing two games because of a jammed thumb.
The Cardinals hope that Fowler, who has been nursing a sore left hip since Saturday, will be ready to return to the lineup on Tuesday. Wong has had trouble getting his back loosened up since Sunday.