Cardinals' Brandon Crawford: Dealing with hamstring cramp

The Cardinals announced that Crawford was removed from Sunday's 2-1 win over the Cubs in the eighth inning due to a left hamstring cramp, John Denton of MLB.com reports.

The fact that the Cardinals are classifying Crawford's injury as a cramp rather than a strain bodes well for his chances of avoiding a stint on the 10-day injured list, though he still may need a few days off to recover. Crawford has been a lightly used bench piece all season, as he was making just his 12th start of the campaign Sunday. He went 1-for-1 with a double, two walks and a run scored before exiting the contest midway through his eighth-inning plate appearance, when he appeared to tweak the hamstring on a big swing.