By AP/KWMU
St. Louis, MO – Cardinals pitcher Josh Hancock was in a serious car accident a few days before he died in another crash early Sunday.
Hancock walked away from the first crash early Thursday morning, but the Post-Dispatch says he was late for the team's game a few hours later because he was hung over.
Police in Sauget, Ill. say Hancock narrowly escaped injury when his SUV was clipped by a semi as he inched it onto a highway.
Also, witnesses who were at Mike Shannon's restaurant Saturday night told the paper that Hancock had been drinking and couldn't put a sentence together by the end of the night.
The restaurant's manager had previously said she offered Hancock a cab when he left but he declined.
CARDS LOSE GAME
The team, meanwhile, returned to the diamond and lost to the Brewers Monday night 7-1.
Former Cardinals pitcher Jeff Suppan pitched a complete game for his new team in the effort.
Suppan was Hancock's teammate with the Cardinals until he signed with Milwaukee in the offseason.
"I am not going to say it was easy," Suppan said. "I don't know how to describe it. It's tough. I am not a Cardinal anymore, so I don't know what it is like in that locker room."
For Scott Spiezio, it was too much to handle. He was overcome with emotion just before the first pitch when he saw Hancock's jersey and the black No. 32 patch the team would be wearing, and manager Tony La Russa pulled him from the starting lineup.
"I got a little caught up right before gametime," Spiezio said. "Seeing the patch, seeing the jersey. It's hard to escape, you know? Usually, you've got stuff going on and when you get to the park, you can escape it. Here, you can't."
The Cardinals will wear the patches on their sleeves for the rest of the season.
Pitcher Tyler Johnson held one of Hancock's jerseys during the national anthem Monday and outfielder Preston Wilson draped his arm around teammate So Taguchi's shoulder in the dugout.