Michael McGreevy strikes out six in win vs. Cubs

This was looking like a quality start and a win for McGreevy until Willi Castro doubled and Brett Sullivan homered with two outs in the sixth. McGreevy was lifted then with a 4-3 lead that ended up being blown in the eighth. McGreevy has now gone four outings with a quality start and five without a win, keeping him 4-9 with a 3.64 ERA. He’ll face the Cubs next week.

McGreevy walked one and struck out five, but threw just 58 percent of his pitches for strikes. He posted a 10 percent swinging strike rate, which was above his season average, but had just 14 percent called strikes in a game where his command really struggled. He’ll take a 3.59 ERA into a meeting against the Phillies next week.

Yikes. McGreevy gave up two in the first on a two-run double by Ian Happ, and then was charged for five more in the second in a disaster of a start for the 26-year-old. The right-hander allowed eight hits, and while none of them left the park, he gave up six hard hits, so he was not dinked and dunked to death. After giving up 11 runs in his last two outings, McGreevy now has a still-solid 3.57 ERA, but you see what can happen when you have nowhere close to an elite fastball. He’ll try and get rolling again versus the Blue Jays on Sunday.

McGreevy came up a little shy of his fifth straight quality start by giving up three runs in the fourth and one in the fifth. He surrendered seven hits, walked three and struck out three in dropping to 4-8. He’ll face the Cubs for the first time this season next week.

St. Louis will transition to a six-man rotation with Dobbins’ arrival pushing everyone else back an additional day, including Wednesday’s original starter Michael McGreevy. The 26-year-old came over from the Red Sox in the Willson Contreras trade last offseason and has posted a pedestrian 4.03 ERA across 22 1/3 innings over five appearances for the Cardinals this season. He’s missing bats at a higher rate than expected, albeit in a small sample size, but Dobbins isn’t exactly an intriguing fantasy option at this stage of his career.

Pitching on eight days’ rest, McGreevy averaged 92.7 mph with his fastball, matching his season high. He still gave up 11 hard-hit balls, including a homer to Tim Tawa and a 420-foot double to Gabriel Moreno that would have been out of 25 ballparks, but he walked just one and never gave up a hit with a runner in scoring position. It’s his 13th quality start in 19 tries this season, but after another no-decision, he still has just a 4-7 record to show for it. He’ll face the Angels on Wednesday.

McGreevy had an outstanding first half for the Cardinals, posting a 3.01 ERA, 1.10 WHIP and a 66/23 K/BB ratio over 101 2/3 innings through his first 18 starts. Dustin May will follow on Saturday with Andre Pallante taking the ball in Sunday’s series finale.

Pitching on his birthday, McGreevy turned in a gem. After a bit of chaos to start the game, he retired 17 of the next 18 hitters he faced. The only one who reached was thrown out stealing the McGreevy barely broke a sweat during the middle innings of this one. He was eventually pulled after allowing two hits in the seventh and one of those inherited runners scored as the only blemish on his ledger. As usual, he mixed his deep, seven-pitch repertoire beautifully and mostly hung around near the edges of the plate. This was a fantastic close to an amazing first with a 3.01 ERA, 66 strikeouts, and 23 walks through 101 2/3 innings.

If not for Ozzie Albies, McGreevy would’ve turned in an even better start here. In the first inning, Albies doubled on the fifth pitch of the game to drive home Drake Baldwin who’d just singled. Then, he homered in the third. Besides those three batted balls, just one other Braves batter reached base against McGreevy. He worked his cutter beautifully at the letters for whiffs and showed good command of the rest of his secondary pitches as well. On the season, he has a 3.12 ERA, 60 strikeouts, and 22 walks through 95 1/3 innings. He’s scheduled for a two-start week against the Brewers and Braves to close out the first half.

McGreevy did his part, but neither team scored until the eighth in the Marlins’ 4-0 victory. It was McGreevy’s 10th quality start of the year, but he remained 3-6 with a 3.12 ERA. Meanwhile, Andre Pallante has gone 9-4 while giving up four more runs in 6 2/3 fewer innings for the same team. McGreevy will likely make his next start Wednesday or Thursday against the Braves.