ST. LOUIS -- A native of San Clemente, Calif., Michael McGreevy had all kind of emotions churning throughout his body over the last three days as he prepared to face a Dodgers franchise and a lefty legend in Clayton Kershaw that had been such fixtures of his formative years as a rising baseball talent.
As if that wasn’t enough for the 24-year-old McGreevy to contemplate, he also thought of another obstacle he’d be up against in his first MLB start of 2025 and his sixth big league game following his promotion from Triple-A Memphis.
“It was kind of like last year, first start of the year up here for me, and it’s against the defending World Champs, and I’m seeing a pattern there,” joked McGreevy, who made his MLB debut in 2024 against a Rangers team that won the World Series in 2023. “But you almost have to humanize guys like [Shohei Ohtani]. I mean, he’s the best player on the planet, but you just have to go right after him.”
McGreevy did just that on Sunday before 42,225 fans at Busch Stadium, and with the exception of a three-run second inning, the confident right-hander held his own against a Dodgers squad that avoided a sweep with a 7-3 win.
McGreevy limited the MVP trio of Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman and Ohtani and cleanup hitter Teoscar Hernández to 1-for-12 with two strikeouts. However, it was the bottom of the order -- specifically Will Smith (two hits), former Cardinal Tommy Edman (two hits, three RBIs) and Hyeseong Kim (two-RBI triple) -- who hurt him. Still, McGreevy limited the Dodgers to four earned runs and eight hits over six innings, while striking out five and walking none.
“They’re great hitters and they’re going to hit even your best pitches,” said McGreevy, who pointed out that the Statcast-measured 106.5 mph laser that Ohtani hit for a double on the first pitch of the game was a perfectly located fastball on the outside corner. “They’re really good hitters, but they will still get themselves out and I can get them out.”
Despite Sunday’s loss, Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol came away pleased with how his team battled in all three games against a proven Dodgers squad. The Cards won 5-0 on Friday and 2-1 on Saturday, and they have now won series against the Phillies (twice), Dodgers, Mets, Astros, Brewers, Royals, D-backs and Twins.
“You are learning and developing winning players, and that’s what I’m loving at the moment,” said Marmol, whose Cards are 21-17 against teams with .500-or-better records. “These guys are learning how to win. I’ve said it quite a bit -- that’s a good team across the way and [the Dodgers] felt us every inning of this series. Even up four [runs], you can feel it. That’s exactly the type of pressure and culture you want to create -- regardless of score and regardless of inning, they feel you coming. That’s exactly what this series was. I enjoyed the heck out of it.”
McGreevy also enjoyed going head-to-head with 37-year-old Clayton Kershaw, who might have been pitching at Busch Stadium for the final time in his 18-year MLB career. McGreevy found out on Friday that he would be facing Kershaw when his father sent him a screenshot picture of the matchup. To try and keep his routine as normal as possible, McGreevy worked out with his Triple-A teammates in Memphis on Friday and Saturday before making the four-hour drive to St. Louis.
In the second inning, McGreevy left a changeup up to Edman for an RBI single and his cutter was elevated to Kim, who tripled into the right-field corner for two more Dodgers runs.
Figuring out a better plan against left-handers is the next step of progression for McGreevy. This year, he'd held Minor League righties to a .232 average, while lefties had a .302 average.
“My initial sense of it is that the lefties hit the offspeed stuff, and I should have established the heater a little earlier than what I did,” he said. “That was the adjustment I made in the third [inning] when I was more four-seamer heavy. But, overall, that was a good adjustment.”