With his family in attendance, Jimmy Crooks achieved two important milestones on Sunday at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati.
The St. Louis Cardinals’ No. 6 prospect (according to MLB Pipeline) made his first Major League start and delivered. In the seventh inning, he took a sweeper down the middle 384 ft. to right field for a home run—marking his first MLB hit.
Crooks, a rookie catcher, was called up on Friday from Triple-A Memphis after Yohel Pozo entered concussion protocol, and he actually caught the final two innings of that night’s 7-5 win in 10 innings. But he didn’t come to the plate until making the starting lineup on Sunday.
Crooks’ first career homer
Crooks’ blast came against reliever Sam Moll during his third Major League at-bat. He quickly went down 0-2 but took three straight balls to bring the count full.
Moll then mistakenly threw his signature sweeper in the middle of the zone, and Crooks didn’t miss.
“I had a pretty good first two at-bats, and they didn’t go my way,” he said, per MLB.com’s John Denton. “So I just stuck with it. We knew a lefty was coming in, and we loved his sweeper, so we kind of stuck with the game plan. And [he] threw it in the go zone, and I swung.”
“I thought he handled it really well,” manager Oli Marmol said of Crooks’ first MLB start. “And then good to see him hit the homer, stay on that pitch. Overall, even when he came into the game Friday–that was a big part of the game–he came in late and he kept his cool. He was under control and handled it perfectly.”
Second baseman Cesar Prieto also made his first MLB start on Sunday, recording his first Major League hit on an infield single in the ninth inning. But Prieto also made an error that led to three runs when he couldn’t cleanly field a grounder in the second.
The Cardinals will continue to evaluate their young talent on Tuesday against the Athletics at Busch Stadium. St. Louis dropped the series opener earlier today.
