JJ Wetherholt’s Little League Grand Slam Lifts Cardinals Over Padres 6-0
May 8, 2026; San Diego, California, USA; St. Louis Cardinals second baseman JJ Wetherholt (26) scores during the fifth inning against the San Diego Padres at Petco Park. Mandatory Credit: Denis Poroy-Imagn Images | Denis Poroy-Imagn Images It was an electric night in San Diego as a brilliant start by Michael McGreevy and a “Little League grand slam” from JJ Wetherholt led the St.
Louis Cardinals to another victory over the San Diego Padres. It would be easy to start drawing some conclusions that are likely overreactions from Friday night’s game between the St. Louis Cardinals and San Diego Padres.
Let’s start with the possibility that Michael McGreevy is the current ace of the Cardinals staff. He held the Padres hitless until the bottom of the 4th inning when Jackson Merrill managed a single off of him. It’s also probably too early to start thinking of the Cardinals as a team of destiny but there was another sign that might be the case based on what happened in the top half of the 5th inning.
For the first 4 innings, Ivan Herrera was the only Cardinal with a hit (and he had four of them on the night), but it wasn’t until the 5th inning that the Cardinals started mounting a serious threat (which they followed through on admirably). Masyn Winn singled to start off the top of the 5th. Nathan Church reached on an infield single and Masyn advanced to second.
After Prieto struck out, Victor Scott II drew a walk to load the bases and that brought up JJ Wetherholt who did not disappoint. In typical JJ fashion, he did something productive that turned into a play that broke the game open. On the third pitch of his at-bat, he ripped a single to right field which went under the glove of Fernando Tatis Jr.