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ST. LOUIS -- In a baseball sense, Amir Garrett is indeed a rookie. But in a sports sense, when you've played big-time college basketball in Madison Square Garden and scored 15 points against Villanova, as he did four years ago, you aren't exactly a neophyte.
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"When I went out there," he said of his major league debut Friday night, "I felt like I'd been out here before. Just in a different sport."
In the patois of his old sport, Garrett hit nothing but net against the St. Louis Cardinals. He gave up just two hits and two walks in six scoreless innings Friday night, striking out four and pitching the Cincinnati Reds to a 2-0 win in Busch Stadium.
A former four-star hoops recruit who played two seasons at St. John's, Garrett switched to baseball after transferring to Cal State-Northridge with intentions of continuing his basketball career. Based on his first MLB game, the 6-foot-5, 228-pound Garrett might have made the right decision.
After walking Dexter Fowler to start the game, Garrett mowed down the next seven hitters with a good mix of fastballs, sliders and changeups. The only hits off him came from opposing pitcher Mike Leake and second baseman Kolten Wong. Both were singles, and no one reached scoring position.
"I wasn't as jittery as I thought I would be," Garrett said. "After I threw the first pitch, I took a couple of deep breaths and I thought, 'This is just another game.' I just pitched my game."
In helping Cincinnati improve to 3-1 with its third straight win, Garrett became the first Cincinnati rookie to work six scoreless innings since Wayne Simpson way back in 1970.
"It really comes down to the ability to throw the ball over the plate and get ahead," Reds manager Bryan Price said. "You create a bigger strike zone for the hitter if you do that. He had a good fastball going today and the best thing was, he never got himself in a big batch of trouble."
Garrett probably could have worked another inning, but Price felt 78 pitches were enough, so he went to his bullpen. Michael Lorenzen sailed through the seventh and Raisel Iglesias retired six of the seven men he faced, working around a two-out walk in the ninth to Matt Carpenter for his second save.
Victimized by Cincinnati's shutdown pitching was former Red Mike Leake (0-1), who fell to 0-3 against them despite an outing that would have been good enough to win most of his starts in 2016. Leake allowed only one run on six hits in eight innings, walking one and whiffing six.
But the one tiny crack in Leake's outing cost him. Billy Hamilton singled to start the sixth and promptly stole second, his 24th career swipe in 26 tries against catcher Yadier Molina. One out later, Joey Votto laced the first pitch into the right-field corner for a double that easily scored Hamilton for the only run Cincinnati required.
"It's a shame to lose a great start like that," St. Louis manager Mike Matheny said. "Leake was terrific. But we just couldn't get anything going offensively."
Scott Schebler tacked on ninth inning insurance for the Reds with his first homer, a two-out blast into the Cincinnati bullpen in left-center off reliever Kevin Siegrist.
It was the third straight loss for the Cardinals since an Opening Night win over the Chicago Cubs. They are batting only .188 in four games and have fanned 35 times.
But if this game is any indication, St. Louis might not be the only team that flails to no avail against the guy who's traded hoop dreams for diamond dust.
"This feels really good," Garrett summed up.
NOTES: Cincinnati OF Tyler Goeddel, who was claimed off waivers from Philadelphia Wednesday, cleared waivers Friday and was assigned to Triple-A Louisville. ... St. Louis manager Mike Matheny said Friday that RHP Trevor Rosenthal (right lat strain), who was scheduled to throw another bullpen session this weekend, might instead throw a simulated game on Saturday and then rejoin the team on its upcoming road trip. ... The Reds announced that RHP Bronson Arroyo will make the start Saturday in the middle game of the weekend series against Cardinals RHP Michael Wacha.
