ST. LOUIS — Another Cardinals outing by a starting pitcher was short-circuited by injury Friday night at Busch Stadium when left-hander Kwang Hyun Kim exited the game after throwing one warm-up pitch before the fourth inning. Kim, trailing Cincinnati, 3-0 in a game the Cardinals lost 6-4, left with what was announced as lower back tightness.
This was not necessarily a new injury for Kim, who had been set back in spring training by back stiffness and had begun the season on the injured list.
Earlier in the week, of course, staff ace Jack Flaherty had gone out for probably a couple of months with a torn oblique muscle and a couple of weeks before that, right-hander Miles Mikolas had to leave his first outing of the season after a recurrence of a flexor tendon problem. Kim had just finished batting in the third when he nearly beat out a bouncer over the mound but was thrown out by shortstop Kyle Farmer.
