Giants' Marco Scutaro has hip strain and his status for Game 3 is unclear, source says

SAN FRANCISCO A person with knowledge of the injury says Giants second baseman Marco Scutaro strained his left hip when the St. Louis Cardinals' Matt Holliday crashed into him with a hard slide in Game 2 of the NL championship series Monday night.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity Tuesday because the team hadn't made an announcement on Scutaro's condition. Scutaro flew with the Giants to St. Louis.

Scutaro's status for Game 3 of the best-of-seven series Wednesday was unclear. He had an MRI on Monday night.

Scutaro went down in the first inning of the Giants' 7-1 win, then hit a two-run single in the fourth before coming out of the game after the fifth inning.

Manager Bruce Bochy called it "an illegal slide."

"I felt bad. When a guy has to leave the game, it bothers me," Holliday said, per CBSSports.com. "I hope he's OK. I hope it's precautionary. I'm a human being, I hope he's not injured. "

After the game, Holliday said he wished he would have started his slide earlier, and that he was sorry he slid late, just touching the bag with the lower half of his left leg and barreled into Scutaro, who was behind the bag.

"I'm not a dirty player. I wish I would have started my slide a step earlier, but when you're out there in the heat of the moment, you're just trying to make sure he doesn't complete the double play," Holliday said. "I play hard and tried to keep us out of a double play. That's what it comes down to, people can say what they want. I hope he's OK."