ST. LOUIS — The St. Louis Cardinals will have three players who spent a good part of their baseball careers playing second base, and not one of them is starting at second base. Such is the multi-tasking nature of the Cardinals roster these days, added to and personified by newest addition Mark DeRosa.

Brendan Ryan grew up playing second base, DeRosa has most often played at second base in his big-league career and Joe Thurston climbed the minors as a second base. All are natural at the position.

So, naturally, Tyler Greene is starting there tonight.

All three of the aforementioned players are in the lineup tonight against Giants lefty Randy Johnson, whom the Cardinals traditionally have had success against. The fist five batters in the Cardinals’ lineup are all righthanded batters, and that’s part of why Greene — a shortstop by trade — is sliding over to the right side of the infield for tonight’s game.

The lineup, before enter for our chat with manager Tony La Russa:

1. Brendan Ryan, SS
2. Mark DeRosa, 3B
3. Albert Pujols, 1B
4. Ryan Ludwick, RF
5. Yadier Molina, C
6. Rick Ankiel, CF
7. Tyler Greene, 2B
8. Chris Carpenter, P
9. Joe Thurston, LF

-30-