'We needed it': No. 8 prospect Graceffo saves 'pen in MLB debut

ST. LOUIS -- For his very first Major League assignment, Gordon Graceffo was asked to retire one of the hottest hitters on the planet.

With a third-inning double against St. Louis starter Sonny Gray, Jonathan India had already extended two streaks in Saturday’s eventual 9-4 loss at Busch Stadium -- he’d extended his hitting streak to 11 and his doubles streak to seven. Heading into his fifth-inning at-bat against Graceffo, India was hitting a robust .513 in his past 45 plate appearances, and Graceffo knew it.

“Definitely,” he said with a laugh. “They had all the scouting reports ready for us.”

The Cardinals needed Graceffo, their No. 8 prospect per MLB Pipeline, not only to stop the bleeding in that fifth inning -- Cincinnati had already scored six runs and India was up with a runner on second base -- but they needed him to keep the game from spiraling into a bullpen-draining parade of relievers.

With the Reds ahead 8-1 and the Cardinals playing their sixth game in five days, bullpen preservation was very much an issue. The rookie was undaunted by the assignment, even though he admitted he didn’t feel his legs running in from the bullpen, and he didn’t hear anything -- cheering, music, anything -- on that jog. He was able to focus when the moment mattered most.

Graceffo got India to ground out to end the inning, and then proceeded to give his fellow pitchers the rest of the afternoon off, too. Graceffo pitched 4 1/3 innings in his MLB debut, striking out four while allowing three hits.

“Awesome. We needed it, right?” manager Oli Marmol said. “That’s why he’s here, to pick up innings like the ones he did and help us stay away from the rest of our 'pen, to keep the guys fresh for tomorrow. To be quite honest, we’re on fumes.”

Graceffo struck out the second batter he faced, Elly De La Cruz -- Graceffo’s first K in the Majors -- but then walked back-to-back hitters. Potential trouble for a rookie, but he righted the ship.

“He was able to stay in the moment and kind of regroup, not let anything speed him up, which is good to see,” Marmol said. “You want to see how he reacts to those types of situations. I thought he handled it extremely well.”

In his first big league appearance, the right-hander from Villanova delivered the longest relief appearance by any Cardinals pitcher this season. It’s the longest relief appearance in a debut for a Cardinals pitcher since John Martin pitched seven innings in relief against the Astros on Aug. 27, 1980.

“That was big for us,” Gray said. “Puts us in a position to have some fresh arms tomorrow and have a chance to come out of here with a split.”

Graceffo, a fifth-round pick in the 2021 MLB Draft, threw 67 pitches, 44 for strikes. He recorded 11 whiffs.

“I try not to look at stats,” he said. “Anything I’m working on, I try and let the hitter tell me if it’s working or not. That’s the biggest test. I try not to dwell too much on the numbers.”

The Cardinals were thrilled with his numbers on Saturday. Graceffo has been a starter at Triple-A Memphis, and aside from a couple hiccup starts, has been solid over the past two months. He had back-to-back seven-inning starts in May with only one run allowed, and he had a 2.05 ERA in his final four starts before getting the call to the Majors.

Overall, he had a 3.84 ERA in 14 starts for Memphis, an improvement over his 2023 showing at the same level, when he had a 4.92 ERA in 21 games (18 starts).

“It’s just about trusting the process, getting more comfortable with my mechanics every day,” said Graceffo, who turned 24 in March. “And just trying to stay consistent and trying not to think about coming up here and the next step, just trying to stay within myself and take it one day at a time.”