With family watching, Crooks homers for 1st hit in the bigs

CINCINNATI -- Jimmy Crooks made sure Sunday that the family, friends and former coaches that came to Great American Ball Park from parts far and wide to see his first Major League start were rewarded with a day to remember.

The rookie catcher, called up Friday from Triple-A Memphis after Yohel Pozo entered concussion protocol, homered in his third Major League at-bat against Cincinnati reliever Sam Moll.

The milestone moment for Crooks wasn’t enough to allow the Cardinals to reach .500 for the first time since Aug. 13 and overtake the Reds for third in the NL Central.

The Cardinals dropped the series finale, 7-4, in Cincinnati, but they still took two of three in the weekend series.

Crooks, who finished 1-for-4 with a homer and two strikeouts, actually saw his first action in Friday night’s 7-5 win in 10 innings when he caught the final two innings but did not come to the plate. Included in the Crooks entourage was Jimmy’s brother Dylan, a 15th-round pick of the Rockies this summer.

Mom, dad and coaches from the nearby Midland Redskins -- a highly respected amateur baseball development program -- were also on hand on the third-base side. In all, eight people comprised the Crooks fan club at GABP.

“We had family, friends and then a couple of other coaches that I work with on with the Redskins here, so they're family to me, so the fact they made it here and got to experience this with me -- it was kind of sick,” Crooks said.

With the lefty reliever Moll and his sweeper coming into the game to start the seventh in relief of Brady Singer, Crooks knew what to look for. He worked the count full and waited on Moll’s trademark pitch and then timed it perfectly.

“I had a pretty good first two at-bats, and they didn't go my way,” Crooks said. “So I just stuck with it. We knew a lefty was coming in, and we loved his sweeper, so we kind of stuck with the game plan. And [he] threw it in the go zone, and I swung.”

“I thought he handled it really well,” skipper Oliver Marmol said of Crooks’ first Major League start. “And then good to see him hit the homer, stay on that pitch. Overall, even when he came into the game [Friday] -- that was a big part of the game -- he came in late and he kept his cool. He was under control and handled it perfectly.”

Also making his first MLB start for the Cardinals before the 27,238 on hand in Cincinnati was second baseman César Prieto, who, like Crooks, got his first MLB taste in Friday night’s win. Prieto earned his first MLB hit by beating out an infield grounder in the ninth, but he also committed a costly error that opened the door for a three-run Cincinnati second.

The Reds wiped out an early 2-0 St. Louis lead with three unearned runs in the second, and then took the lead for good in the fifth on Austin Hays’ two-run homer to left off starter Andre Pallante (6-13).

Pallante, who lost his sixth straight start, was tagged for five runs -- but just two earned -- on six hits over five innings with the rookie Crooks behind the plate.

“We talked a good bit,” Pallante said. “He had been up here for two days before that, so we were able to talk and kind of get across the plan that we wanted to do. I felt like it's even more difficult in a situation where I'm still trying to figure out what I'm trying to do out there and I'm making adjustments.

“And then to have a catcher also out there. But I felt like he handled it great. I thought that was awesome to see him hitting his first home run. Awesome. I think he's going to be a big part of what we're trying to build here.”

Pallante was charged with three unearned runs in the second when Prieto couldn’t field a Gavin Lux grounder to second cleanly, opening the door for a Ke’Bryan Hayes two-run single.

“The error kind of leads to some runs there, and he wasn't able to limit some of that damage,” Marmol said. “But at the end of the day, I think you're continuing to give opportunity, and you're finding out what he's capable of doing and not capable of doing."