Jordan Walker records two go-ahead hits in win over D-backs
ST. LOUIS — With his batting average at .194 coming into the day and made to look feeble in his first two at-bats, Jordan Walker could have wondered about his long-term fate with the Cardinals late in the day on Saturday. After all, slow starts to his first two MLB seasons resulted in him getting demoted to Triple-A Memphis in 2023 and ‘24, and a potentially imminent move would have been logical considering the circumstances.
To try and remove that sort of show-or-go pressure from the sizable shoulders of the 6-foot-6 Walker, the Cardinals vowed to stand by their outfielder through his struggles — both at the plate and in right field — in 2025 in hopes that a big payday will eventually spew from Walker’s enormous potential.
On Saturday, when Walker came through twice with tie-breaking hits to drive in three runs, the Cards got a peek at the player the 2020 first-round pick could become.
Walker broke a 1-all tie in the seventh with a two-run double that left his bat at a scorching 113.5 mph, per Statcast. Then, after he had factored into an Arizona four-run eighth with a defensive misplay, Walker redeemed himself with a textbook liner up the middle to propel the Cardinals to a 6-5 victory.
Why are the Cardinals vowing to be so patient with Walker, who turned 23 years old on Thursday and is still a raw prospect in many ways? They are doing so because of stirring moments like the ones that their mountain of a (young) man provided on Saturday to electrify the crowd at Busch Stadium.
“This game’s hard, but he’s doing what we want, and you can be patient when that’s the case,” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol stressed. “There’s a very high ceiling, and that’s why you have to be patient. I love the combination of his work and his mindset. That’s what gives us hope this is heading in the right direction.”
The Cardinals are certainly heading in the right direction after rallying late to beat Arizona for a second straight day and putting together a stretch in which they have won 15 of their last 19 games. The extension of that winning spree was made possible on Saturday by strong pitching from Matthew Liberatore (seven innings and one earned run), stellar defense by Nolan Arenado (a diving stop in the ninth) and two clutch hits by Walker. Even after surrendering four runs in the eighth to cough up the lead, the Cards responded to regain control.
“We don’t give in, we don’t give up and when we get punched, we punch right back,” said Liberatore, who lowered his ERA to 2.73 with another strong effort. “That’s a really admirable quality about our ballclub and it makes it a ton of fun to go to battle with these guys every day.”
Walker has been battling for a third straight season to prove that he can hit enough to stick at the big leagues. A winter of work with new hitting coach Brant Brown had him believing he was poised for a big season. However, he exited April with a .210 average and just two home runs, and his start to May wasn’t much better. That led to another round of swing changes — one where Walker focuses on the placement of his hands so he can fire off swings quicker. That work hasn’t just been limited to the pregame, as he’s been at the hip of Brown or outfield coach Jon Jay on days even when he’s out of the lineup.
That work paid big dividends late in the day and the game tied 1-1. In the seventh, Walker stayed on Merrill Kelly’s 85.6 mph slider — a pitch he’s had trouble handling because of his tendency to fly open with his front shoulder — and drove the 113.5 mph liner to the wall in left-center.
Staying on the slider, Walker admitted later, was a sign of tremendous growth.
“A lot of work goes in that [batting] cage pregame and during BP, and I’m just trying to stay [up the middle],” Walker said. “Because the ball is inside doesn’t mean I have to pull it, and just because it’s outside doesn’t mean I’ve got to take it the other way. I’ve just got to stay on it and shoot it somewhere.”
That plan aided him in the eighth when he hit Justin Martinez’s Statcast-measured 100.9 mph fastball up the middle to break a 5-5 tie. Patience and persistence, Walker stressed, are paying off.
“It was a good day and that’s good to see, but it’s been a lot of work,” Walker said. “The first thing I do when I get here is get dressed and go to that cage. I want to get it right, and to see it pay off is cool.”
