Tag Archives: Greg Garcia

Welcome, Welcome, Welcome: Cardinals Add Three To Roster

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The St. Louis Cardinals announced today that they that they have added three additional players to their active roster with rookie infielder Greg Garcia, outfielder Tommy Pham and right-handed pitcher Sam Tuivailala (pronounced TOO-ee-vah-lah-la) being promoted from the Memphis (AAA) roster.

St_Louis_Cardinals_1998-present_logoTo make room for the additional players on their 40-man Major League roster, the Cardinals designated catcher Audry Perez and outfielder Rafael Ortega for assignment. The Cardinals active roster currently stands at 36 players.

Garcia, 25, will be making his third appearance of the season with the Cardinals, while both Pham, 26, and Tuivailala, 21, will be making their Major League debuts with their first game appearances.

The right-handed hitting Garcia, who has appeared in nine games with the Cardinals this season, finished the 2014 minor league campaign with a .275 batting average, eight home runs and 41 RBI in 110 games between Memphis (AAA) and Springfield (AA). Garcia was drafted by the Cardinals in the 7th round (229th player overall) of the 2010 draft out of the University of Hawaii, where he was teammates with Kolten Wong. Continue reading →

Cardinals Recall Kolten Wong From Memphis

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Greg Garcia’s reward for getting the walk-off-hit-by-pitch in last night’s Cardinals win? A trip back to Memphis. The better news, however: Kolten Wong is back (even though he never should have left). Here’s the news release from the Cardinals.

Kolten WongThe St. Louis Cardinals announced today that second baseman Kolten Wong has been recalled from Memphis (AAA) and that infielder Greg Garcia has been optioned to the triple-A club.

Wong, who was on the Cardinals Opening Day roster for the first time, was optioned to Memphis on April 27 and turned in a stellar performance for the Redbirds, batting .344 (22-for-64) with two home runs and 10 RBI in 15 games. The left-handed hitting Wong was 6-for-16 (.375 BA) with runners in scoring position and he was a perfect 5-for-5 in stolen base attempts.

Wong, 23, enjoyed a 4-hit, 4-RBI game yesterday against Round Rock, upping his batting mark over the past 10 games to .372. He hit safely in 13 of his 15 games for Memphis, including six multi-hit efforts.

In 20 games played for the Cardinals this season, Wong had a double and triple amongst his 16 hits (.225 BA) in addition to a team-high three stolen bases.

Garcia drew a bases loaded hit by pitch in the 12th inning last night for his first career major league RBI — the first time since 1974 that the Cardinals had won a game in walk-off fashion via a hit batsman.

Wong will report for tonight’s game (7:15 p.m. CDT) against the Chicago Cubs. He wears uniform no. 16.

UPDATE FROM THE CARDINALS:

Second baseman Kolten Wong, who was recalled from Memphis (AAA) today, reported to the ballpark earlier today suffering from stomach illness and was sent home in order to rest and recover. He is not expected to be available for tonight’s game.

Walk-Off Hit By Pitch? That’s So 2014 Cardinals

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In a thus far inconsistent and mediocre St. Louis Cardinals season …

GarciaWhen Adam Wainwright finally, sort of, maybe figured out the 2014 Cubs and only allowed two runs in six innings on a Luis Valbuena homer …

During a game when the Cardinals had the same number of strikeouts as hits (nine), were walked eight times and left 13 runners on base while scoring just three runs through 11 innings …

When Trevor Rosenthal finally did what was seeming inevitable and blew a save …

Yet the rest of the bullpen — Kevin Siegrist, Carlos Martinez, Sam Freeman in his 2014 debut, Pat Neshek, Seth Maness — combined to allow just one hit and no runs in five innings …

And, in the 12th inning, when the Cubs bullpen started to resemble what we would expect the Cubs bullpen to be with Justin Grimm walking Allen Craig and Yadi to load the bases with one out after Jhonny Peralta singled …

Up stepped Greg Garcia to pinch-hit. It was Garcia’s 14th plate appearance yet he had just 10 official at-bats, thanks to one walk and two hit-by-pitches.

He still has just 10 official at-bats, thanks to his third hit-by-pitch. Plus he now has his first RBI — and it’s a game-winning RBI.

Thank you, Justin Grimm. And thank you, Greg Garcia.

Whatever it takes to win.

Especially for the 2014 Cardinals.

7 Highlights From A 7-0 Win, Plus 2 Roster Moves

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Welcome back, Cardinals offense! You were greatly missed. Yes, it was definitely nice to see runs being scored — more Sunday, 7, as the Cardinals beat the Pirates 7-0, than they had in Wednesday through Saturday’s games combined — and even a home run for the first time in 366 at-bats since Allen Craig last launched one on April 16.

7And while things are starting to get better at the plate, just like Michael wrote they would on Saturday, one game is apparently not enough of a jumpstart, since two roster moves were announced late Sunday night. Promoted to the Cardinals are infielder Greg Garcia and outfielder Randal Grichuk and one of the subsequent demotions, Shane Robinson, is not a surprise. But the other is: Kolten Wong.

Wong was hitting .225 and hadn’t played since going 0 for 4 against the Pirates Friday night. And, courtesy of Rick Hummel in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, here’s a very interesting comment from general manager John Mozeliak:

“This will give him a chance to play every day and if he gets back on track, that would be helpful,” said Mozeliak.

Hmmmmm.

Back to yesterday, in addition to the offense, it’s always good to see Adam Wainwright be Adam Wainwright, isn’t it? Here’s more on him and six other highlights from the series-winning victory.

1. The Cards manufacturing a first-inning run
Matt Carpenter did a very Matt Carpenter-like thing (guys doing what they typically do was a theme of the day) and doubled to lead off the game for the Cardinals. While there was plenty of Twitter outrage when Jon Jay then bunted him over to third base, the move immediately paid dividends: the Cards took a 1-0 lead on a Matt Holliday sacrifice fly. With the way the offense had been struggling, the move was understandable at the moment — regardless of opinions on Mike Matheny and his bunting strategies. Continue reading →