ST. LOUIS — St. Louis rookie Juan Yepez did something in Kansas City on Wednesday that had never been done in 141 seasons of Cardinals baseball.
Yepez went 2 for 3 with two doubles in his Major League debut. Per the team, he's the first player in Cardinals history to hit two doubles in their first MLB game.
STL Sports Page's Rob Rains went a step further. According to Rains, Yepez is just the third player in team history to have two extra-base hits in their MLB debut. Bo Hart had a double and a triple in his debut in 2003, and Al Grabowski had a double and a triple in his debut in 1929.
Yepez was added to the Cardinals' roster on Tuesday after infielder Edmundo Sosa was moved to the 10-day IL.
This wasn't the first time Yepez had been called up to the Cardinals, but it is the first time he got into a game. The team carried him on their bench for the one-game NL Wild Card game against the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 2021 postseason.
Before getting the call to join the Cardinals this season, Yepez was hitting .279 with a .974 OPS and nine home runs in Memphis through 22 games. For his career in parts of seven seasons in the minors, Yepez is a .274 hitter with 62 home runs and 289 RBIs in nearly 500 games. Last season, Yepez hit 27 home runs and drove in 77 runs between stints at double-A Springfield and triple-A Memphis.
Yepez, 24, is currently ranked as the Cardinals' sixth-best prospect by MLB.com.
The Cardinals beat the Royals 10-0 on Wednesday to split the two-game series against their in-state rivals.
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