White-hot Munoz seizing Cards’ shortstop role

By the time Paul DeJong had run the bases, fielded a throw and yanked a hanging slider across the infield, biting his tongue through two innings, he could no longer ignore the throbbing in his left hand. His reasons for completing that May 17 loss to the Phillies — despite breaking the fifth metacarpal in his left hand in the eighth — were twofold. “I was telling myself it wasn’t that bad, hoping for the best,” DeJong said. “But I knew we didn’t have another shortstop.”