Rafael Furcal, acquired by the St. Louis Cardinals from the Los Angeles DOdgers at the MLB trade deadline, picked up his first hit in a Cardinals uniform Monday night, scoring moments later on a Matt Holliday home run. Furcal, whose base hit against Zack Greinke briefly brough his batting average over the Mendoza Line, drew a walk to reach base again in the Cardinals' series-opening loss against the first-place Brewers, who, having started Yuniesky Betancourt all year, were also connected to the shortstop at the deadline.
Furcal, who hit .300 in 97 games a year ago but was hitting just .197/.272/.248 on July 31, was acquired by the Cardinals in exchange for minor league outfielder Alex Castellanos, who went 0-4 with three strikeouts and a walk in his debut with the AA Southern League's Chattanooga Lookouts. Castellanos hit .319/.379/.562 with the Springfield Cardinals in 2011, a year after hitting .270/.339/.462 with the high-A Palm Beach Cardinals, and is best described as a less-toolsy version of Terry Evans, the enticing but ultimately expendable outfielder the Cardinals traded to get Jeff Weaver in 2006.