Cardinals right-hander Michael McGreevy completed seven innings in just three of his previous outings this season. Until Wednesday, all three of those outings came in the minor leagues.
McGreevy, called up to the majors prior to Wednesday’s start, threw more pitches in a debut than any Cardinals starting pitcher in six years (99 pitches), and he allowed just one run on five hits and one walk in seven innings on the way to his first win in the big leagues.
The Cardinals rolled to a 10-1 win over the Texas Rangers in the finale of their three-game series Wednesday afternoon in front of an announced 31,365 at Busch Stadium.
The Cardinals (56-52) collected 14 hits and went 6 for 11 with runners in scoring position in the series-clinching win.
Recently acquired outfielder Tommy Pham, now in his second stint with the Cardinals, went 3 for 4 with a double and two RBIs, and Pham now has six RBIs, the most for a Cardinals player in his first two games after being acquired or debuting since Joe Cunningham had nine RBIs in his first two games with the club in 1954.
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Paul Goldschmidt (2 for 4), Brendan Donovan (2 for 3, three RBIs) and Nolan Arenado (2 for 4) and Michael Siani (2 for 3) each had multi-hit games, while Alec Burleson (1 for 4) drove in a pair of runs.
Rookie backup catcher Pedro Pages had his career-best hitting streak snapped after 13 consecutive games.
McGreevy became the first Cardinals pitcher to make his major league debut as the starting pitcher at home since Mike Mayers debuted against the Los Angeles Dodgers in a start on July 24, 2016. McGreevy, the eighth Cardinal to make his debut this season (the sixth pitcher), was the 18th overall pick in the 2021 MLB draft.
McGreevy gave up a two-out hit in the first inning, but he tossed a scoreless frame. He recorded his first career strikeout in the second inning at the expense of Nathaniel Lowe.
McGreevy retired 11 batters in a row from the end of the first through the start of the fifth inning. Lowe snapped the streak with one out in the fifth when he also became the first batter walked by McGreevy in his big league career.
McGreevy’s lone run allowed came in the sixth inning, as did three of the five hits he allowed.
Kelly debuts with his latest club
Former Cardinals catcher Carson Kelly made his debut for the Rangers on Wednesday. A second-round pick by the Cardinals in 2012, he made his major league debut with the Cardinals in 2016.
The Cardinals traded Kelly to the Arizona Diamondbacks along with pitcher Luke Weaver, infielder Andrew Young and a competitive balance-round draft pick in the Goldschmidt trade.
The Diamondbacks released Kelly in August of last year. The Detroit Tigers signed him as a free agent a few days later, and Kelly spent this season with the Tigers until Sunday. That’s when the Tigers traded him to the Rangers in exchange for a pair of minor leaguers.
Kelly’s activation on Monday bumped another former Cardinals catcher, Andrew Knizner, off of the Rangers’ major league roster and back to Triple-A.
Giving the rookie a lead to work with
The Cardinals staked McGreevy to a lead in the second inning. Three consecutive one-out hits by Goldschmidt, Pham and Donovan led to the game’s first run. Donovan’s single to center field allowed Goldschmidt to score from second base.
Rangers center fielder Travis Jankowski threw home, but the throw drifted up the third base line. Pham and Donovan advanced to third base and second base, respectively, on the throw home.
The next batter, Pages, hit a sharp ground ball to Rangers first baseman Lowe. However, Lowe opted to throw home in an attempt to cut down Pham’s attempt to score. Instead, Lowe’s throw sailed high, and Kelly wasn’t able to apply a tag before Pham slid in with the second run of the inning.
With runners on the corners and still just one out, Siani executed a sacrifice bunt that allowed Donovan to score from third base.
The Cardinals scored three runs in the inning against Rangers left-hander Andrew Heaney.
Starting to solve struggles against lefties?
The Cardinals tacked on five runs in the fifth inning and chased Heaney from the game with one out in the frame.
Heaney allowed six runs on six hits and one walk in 4â…“ innings.
Entering this day, the Cardinals ranked second-to-last in the majors in on-base plus slugging percentage against left-handed pitchers (.639). Those struggles factored heavily into their pursuit of Pham at the trade deadline. Pham began play on Wednesday with a career OPS of .839 against left-handed pitchers following his pinch-hit grand slam Tuesday night in his return to Busch Stadium.
In the fifth inning on Wednesday, Pham contributed to the five-run inning with a two-run double against the right-handed reliever Jose Leclerc.
However, the first six runs came against Heaney. Siani’s leadoff single signaled the beginning of the end for the left-hander. Willson Contreras swatted a double into the left field corner, and Burleson’s two-run single forced Rangers manager Bruce Bochy to take the ball from Heaney.
Burleson came around to score two batters later, following an Arenado single, on Pham’s two-run double. Burleson marked the final run charged to Heaney’s tab.
Pham scored the fifth run of the inning on Donovan’s second RBI single of the day.
That gave McGreevy an eight-run lead going into the sixth inning.