Worth noting

• According to Joe Strohm, vice president of ticket sales, the Cardinals had already sold about 42,000 tickets for Thursday's game prior to the organization announcing that right-hander Michael Wacha would make his debut that night. The club sold another 1,000 tickets after the announcement, though Strohm surmised that there would have been a higher uptick in ticket sales had more tickets been available.

• Matheny said that the team's infielders noticed a difference in how the infield played post-soccer game, but added that none of them described the field conditions as inadequate. The grounds crew took away a layer of dirt and then replaced it with new dirt while the team was on the road last week so that Busch Stadium could host an English Premier League soccer match.

"[Head groundskeeper] Bill [Findley] had quite the task to disassemble and recreate it that fast," Matheny said. "I'm actually blown away that they were able to get it anything like it looks right now."

• Triple-A outfielder Justin Christian entered Thursday riding a 10-game hitting streak. Christian contributed a two-run homer in Memphis' 5-1 win on Wednesday.

• Busch Stadium played host to a press conference on Thursday afternoon during which the Royals introduced George Brett as their interim hitting coach. Brett played in Kansas City for the entirety of his 21-year career. During that time, he was on the 1985 club that defeated the Cardinals in the World Series.