Redbirds’ reliever Harris called up by Cardinals

St. Louis has 8 hurlers in bullpen

The parent St. Louis Cardinals called up right-handed reliever Mitch Harris from the Redbirds on Saturday.

Harris, a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, has appeared in 16 games with the Cardinals this season. He has pitched 17⅓ innings with a 3.63 earned-run average.

“He’s been throwing well. We had a couple of guys down there throwing pretty good,” Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said. “More than anything, you can tell we’ve been working our bullpen pretty hard, especially in the back end when you look at (Kevin) Siegrist and (Trevor Rosenthal) both.”

Harris had been optioned to Memphis two weeks ago when the Cardinals called up Xavier Scruggs and infielder Greg Garcia. Garcia was sent to Memphis again Saturday. He was hitting .417 in 10 appearances with the Cardinals.

The move was the Cardinals’ third player transaction in three days and leaves the club with a fourman bench and an eight-man bullpen.

In the first seven games of the current homestand, the bullpen pitched 23 innings. Siegrist and Rosenthal appeared in five games, and Seth Maness in four.