Brendan Donovan hit a solo home run in the third inning and added an RBI single two innings later, helping the St. Louis Cardinals defeat the San Francisco Giants 6-1 on Sunday. Alec Burleson contributed by driving in three runs for the Cardinals.
José Fermín also had an RBI single in the sixth, supporting rookie pitcher Michael McGreevy (3-0), who struck out six batters and allowed one run on five hits over eight strong innings.
Manager Oliver Marmol thought about letting McGreevy pitch the ninth inning, but he had already thrown 91 pitches. “It feels a heck of a lot better just going into the offseason with more positivity,” Marmol said. “But the way we did it was fun. McGreevy was excellent, went out and gave us eight, mixed well.”
Giants rookie pitcher Hayden Birdsong (5-6) struck out 10 of the first 15 Cardinals batters and finished with 11 strikeouts in his 16th start for San Francisco, just one short of his career high.
This was Birdsong’s second game with double-digit strikeouts after fanning 12 against Colorado on July 21.
He was replaced by Taylor Rogers after back-to-back RBI singles from Donovan and Burleson in the fifth inning. Burleson also had a two-run single in the sixth.
San Francisco ended the season with an 80-82 record, which was one win more than last year’s total of 79. This was manager Bob Melvin’s first season, and the Giants drew a total home attendance of 2,647,736 over 80 home games.
“Regardless of what our record was it was going to be disappointing based on what we felt like the team was all about to start the season,” Melvin said.
Brett Wisely got the Giants on the scoreboard with an RBI single in the seventh inning.
