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CHICAGO -- All-Star catcher Geovany Soto hopes to miss just one game after being scratched from the Chicago Cubs' lineup Friday for a 12-6 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals because of a sore left hand.

Soto said he should be ready to play Saturday after X-rays revealed no structural damage.

"I'll probably be in there," he said. Soto felt some pain in the top part of his hand on a swing early in Thursday's 12-inning, 7-6 win over Milwaukee and aggravated it in his final at-bat, after hitting a tying three-run homer off closer Salomon Torres with two out in the ninth. He tried to take batting practice Friday even though the hand had stiffened.

"I just didn't want to push it because I didn't know what was going on, but everything is fine," Soto said. "It's a little bit of swelling." The first National League rookie to start an All-Star game, Soto is batting .285 with 23 homers and 86 RBIs.

Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press