Cardinals place Westbrook on 15-day DL

ST. LOUIS -- Jake Westbrook has been trying to ignore elbow pain since spring training. The St. Louis pitcher and the team finally decided it was time for a break.

"I've pitched through a lot of stuff through my career," Westbrook said Sunday. "It just kind of got a little more inflamed than I would have liked my last start."

The Cardinals will place the right-hander on the 15-day disabled list with elbow inflammation and will promote left-hander John Gast in time for Tuesday night's game against the New York Mets.

General manager John Mozeliak said Westbrook likely would miss two starts.

"It's really not that big of a deal," Mozeliak said. "It's just something that we didn't want to push it, didn't want it to become a big problem."

Westbrook's last outing was his shortest of the season. He allowed three earned runs on nine hits in 5 1/3 innings.

Westbrook is 2-1 with a 1.62 ERA in seven starts.

The 24-year-old Gast was the team's minor league player of the month in April, going 3-1 with a 1.16 ERA in six starts at Class AAA Memphis.