Saturday’s Game Report: Cardinals 8, Cubs 4
By Rob Rains
Even in his wildest dreams, Javier Baez never imagined that his major-league debut would turn out the way that it did on Saturday.
You don’t even dream about doing something that’s never been done in the history of the game.
Baez, recalled from Triple A by the Cardinals before the game against the Cubs at Wrigley Field, hit the first pitch he saw for a two-run homer in the first inning. That was just the start of his historic day.
In his second at-bat leading off the fourth inning, the count went to 3-2 before Baez launched a second home run, joining a very small group of players to homer in their first two career at-bats or to hit two homers in their MLB debut.
History came in his third at-bat in the sixth inning when Baez hit another two-run homer, his third of the game. Nobody had ever homered in their first three major-league plate appearances, and nobody had ever homered three times in their debut.
“It’s unreal … I really can’t put it into words,” Baez told Cardinals TV in a postgame interview. “I had no idea I was going to be able to hit three home runs in one game. It’s surreal right now.”
Playing in front of a sold-out crowd that included 30 family members and friends, Baez received a standing ovation when he finally made the first out of his career, on a fly ball to left in the eighth inning.
Only two players, including former Cardinal Keith McDonald, had homered in their first two career at-bats. Only eight players before had homered twice in their debut in MLB history.
Baez was leading Triple A with 34 homers before he was promoted, including a four-homer game.
His three homers, plus homers from Blaze Jordan and Alec Burleson, led the Cardinals to the victory.
Here is how Saturday’s game broke down:
At the plate: The first homer from Baez, to left center, was measured at 449 feet the third longest at Wrigley this season. According to ESPN, it was the longest home run by a player on the first pitch of his career since 2008, when the pitch-tracking era began … The last Cardinal to homer on the first pitch of his career was Adam Wainwright in 2006 … The second homer from Baez was to left field and his third homer was to right … The five RBI from Baez equaled the Cardinals’ record for most RBIs in a debut, done previously by Joe Cunningham in 1954 … Jordan hit his second homer of the season in the sixth and Alec Burleson capped the team’s five-homer game with his 20th of the year in the eighth … The Cardinals had only seven hits in the game, five of them home runs.
On the mound: Michael McGreevy allowed three runs over his six innings, all coming on a home run by Michael Conforto in the second inning. All of the runs were unearned because of a two-out fielding error by Jordan that extended the inning … The other run for the Cubs came in the eighth off Ryne Stanek.
Key stat: Baez became only the third Cardinal to hit three home runs in a game at Wrigley, joining Matt Carpenter who did it in 2018, and Albert Pujols, who did it twice, in 2004 and in 2010.
Worth noting: McDonald’s two home runs in his first two at-bats in 2000 both came as a pinch-hitter, in separate games … This was the first five-homer game for the Cardinals at Wrigley since 2022 … Baez was the first Cardinals position player to make his debut at Wrigley Field as a starter since Kolten Wong in 2013 … The only other Cardinal to homer while making his MLB debut at Wrigley was Ken Boyer in 1955 … To make room for Baez on the roster, Cesar Prieto was optioned to Memphis.
Up next: Hunter Dobbins will get the start on Sunday in the final game of the series. It will be televised by ABC with the first pitch scheduled for 2:15 p.m.
Follow Rob Rains on X @RobRains
