{"id":859569,"date":"2026-08-15T23:52:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T23:52:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/859569\/"},"modified":"2026-08-15T23:52:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T23:52:12","slug":"joshua-baez-first-player-to-homer-in-first-three-at-bats-in-the-majors-leads-cardinals-past-cubs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/859569\/","title":{"rendered":"Joshua B\u00e1ez first player to homer in first three at-bats in the majors, leads Cardinals past Cubs"},"content":{"rendered":"

CHICAGO (AP) \u2014 Joshua B\u00e1ez became the first player to hit three home runs in his first three at-bats in the major leagues, leading the St. Louis Cardinals<\/a> to an 8-4 victory over the Chicago Cubs<\/a> on Saturday.<\/p>\n

The 23-year-old left fielder, called up from Triple-A Memphis earlier in the day, hit the first pitch he saw into the Wrigley Field bleachers, then homered in his next two at-bats. He also drove in five runs.<\/p>\n

Blaze Jordan<\/a> and Alec Burleson<\/a> added solo home runs to help the Cardinals win a day after dropping the opener of the three-game series.<\/p>\n

B\u00e1ez is the first St. Louis player to homer in his first career plate appearance since Lane Thomas<\/a> in June 2019.<\/p>\n

Michael Conforto<\/a> hit a three-run homer for the Cubs, who had won nine of 11.<\/p>\n

Michael McGreevy<\/a> (5-9) allowed three runs \u2014 all unearned \u2014 on five hits and two walks while striking out six in the first six innings to win for the first time since July 8.<\/p>\n

B\u00e1ez tagged Matthew Boyd<\/a> (8-2) for all three homers. He drove his first, a two-run shot, deep into the left-center field bleachers in the first inning.<\/p>\n

Conforto\u2019s home run tied the game at 3-all in the second, but B\u00e1ez led off the fourth and sent a full-count pitch down the left-field line, then went down the opposite side in the sixth for another two-run homer.<\/p>\n

Jordan\u2019s home run was the end of day for Boyd, who allowed seven runs on five hits and three walks in 5 1\/3 innings. He struck out two. <\/p>\n

Burleson homered off Colin Rea<\/a> in the eighth.<\/p>\n

Up next<\/p>\n

The series ends Sunday afternoon when the Cardinals send Hunter Dobbins<\/a> (2-3, 3.40 ERA) against fellow right-hander Edward Cabrera<\/a> (5-4, 5.10). Cabrera (left hamstring strain) will be making his first start since June 23.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

See AP\u2019s full MLB coverage here <\/p>\n

The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHICAGO (AP) \u2014 Joshua B\u00e1ez became the first player to hit three home runs in his first three…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":859570,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":["post-859569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/859569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=859569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/859569\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/859570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=859569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=859569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=859569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}