Starter John Gant pitched three strong innings for the Cardinals, allowing just one run, which wouldn’t have scored if the Cardinals had been able to turn a double play. Gant’s final out, his only strikeout, was a high-fastball whiff of Carlos Correa with a runner at third and two outs in the third. Gant threw a spring high of 53 pitches.
Ironically, Hurst, the Cardinals’ third-round choice out of California-Fullerton in the 2017 draft, in essence, was the Cardinals’ first pick that year because the first- and second-round choices had gone to Houston in the infamous hacking scandal.