Cardinals' Michael Wacha is from Iowa City

UPDATE: Wacha had a beautiful first outing for the Cardinals, allowing just two hits and one run in seven innings, walking none and striking out six. But the Cardinals' bullpen cost him a win in his major-league debut by allowing three runs to the Kansas City Royals in the ninth inning.

The St. Louis Cardinals just keep finding good pitchers. On Thursday they plugged one into their rotation who is from Iowa City.

Technically, anyhow.

Michael Wacha was born in Iowa City almost 22 years ago. Alas for Iowa City high school baseball, Wacha moved to Texarkana, Texas, and grew up there. He attended Pleasant Grove High School and played for the Pleasant Grove ... Hawks.

Wacha then went to Texas A&M, and was the first-round pick of the Cardinals last June.

Wacha was 4-0 with a 2.05 ERA at Class AAA Memphis when he got a call-up to St. Louis because the Cardinals have an injury-racked starting rotation. He will start for the Redbirds Thursday against Kansas City.

Wacha's parents are from Iowa. Tom Wacha is from little Elma  in the northeast part of the state, and went to Crestwood High in Cresco. Karen Wacha is from Nevada, Iowa. Tom graduated from the University of Iowa in electrical engineering. He took a job with International Paper in Queen City, Texas, and moved his family to nearby Texarkana. Karen was an X-ray technician at the UI Hospitals and Clinics.

Elaine Farrington of Elma, Iowa, was on the highway to St. Louis with a lot of her relatives Thursday. I called her and she said the Wachas moved to Texarkana in 1994, when Michael was 3. So he's a Texan.

But he's from Iowa. Especially if he is a big-winner in the majors.