The Windup Newsletter ⚾ | This is The Athletic’s MLB newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Windup directly in your inbox.A shutout, a cycle and a three-homer act. MLB was in prime form last night. Plus: The Cardinals and White Sox keep climbing the Power Rankings, the Giants might be open for business and CJ Abrams is becoming a true star in DC. I’m Levi Weaver — welcome to The Windup!About Last Night: These showings … bonkersWhat a night. Check out these performances last night:
Let’s start with Cardinals starter Dustin May, who throttled the Padres, 3-0. May took a perfect game into the seventh inning, eventually finishing his first career shutout by allowing just two baserunners — one hit and one walk — and striking out nine. Somehow, it was the first shutout at home for a Cardinals pitcher since Miles Mikolas in 2019.
That’s more recent than the drought Pete Crow-Armstrong snapped by hitting for the cycle. The last time a member of the Cubs hit one single, one double, one triple and one home run in a single game at Wrigley Field was Mark Grace in 1993. In fact, until Carson Kelly’s cycle last year, Grace was the last Cub to have hit for the cycle, period. The Cubs beat the Rockies 5-4.
