Central STL News

Michael McGreevy delivered a strong performance for the St. Louis Cardinals on Saturday, allowing only one run over six innings in a 4-2 win against the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ball Park. Despite not recording any strikeouts during his outing, McGreevy managed to limit the Reds to five hits and two walks across 93 pitches.

“To start the game, they were swinging early,” McGreevy said. “I was laughing. I can't get strikeouts if I'm not getting two strikes or not even letting me get to two strikes. But baseball is a funny game. You get a career high on strikeouts the start before. Then today, it's absolutely zero. Yeah, it's crazy. Hey, we win. That's all that matters.”

The Cardinals' pitching staff did not record any strikeouts in the game, just days after the Los Angeles Dodgers struck out 19 Reds batters in a nine-inning game earlier in the week.

“Crazy,” said Cards skipper Oliver Marmol. “That's tough. I mean, it really is. And it's just a lot of those balls that were on the ground. I think McGreevy had 12 of them.”

The last time St. Louis went an entire game without striking out an opposing batter was during an 11-0 loss to the New York Mets on June 24, 2009; their last such victory came April 22 of that year against the Mets at Busch Stadium.

McGreevy closed August with a perfect record and consistent performance over six starts.

“Yeah, that's consistent, it's pretty cool,” McGreevy said with a big smile. “I would be lying if I didn't think I wasn't thinking of that [Friday] night. I was like, ‘Come on, that'd be pretty cool. Let's go. Let's try to get six the whole month of August,’ because July wasn't a very good one for me. But I was stoked on that.”

With several bullpen arms unavailable, Kyle Leahy secured his first save of the season by finishing off both the eighth and ninth innings.

“I feel good,” Leahy said. “I mean, just like everybody else, this is what I train to do. This is what I work hard for in the offseason and work for all year. So, I do my best to take care of my body, and I want to finish strong.”

The win clinched a series victory for St. Louis and marked their third consecutive win and fourth in six games.

A unique double play ended St. Louis’s first inning after confusion following an infield fly call led to Iván Herrera being tagged out between third base and home plate.

“I was talking to D.J. It's hard to make that call any earlier, but at the same time, if you're a baserunner, it's too late,” Marmol said regarding clarification from umpire D.J Reyburn about the play sequence involving multiple throws and tags near home plate.“So there's some confusion there of not hearing the call and then seeing the ball drop taken off.So that's a complicated one for everybody ,not just the baserunner ,but for the umpire.So ,hard to get mad at it ,but big part of the game .”

Willson Contreras contributed with a home run estimated at 431 feet deep into left-center field during the seventh inning while Pedro Pagés hit his eleventh homer—his fifth this month—in support of their pitcher.

“Pagés has another big homer ,and Contreras sits on that and hits it a long ways .It's good to see out of him ,as well,” Marmol said.“So ,that was a fun one.A lot of moving parts to that one,but definitely a fun game .”