WASHINGTON (AP) — After a baseball odyssey that included a season pitching in South Korea, Erick Fedde was back where he started Friday night — and he delivered the best performance of his career.

The 32-year-old St. Louis Cardinals right-hander threw his first career shutout and complete game, doing it against the Washington Nationals, who selected him in the first round of the 2014 amateur draft.

"It's special for sure, one that you envision for years when you're playing here and then to eventually do it on the field as an opponent, it's pretty crazy," Fedde said after St. Louis' 10-0 victory.

He's the first Cardinals pitcher to throw a shutout since Jordan Montgomery on Aug. 22, 2022, at the Chicago Cubs. Fedde threw 109 pitches, 68 for strikes, and allowed six hits while striking out eight and walking none.

"For him to go through that lineup the way they've been swinging it, he had everything working," Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said. "The cutter was good for him. He expanded when he needed to. He used both sides of the plate. That was fun to watch."

Fedde spent 2017-22 with Washington and was part of the Nationals' World Series-winning 2019 squad, going 4-2 with a 4.50 ERA in 21 appearances, including 12 starts.

But he struggled as a full-time starter in 2021 and '22, leading him to accept an offer to play in the Korean Baseball Organization. He returned to the majors last year with the Chicago White Sox, and he pitched well enough for the worst team in baseball that the Cardinals acquired him ahead of the trade deadline.

On Friday, he joined Texas' Nathan Eovaldi and San Diego's Michael King as the only pitchers to throw shutouts in 2025.

Fedde pitched seven scoreless innings for the White Sox last season in his previous appearance against the Nationals.

"Something I wasn't really thinking about but when you see it coming up on the schedule and I was going to pitch there, it's an exciting feeling," Fedde said. "I owe them a lot in the sense of my career. But there's always something about when somebody lets you go, showing them that you can be better."

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