By MATT PIKE
The St. Louis Cardinals were held to just five hits, and managed just eight total baserunners, as their offense was stymied by the Detroit Tigers in the Redbirds first road matchup of the season, falling 4-0 at Comerica Park.
St. Louis got their first hit of the game in the third inning, a single by Victor Scott II, and did manage to get the center fielder into scoring position at third base on a single by Masyn Winn. But with two outs, Winn would get thrown out at second base on a ground ball by Iván Herrera to end the inning. In the fourth inning, Tigers starter Framber Valdez walked the bases loaded, but again escaped as José Fermín flew out to right field.
Detroit got on the board in the bottom of the fourth. After Riley Greene hit a one out double, Dillon Dingler hit his second home run of the season, marking the first runs of the season given up by Cardinals starter Michael McGreevy. McGreevy surrendered a single to Zack McKinstry but then settled in to get the final two outs of the inning, lleaving the Tigers up 2-0 at the end of four.
Detroit added another run in the fifth inning. Kevin McGonigle hit his third double of the season with one out, but ended up being thrown out at third as Gleyber Torres hit a ball back to McGreevy. With two outs, McGreevy was replaced by Justin Bruihl, and immediatly the Tigers struck against Bruihl, with back to back singles by Kerry Carpenter and Greene, Greene's hit driving in Torres to give Detroit a 3-0 lead.
The final run scored in the sixth inning as George Soriano hit Parker Meadows with a pitch and Meadows stole second, later scoring on a single from Javier Báez. The Cardinals did threaten again in the eighth inning as Herrera singled and Alec Burleson walked, but Nolan Gorman would strike out, Jordan Walker grounded into a force out, with Herrera being thrown out at third, and Yohel Pozo grounded out for the final out of the inning. St. Louis would go on to go 1-2-3 in the ninth inning to end the game.
McGreevy took the loss, falling to 0-1 on the season, pitching 4.2 innings and giving up three runs on seven hits while striking out four. At the plate, five Cardinals had one hit each. Herrera, Thomas Saggese, and Burleson were each 1-for-3 with a walk.
St. Louis and Detroit continue their series tomorrow. Dustin May (0-1, 13.50 ERA, 3K's) will get the start for the Cardinals looking to turn things around as he takes on former Redbird Jack Flaherty (0-1, 4.15 ERA, 2K's) for the Tigers. First pitch is at 12:10pm on Saturday, pregame will begin near the start at noon on KY 102 (102.5FM).
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