Piscotty gets first big-league hit as ‘experiment’ begins
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CHICAGO • As he spent the winter exploring how to tap more power from his swing, Cardinals rookie Stephen Piscotty referred to his work as “an experiment.”
The Cardinals could say the same about him.
Piscotty, 24, made his major-league debut Tuesday night at U.S. Cellular, starting for the Cardinals in left field and batting ninth.
He got his first hit, an infield single in the fourth inning, when White Sox third baseman Tyler Saladino couldn’t make the play on a hard-hit ground ball.
Manager Mike Matheny acknowledged that having access to the designated hitter at the American League park influenced the decision to promote Piscotty, and that in the coming games the Cardinals will see how well Piscotty handles first base and how his bat translates to the majors. He’s up to play, but where and for how long is an unknown.
“If it got to a point where he wasn’t getting the playing time, we’d have to change course,” Matheny said. “Right now, we really don’t even know what we’re looking at. We still need to see him at first base. For us, this is a great time for him to get acclimated to the big leagues and do it in ... the outfield. That spot is going to be hard to come by once we leave an AL city and (Matt) Holliday is full go.”
The Cardinals promoted Piscotty from Class AAA Memphis on Tuesday afternoon, and it took two other roster moves to get him to the majors. To clear a spot on the 40-man roster, the Cardinals designated Triple-A infielder Ty Kelly for assignment. The other 29 big-league teams will have a chance to claim him on waivers. For Piscotty to join the active roster in the majors, the Card sent outfielder Tommy Pham to Memphis.
Piscotty, the 36th pick in 2012, has hit .272 with a .475 slugging percentage for Memphis this season, and his 11 home runs already were more than he had last season and in 180 fewer at-bats. His slugging percentage has risen each month of this season, climbing to .500 in June and .511 before his promotion. That is the result of what Class AAA manager Mike Shildt referred to as Piscotty’s “bold risk.”
A high-average hitter headed for the majors, Piscotty reworked his swing this winter to see if he could hit for more damage, as would be expected from a right fielder.
The risk “was part of the excitement of it,” Piscotty said Tuesday. “It’s one thing to be complacent about where you are. I really felt like I had some potential that was untapped. I wanted to see if it was there. I knew I had the ability, but it wasn’t consistent. I wanted to take that risk and hopefully have it pay off.”
The Cardinals intend to give him the at-bats to find out.
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