Siegrist solid in Palm Beach debut

St. Louis pitching prospect Kevin Siegrist was not able to move to the top of baseball's win column Sunday, but there were still a few positives to take from his Florida State League debut.

Siegrist allowed one run on three hits and two walks while striking out five over six innings in his first Class A Advanced start as the Palm Beach Cardinals rallied to beat the St. Lucie Mets, 3-2.

The left-hander, who also hit two batters, was 8-1 with a 1.15 ERA over nine appearances -- including eight starts -- before his promotion on Wednesday.

Selected in the 41st round of the 2008 Draft, Siegrist leads the Minors in wins and shares the No. 1 spot for the most victories in all of professional baseball this year with the Blue Jays' Roy Halladay, the Giants' Kevin Correia and the Brewers' Yovani Gallardo. He also was topping the Midwest League in ERA and had allowed the fifth-fewest baserunners per nine innings (8.88).

Siegrist did not allow a hit through the first four frames of his Palm Beach debut. He kept the ball in the infield until Travis Ozga broke up his no-hit bid in the fifth inning, and he lost his shutout four batters later when Juan Lagares poked a two-out base hit to left field with runners on the corners. He then worked around a two-out single in the sixth before turning over a 2-1 lead to the bullpen.

Stefan Welch tied the game off Jesse Simpson with his seventh homer of the year in the eighth to cost Siegrist his ninth win.

Xavier Scruggs gave the Cardinals a walk-off victory in the ninth with a bases-loaded infield single off Jeffrey Kaplan (1-4). Kaplan did not record an out.