The St. Louis Cardinals were unable to take advantage of a down week by those teams in front of them in the playoff race, but they will at least start the weekend with a couple of regular returning to the lineup. As the Cardinals travel to Wisconsin to take on the NL-leading Milwaukee Brewers for a three-game series, the team will welcome back All-Star utility man Brendan Donovan and lefty John King from their stays on the injured list.

Earlier in the week, both Donovan and King were in Springfield for their rehab assignments (along with Nolan Arenado) and they were both deemed ready for a return to the big league roster. Neither player, though, did anything noteworthy during their stay in Double-A. Donovan played two games to test his ailing lower body and went 0-for-4 with three walks. His return to the lineup will cause more playing time crunches for Nolan Gorman and Thomas Saggese and that is even before Arenado returns to the bigs. Donovan’s promotion meant that infielder Jose Fermin was optioned back down to Memphis, where he will most likely remain for the rest of the season, barring injury.

For King, his activation brought the end to Nick Raquet’s stay on the major league roster. Raquet was a great story, quitting his job to return to baseball, and he pitched in two games without allowing a hit and tallied his first major league strikeout. He was the odd man out as King provides another left-handed option in the bullpen that has JoJo Romero as the other southpaw. King has had a miserable season and gave up a homer during his one rehab appearance, but he struck out two hitters and gives manager Oli Marmol an experienced, although ineffective, arm.

The Cardinals begin their three-game series against the Brewers tonight at 7:15pm CST and sit four games out of the final Wild Card spot.