From the early stages in his baseball-playing days, the importance of being coachable was instilled in right-hander Michael McGreevy. His father, Steve, made that an emphasis when he coached the future Cardinals starter in Little League.
What that has brought McGreevy over his career, he said, are positive bonds with his coaches across all levels of baseball.
“I’m blessed enough to say that pretty much every coach I’ve had since then has said the same thing; just being coachable,” McGreevy said. “You want to have a good relationship with them. You want them to trust you.”
On Tuesday night at Busch Stadium against the Reds, the 25-year-old McGreevy saw an example of his growing relationship with Cardinals manager Oli Marmol.
After McGreevy twirled six scoreless innings on 77 pitches vs. Cincinnati, the rookie starter returned to the mound to pitch the seventh inning. Having notched three strikeouts and worked around three hits and three walks up to that point, the righty struck out the side to cap a scoreless outing in the Cardinals’ 3-0 shutout win at Busch Stadium.
“That situation where Oli lets me go in the seventh, that’s trust that I’m building with this first year, and it paid off.”
McGreevy’s seven scoreless innings and strong finish helped the Cardinals to their 13th shutout of the season. It was one of two rookie performances that helped fuel it.
To back McGreevy’s longest scoreless since debuting in the majors in 2024, rookie Thomas Saggese belted a two-run home run in the third inning off Reds starter Andrew Abbott, snapping a streak of 245 consecutive plate appearances without a homer for the 23-year-old infielder.
Saggese’s homer was his third of his career, second of the season, and marked his first-career homer at Busch Stadium.
“He battled well. He wasn’t trying to do a whole lot and got rewarded,” Marmol said of Saggese, who went 2 for 4 in the win. “Really deep at-bat, the one before (the homer), and then was able to put a good swing on that pitch.”
The pair of rookie performances highlighted areas where the two young Cardinals have looked to show growth.
The last time McGreevy faced Cincinnati ahead of Tuesday came on Aug. 30. He completed six innings and allowed one run in his start at Great American Ball Park, but did not record a strikeout in the Cardinals’ win.
Facing the Reds for a second time this season, McGreevy tallied six strikeouts. After using his sinker as his primary pitch in Cincinnati and flashing his curveball often than his sweeper in that start, McGreevy’s four-seam fastball was his most often used pitch Tuesday.
The fastball was a putaway pitch on four of his five strikeouts. His curveball was used less often than his sweeper compared to his previous outing against the Reds, but had a 31% called strike plus whiff rate after it had a 16% called strike plus whiff rate in his Aug. 30 outing, per Statcast.
“You look at this outing, and the usage was exactly what you’d want it to be against a team that he didn’t have a punch out against, and then he’s able to get six of them,” Marmol said of McGreevy. “You look at some of the swings and his ability to use the four-seamer right-on-right, the curveball, the cutter. … We talked about it earlier in the office. One of the things we’re impressed with is his ability to not be scared to do something in his next outing that he hasn’t done before.
“He has no fear. He looks at it differently. He looks at it as an opportunity of what if it works? It will take me to that next level of my career. Really nice job by him today.”
For Saggese, the flash of power in the form of his 391-foot two-run homer was his first homer since he cleared the Green Monster in left field at Fenway Park on April 6 vs. the Red Sox.
How his first at-bat Tuesday night played out added some comfort against Abbott in order to snap the streak.
During his at-bat in the first inning against the Reds’ lefty starter, Saggese fell behind 0-2 after taking a fastball and whiffing on a curveball. The rookie fouled off five pitches and laid off a fastball thrown well out of the strike zone to earn a ninth pitch in the at-bat, which he singled to center field on.
Two innings later, Saggese laid off two fastballs to put him in a 2-0 count vs. Abbott, fouled off a pair of changeups, and took a fastball just below the strike zone to draw the count full and earn him a third changeup he sent into the visiting team’s bullpen.
“Just putting a couple good swings on it, and just kind of getting closer and closer to each foul ball, I always feel like that helps me,” Saggese said.
Saggese’s home run added to the 1-0 lead the Cardinals received with a sacrifice fly from Nolan Arenado in the first inning. It comes for Saggese, who homered 46 times across the 2023 and 2024 minor league seasons, as he continues to develop his plate discipline while in the majors.
“A lot of it is just execution at this level of what his weaknesses are and guys being good enough to attack it,” Marmol said. “It comes down to his ability to combat that and show that he can control the strike zone, get better pitches to hit, and not be as much of a free swinger. He battled today and got another pitch and did a nice job with it.”
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Daniel Guerrero | Post-Dispatch
Baseball writer
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