McGreevy Gets the Ball to Try to Wash Away Orioles Rout
The Cardinal Chronicle
McGreevy Gets the Ball to Try to Wash Away Orioles Rout
St. Louis, MO
By Ray Mileur
The Cardinals do not need to dress up what happened Tuesday night.
It was embarrassing.
After being swept in Philadelphia, St. Louis came home needing to steady itself, protect a vulnerable pitching staff and start a six-game homestand with some urgency.
Instead, the Cardinals were beaten 13-1 by the Baltimore Orioles at Busch Stadium, falling below .500 and extending their losing streak to four games.
Now they have to play again.
That may be the best thing about baseball after a night like that. There is no week to sit with it. No long break to replay every crooked number. No time to pretend it was something other than what it was.
The Cardinals host the Orioles again tonight at Busch Stadium, with first pitch scheduled for 6:45 p.m. CT. Right-hander Michael McGreevy gets the ball for St. Louis against Orioles right-hander Kyle Bradish.
Baltimore enters at 64-68, while the Cardinals come in at 66-67. The Orioles took the series opener in the loudest possible way, and the Cardinals now need a win just to keep this homestand from taking on the same ugly shape as the road trip that preceded it.
Tuesday’s loss got away early, then completely unraveled in the fifth.
Pete Alonso went 4-for-4 with a three-run homer and four RBIs. Christian Encarnacion-Strand also homered and drove in three. Jackson Holliday added three hits in his return to Busch Stadium, and Chris Bassitt worked into the seventh inning, allowing one run on six hits with five strikeouts and no walks.
The Cardinals’ only run came on Nathan Church’s solo homer.
That was it.
Matthew Liberatore allowed a career-high eight runs on eight hits and a walk in four-plus innings. Baltimore scored four runs in the third and then turned the game into a rout with an eight-run fifth, sending 13 batters to the plate while the Cardinals searched for outs that never came quickly enough.
By the ninth inning, Pedro Pagés was on the mound for his second pitching appearance in four days.
That says enough.
This is where McGreevy matters.
McGreevy enters at 5-9 with a 3.54 ERA, a 1.21 WHIP and 95 strikeouts. His record does not tell the full story. He has been one of the Cardinals’ more reliable starters this season, and with Hunter Dobbins and Andre Pallante both on the injured list, reliable innings are no small thing.
The Cardinals need him to give them structure.
They need strikes. They need early contact. They need clean innings. They need a start that does not force the bullpen into emergency mode before the middle of the game.
Most of all, they need somebody to take the ball and slow the night down.
Baltimore’s offense showed exactly what can happen when a starter loses the zone or falls behind in counts. Alonso remains the first name on the scouting report. He now has 31 home runs, and his history against St. Louis only adds to the problem. He came into Tuesday with 13 career homers in 39 games against the Cardinals, then added another one with the kind of swing that changed the shape of the game.
But Baltimore is not just Alonso.
Gunnar Henderson gives the Orioles another left-handed impact bat. Jackson Holliday can put pressure on a defense. Samuel Basallo, Coby Mayo, Encarnacion-Strand, Dylan Beavers, Leody Taveras and the rest of the lineup give Baltimore enough length that mistakes in the bottom half still find ways to turn into damage.
The Cardinals cannot keep offering free traffic.
McGreevy does not have to overpower Baltimore. That is not who he is. He has to pitch to his strengths, get the ball on the ground, keep hitters off the barrel and make the Orioles earn their way on base. A solo homer is survivable. Walks in front of power are not. Extended innings after two outs are not. Another early crooked number would put St. Louis right back in the same place it lived Tuesday.
On the other side, the Cardinals get Bradish, who enters at 7-12 with a 3.70 ERA, a 1.38 WHIP and 129 strikeouts.
Bradish has had success against St. Louis in the past, carrying a 2.25 ERA with 17 strikeouts in 12 career innings against the Cardinals. He is not the kind of pitcher the Cardinals can let settle in, especially after the offense managed only one run Tuesday night.
The approach has to be better.
The Cardinals need traffic early. They need longer at-bats. They need to force Bradish to work from the stretch instead of allowing him to control the tempo. They need to make Baltimore’s defense handle the baseball and force the Orioles’ bullpen to cover meaningful outs.
This is not a night for empty singles and quiet innings.
Alec Burleson continues to give the Cardinals steady production, with 33 doubles, 21 home runs and 96 RBIs. Jordan Walker has been one of the hotter bats in the lineup, going 15-for-41 with four doubles, four home runs and 12 RBIs over his last 10 games. Those are the bats St. Louis needs to drive the middle of the order.
But the Cardinals cannot ask Burleson and Walker to carry the entire lineup.
JJ Wetherholt, Iván Herrera, Joshua Báez, Nathan Church, Blaze Jordan, Pedro Pagés, José Fermín and the rest of the order have to lengthen the night. Church gave St. Louis its only run Tuesday. That is not enough. Not at home. Not after a sweep. Not when the team is trying to keep itself within reach of the National League Wild Card race.
The injuries make everything tighter.
Masyn Winn is on the injured list. Everson Pereira is on the injured list. Dobbins and Pallante are down. Max Rajcic remains on the 60-day injured list. The Cardinals are not operating with a full deck, but the schedule does not make allowances for that.
The Orioles are not coming to Busch Stadium to help them regroup.
Baltimore is four games under .500, but the Orioles remain in the middle of a crowded American League Wild Card race. They played like a team with urgency Tuesday. They took advantage of mistakes, added on and never allowed the Cardinals to pretend they were close.
St. Louis has to match that edge tonight.
The Cardinals are 4-6 over their last 10 games, and the pitching staff has allowed too many nights to get away. Their team ERA sits at 4.20, ninth in the National League, and the combination of short starts and bullpen strain is starting to show.
That is why this game feels bigger than one night in late August.
The Cardinals are not out of it. But they are running out of room to keep absorbing losses like Tuesday’s. A team can survive a bad game. It cannot survive letting bad games become the new direction.
Tonight is about control.
Control the strike zone.
Control the first three innings.
Control Alonso.
Control the pace.
Control the damage.
McGreevy gives the Cardinals a chance to do that. He has been steady enough to stop this kind of slide before, and St. Louis needs him to do it again.
The Cardinals do not need to win by 12 runs to make Tuesday disappear.
They need to play a clean baseball game.
They need to get a start.
They need to score before the night gets heavy.
They need to win.
That is the only reset that matters now.
Game Info
Matchup: Baltimore Orioles at St. Louis Cardinals
When: Wednesday, August 26, 2026
First Pitch: 6:45 p.m. CT / 7:45 p.m. ET
Where: Busch Stadium, St. Louis
Probable Pitchers: RHP Kyle Bradish vs. RHP Michael McGreevy
Bradish: 7-12, 3.70 ERA, 1.38 WHIP, 129 SO
McGreevy: 5-9, 3.54 ERA, 1.21 WHIP, 95 SO
Records: Orioles 64-68; Cardinals 66-67
Broadcast: MASN / Cardinals.TV Presented by bet365
The Cardinal Chronicle, in association with Gateway Sports & MiLB Today
Preserving the Past, Promoting the Present, and Projecting the Future.
Check out The Cardinal Chronicle for more St. Louis Cardinals coverage, daily farm reports, prospect updates and old-school baseball commentary:
www.cardinalchronicle.com
Photo Credit: Michael McGreevy | MLB