Giants 0 - 2 Cardinals
Final
  for this game

Taveras homers in MLB debut as Cards blank Giants

Jun 1, 2014 - 1:01 AM St. Louis, MO (SportsNetwork.com) - Oscar Taveras homered in his MLB debut, Michael Wacha tossed six scoreless innings and the St. Louis Cardinals beat the San Francisco Giants, 2-0, on Saturday.

Taveras went 1-for-3 for the Cardinals, who had lost the first two contests of this four-game series. The left-handed hitting 21-year-old started in right field and batted sixth.

"I'll say that was a huge boost for us," said St. Louis manager Mike Matheny about Taveras. "What a great day for him, one I'm sure he won't forget and neither will we."

Rated by Baseball America as the club's top prospect each of the past two years, Taveras became the first Cardinals player to homer in his first MLB game since Steven Hill on Aug. 15, 2010.

Wacha (4-3) improved to 4-0 at home this season after giving up three hits and striking out seven.

Yusmeiro Petit (3-3) allowed one run on two hits with five strikeouts over six innings for the Giants, who had a four-game winning streak snapped. Petit started in place of the injured Matt Cain, who was placed on the 15-day disabled list with a right hamstring strain.

"He did a great job and threw the ball very well," said San Francisco manager Bruce Bochy about Petit. "It was a close ball game, we just couldn't do anything offensively."

Saturday's game featured two separate rain delays totaling one hour, 38 minutes.

Rain began to fall heavily during Taveras' at-bat with one out in the fifth. The first delay occurred after Taveras cleared the wall in right for a 1-0 Cardinals lead.

The Giants had a chance to get on the board in the sixth. With men on the corners and two outs, Michael Morse struck out swinging to end the inning.

St. Louis pitcher Sam Freeman tossed a scoreless seventh following the second delay of the contest.

The Cardinals scored a run off George Kontos in the bottom half of the frame. Allen Craig led off with a single, stole second and raced home on Jhonny Peralta's double to left.

Pat Neshek tossed a scoreless eighth and Trevor Rosenthal pitched a perfect ninth to secure his 16th save of the season.

Game Notes

Taveras was hitting a team-best .325 in 49 games with Memphis and totaled seven homers and 40 RBI ... Giants catcher Buster Posey missed his third straight game with tightness in his lower back.






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