The Springfield Cardinals, which won the Texas League title in 2025 while boasting a roster with current Cardinals Joshua Baez and Leo Bernal, advanced to the Texas League championship series by beating Tulsa 2-0 in the North Division series.
Texas League champions in 2025, the Springfield Cardinals – the Double-A affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals – are headed back to the championship series to try and defend their title.
Sparked by the power of surging prospect Jesús Báez, the swing-and-miss stuff of left-handed pitcher Liam Doyle and more clutch hitting from Jack Gurevitch, Springfield rallied back Tulsa (Dodgers) 6-4 to capture the Texas League North Division title and advance to the championship round.
The Cardinals are still awaiting their opponent for the best-of-three championship round as Amarillo (Dbacks) scored five times in the eighth and ninth innings to beat Frisco (Rangers) and force a Game 3.
Springfield won the Texas League title in 2025 with current Cardinals' rookies Josha Baez and Leo Bernal on their roster. Less than a year later, those two standouts reached the big leagues with stellar starts to their MLB careers.
Báez, who hit 25 homers in 61 games with Springfield after being promoted from High-A Peoria, homered for the second time in as many playoff games. Báez, 21, hit 39 homers during the regular season and his 40th homer came on Tuesday night as Springfield won in walk-off fashion. The infielder was acquired by the Cardinals in the 2025 trade with the Mets centered around closer Ryan Helsley.
Doyle, the No. 5 pick in the 2025 MLB Draft, struck out eight and allowed just one run over 3 2/3 innings of work. The hard-throwing left-hander, who has been dealing with blister issues on his left hand in recent weeks, threw 86 pitches and 45 strikes.
Doyle was named the Cardinals’ Minor League Pitcher of the Month on Friday. He went 3-0 with a 1.31 ERA (three earned runs in 20 2/3 innings). Incredibly, Doyle struck out 37.2 percent of the batters he face and allowed one earned run or fewer in all four of his starts. He posted the first three-game winning streak of his professional career and allowed just two extra-base hits over the four-start stretch.
Gurevitch, a third-round pick in the 2025 MLB Draft by the Cardinals, had an opposite-field, RBI double to give Springfield a 4-3 lead in the eighth inning. The 22-year-old product of the University of San Diego hit .283 with a .902 OPS and 32 homers and 96 RBI in three levels of Minor League Baseball in 2026 (Class-A Palm Beach, High-A Peoria and Double-A Springfield).
The Cardinals defeated Tulsa 2-0 despite a relatively quiet series from budding star catcher/first baseman Rainiel Rodriguez, the top-ranked prospect in the Cards’ Minor League system. Rodriguez went hitless on Thursday and went 2 for 9 in the two games with a walk and a strikeout.
Rodriquez, 19, was named the Cardinals’ Minor League Hitter of the Month after slashing and eye-popping .393/.440/.809/.1.249 with nine homers, 10 doubles and 22 RBI in 21 games. His month was also highlighted by a 15-game hitting streak, a nine-game RBI streak and back-to-back multi-homer games on Aug. 23 and 25.
Hard-throwing right-handed pitcher Daniel Eagen, acquired from the Dbacks in the Trade Deadline deal centered around outfielder Lars Nootbaar, picked up the Game 2 victory on Thursday night. The 6-foot-4 Eagen allowed a hit and two earned runs on Thursday over three innings, but he also struck out five hitters. He fanned 157 hitters in 122 innings in the regular season in Double-A.
