This pitcher thought the baseball felt different. Turns out it was a BP ball

JUPITER, Fla. -- As Michael McGreevy prepared to face his first batter of the spring, he noticed something different about the baseball in his hand.

It was all scuffed up.

He threw it away and got another. Same issue.

“I'm like, ‘OK, this is what we're dealing with,’” McGreevy said.

Three pitches later, Marlins leadoff hitter Jakob Marsee ripped a cutter over the right-field wall for a home run. Not exactly the start McGreevy was hoping for.

“The umpire comes up to me, like, ‘Are the balls just slick?’” McGreevy said. “I'm like, ‘Dude, I think we're using the wrong bucket of balls. There are scuffs; these balls are messed up on all of them.’”

Home-plate umpire Lance Barksdale rolled a couple of balls to the Cardinals’ dugout, where manager Oliver Marmol and special assistant Yadier Molina immediately noticed the problem: McGreevy was given batting practice balls.

“We were like, ‘That ain’t right,’” Marmol said. “They were definitely marked up.”

“They were using the wrong bucket of balls,” McGreevy said. “We weren't using gamers for that first batter. It’s not an excuse -- well, it kind of is, but it's really not -- it was just something to laugh about.”

Prior to the game, Marmol had discussed McGreevy’s ability to move past in-game adversity, a trait not typically found in 25-year-old players with less than one year of big league service time.

“He doesn't seem bothered by a whole lot, and that's really cool to see out of a young guy,” Marmol said. “It's not that things don't bother him, but he stays locked in. Everyone is going to experience something throughout the course of the game that throws you off; the skill is to refocus, and he does that really quickly.”

That’s what McGreevy did during Monday's 5-4 win against Miami, retiring the next three Marlins following the home run.

“You can laugh about the batting practice balls versus the gamers, you could laugh that it was just a terrible pitch and [say], ‘Wow, welcome to spring again and here we go, way to start off the year,’” McGreevy said. “I think if you don't have poise and control, then your defense feels like they don't have a strong guy on the mound. I want the guys behind me to know that I have everything under control. If they know that I do, then they should as well.”

“It’s not feeling sorry for yourself,” Marmol said. “Just staying present is something I really do feel like he's done well or has shown in the past. That's a good example of it, because you can easily start to speed up and try to do more on the next pitch rather than just do what you need to do.”

A leadoff single by Connor Norby in the second didn’t faze McGreevy, either, as he sat down the next three batters to finish his two innings of work. He allowed one run on two hits, striking out two to get his Grapefruit League season officially underway.

“I've had such great coaches that have taught me a lot, just about controlling your emotions when you're on the mound, trying to be a flatliner,” McGreevy said. “You could be stoked about something good, you could be pissed about something bad, but you just can't show it.”

McGreevy is expected to fill one of the spots in the Cardinals’ rotation this season, though the right-hander isn’t taking anything for granted. Not after last spring, when a 1.08 ERA over 16 2/3 innings (five appearances, four starts) wasn’t enough to earn a spot on the Opening Day roster.

“I've been joking with guys that I can go be perfect out there and I still won't make the team, like I felt like I was last year,” McGreevy said. “Hell, I might give up 100 homers this spring and I might make the team. It’s really not my decision, because if it was up to me, I'd be in St Louis.

“Everyone's always like, ‘You're penciled in there.’ I thought I was pretty much penciled in last year. I’m not being a disgruntled employee at all -- that's fine. I thought I did a good job handling that last year. Nothing is guaranteed. I think if I play the way that I play and be the player that I know I am, I’ll have a good shot. I just want to continue building to be the best pitcher I can be.”