'Need every day to be my birthday': McGreevy extends Cards' special streak

ST. LOUIS -- Michael McGreevy used a lucky 13 to snap an unlucky 7.

McGreevy, who turned 26 on Wednesday, pitched 6 1/3 innings to lead the Cardinals to a 5-1 win over the Brewers, snapping a four-game losing streak and a seven-game skid against their NL Central rival.

Cardinals starters have now won 13 straight games when taking the mound on their birthdays, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. The streak dates back to Sept. 25, 2008, when Joel Piñeiro defeated the D-backs, 12-3, on his 30th birthday.

McGreevy had never pitched on his birthday.

“I was a little worried because I remember I'd played a couple games in high school on my birthday, and I think I went 0-for when I was still playing shortstop,” McGreevy said. “I'm like, ‘This could either go really good or really bad.’”

McGreevy allowed just one run on five hits. He struck out six and walked one.

McGreevy settled in after pitching out of a bases-loaded jam in the first, retiring 15 straight Brewers from the second into the seventh inning.

“Made pitches and then was able to settle in and did a really nice job in the way he used the sinker, that was a good pitch for him,” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said. “The cutter was good. He threw some much better sweepers too, so that was fun to see. But the overall mix was really good. Gave us exactly what we needed today. I mean, everybody has a pretty good idea as to what our ‘pen is, and giving them a break was important.”

His outing wasn’t without some adventure. Cooper Pratt’s liner, which left his bat at 103 mph, according to Statcast, hit McGreevy in the chest in the fifth. McGreevy recovered to throw out Pratt at first and gave a rock and roll gesture with his hands as the training staff came out to check on him.

“I think I shook Pedro [Pagés] too,” McGreevy said. “So that was karma getting me right there. So, don't shake off Pedro.”

The last Cardinals starter to win on their birthday was Kwang Hyun Kim against the Cubs on July 22, 2021.

McGreevy, who made a career-high 18th start against the Brewers, originally wasn’t scheduled to start on his birthday. But amid a flurry of moves with their pitching staff as the Cardinals have tried to navigate a stretch of 14 games in 13 days, McGreevy’s start was moved back a day to give him extra rest around the upcoming All-Star break.

“It's good to listen to your players and how they're feeling,” Marmol said. “At times, it doesn't feel great based on what happened yesterday. But you get a guy that's rested, and gives you a really good outing today and did exactly what we needed to save that ‘pen. So I'm glad we were able to stick to what we said we were going to do, give him the extra day, and he did a nice job of picking us up.”

The 13-game birthday winning streak is the longest in Major League history. No other team has had such a streak longer than eight games.

“I need every day to be my birthday,” McGreevy quipped when reporters brought the record to his attention.

Luis Gastelum made his Major League debut by finishing the seventh for McGreevy. JoJo Romero pitched a scoreless eighth and Riley O’Brien slammed the door in the ninth.

A pair of RBI doubles from Jordan Walker and Alec Burleson gave the Cardinals a 2-0 lead in the first inning. It was the 100th hit of the season for the All-Star bound Walker.

José Fermín added to the lead with a solo homer in the fourth.

Burleson made it 5-0 with a Statcast-projected 443-foot blast to right off Jared Koenig in the sixth. The two-run homer, which left his bat at 109.4 mph, was just one foot shy of the longest this season at Busch Stadium (the Cubs’ Pete Crow-Armstrong on May 30 and the Diamondbacks’ Tommy Troy on June 22 each hit a 444-foot homer).

“My approach was trying to just shove it right back at him, got the head out on a cutter, and put a good swing on it,” Burleson said. “That guy's tough. That guy’s got really good stuff. Faced him for a couple years, was just happy to obviously extend the lead there, maybe save an arm or two in the bullpen.”