"Cardinals outfielder Matt Holliday, speaking for the first time Monday afternoon about his appendectomy of last Friday, said he felt significantly better than he had in previous days since the surgery. But, he added, "I haven't really done anything" relative to baseball conditioning, since he still has stitches from his incisions.

There is no timetable yet for Holliday's return, although he said he told Cardinals management, "I would not like to go on the DL.

"I can play in 15 days if they can do without me for a few games," Holliday said.

Manager Tony La Russa, deferring the analysis to the medical staff, did note that "we'll get a couple of lefthanders in San Francisco (this weekend) ... but that might be too much to ask. There's no good time to not have one of your key producers out there."

Holliday said his stomach area was not "terribly painful" Monday but had been "pretty bad" Saturday.

Before he was told he needed the surgery, Holliday said, he had been bothered for a week and was hoping to make it to Friday's off day so that he could be examined for what he thought might be a virus. But he said he suspected the problem might be his appendix."