McGreevy sets up another Cards thriller with 6 hitless innings in '26 debut

ST. LOUIS -- Michael McGreevy had a day to remember on Saturday at Busch Stadium, spinning six no-hit innings against the Rays in his 2026 debut for the Cardinals.

After shuttling back and forth from Triple-A Memphis to St. Louis for the majority of the 2025 season, McGreevy dazzled in his first opportunity to be a part of an Opening Day roster, allowing zero hits with five strikeouts in six innings of work, walking just two batters along the way. He became the first Cardinals starter with a six-plus inning no-hit bid in his season debut since Daniel Ponce de Leon on July 23, 2018.

McGreevy had to share a bit of the spotlight with top prospect JJ Wetherholt, though. After the Rays forced extras with a four-run ninth, Wetherholt came through with a two-run single in the bottom of the 10th to give the Cards a 6-5 win on the first walk-off of his young career.

The no-hit bid was broken up by Junior Caminero when he singled off reliever Riley O’Brien in the seventh inning. McGreevy was pulled from the game after those six innings, having thrown 96 pitches.

“Changeup was great,” McGreevy said when asked what worked for him in his stellar outing. “That was a pitch I really tried to focus on this offseason, and it’s just something I can go to. Besides that second walk to [Jonathan] Aranda -- where I threw a changeup and kind of yanked it -- that was about the only one I was displeased with. ... Keeping their hitters off balance, using all seven of my pitches today, for both lefties and righties -- especially when they stack the lineup with lefties, good lefties at that -- I was very happy to keep them at bay.”

Left-handed hitters got the best of McGreevy in 2025, posting a .318 AVG and a .911 OPS against the young starter. On Saturday, McGreevy held Rays left-handers hitless in 13 at-bats in his epic performance.

Velocity was down a bit for McGreevy, which will be something to monitor in his upcoming starts. The right-hander ran into trouble during the fourth inning after Yandy Díaz reached on an error by third baseman Ramón Urías and Aranda followed with a walk, but he locked in to set down the next three batters and keep his no-hit bid intact.

McGreevy had to rely on his deep arsenal to get the job done. Outside of that threat in the sixth, the Rays were unable to put much pressure on the right-hander.

“Yeah, that’s the goal,” McGreevy said. “You don’t want to fall into patterns, and when you've got seven [pitches], it should be easy not to fall into patterns. If something's working, then go back to it. But just from being on the mound, it was a good mix of, ‘Hey I don’t think they know what is coming,’ minus a few pitches.”

The Cardinals' offense, meanwhile, spent much of Saturday leaning on small ball -- including in the first inning, when they took a 2-0 lead. Major questions have been raised about the lack of power potential in the Cardinals' lineup this year, making their ability to run the bases well and provide timely hitting paramount to putting up runs. Rays starter Joe Boyle held St. Louis hitless over the final five frames of his outing.

The Cards did plate two more runs in the eighth, but the bullpen gave up the lead in the top of the ninth and St. Louis fell behind 5-4 in the top of the 10th. But Wetherholt stole the show and saved McGreevy’s stellar outing with his walk-off heroics.

“Just the resolve of this team is incredible these first two games,” McGreevy said. “It’s always a bummer when you have a four-run lead and the other team puts together good at-bats to come back to tie it. But the vibe of the dugout never changed. It was always, ‘Hey, we got it.’ No one's down and out.

“We were down six the other day, and it was tied up this time, so great punch-back by our guys after they had a good punch-back, as well. It was just awesome to see.”