The St. Louis Cardinals have a record of 34-18 and sit 6.5 games ahead of the Cubs in the NL Central. When the season started, no one would have believed the Cardinals would be able to survive injuries to closer Jason Isringhausen, who missed 2 weeks earlier this season, and third baseman, Scott Rolen. Rolen went down May 11th after colliding with Dodgers first baseman, Hee Sop Choi. Rolen?s shoulder has been surgically repaired and his return is expected in mid-to-late June, if all goes well. Surprisingly, the Cardinals bench has stepped up formidably in his absence. The trio of John Mabry, Abraham Nunez and Scott Seabol has done admirable work filling in the valuable shoes of Rolen at third. Seabol, called up from Class AAA Memphis, is hitting .286 and doesn?t seem to be intimidated by his role at all. Mabry is finally getting the at-bats he needs and Abraham Nunez has been a pleasant surprise every time he is in the lineup. Some suspect that Rolen was injured when the season began. At the time of his injury, he was hitting an unimpressive .257 and had committed four errors after having only committed 10 for the entire 2004 season. Perhaps the rest will do him some good. In the meantime, the Cardinals are grateful to be able to lose an All-Star like Rolen and still maintain momentum especially in a division that looks like a runaway for the last year?s NL Champions.