Furcal batting 8th again for Cardinals

Struggling Rafael Furcal, one of the St. Louis Cardinals' trade deadline pickups, batted eighth for the second straight game.

Furcal was batting only .204, raising his average only eight points since arriving from the Los Angeles Dodgers for a minor league prospect and being installed as the Cardinals' starting shortstop. Furcal was in a 3-for-18 slump with no walks before Friday night's game against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Before Wednesday, Furcal batted leadoff in 16 games and second three times. He took early batting practice to work on his timing and manager Tony La Russa said Furcal had been elevating the ball too much.