As Victor Scott II illustrated on Sunday when he hustled to nab a hit in the left-center gap and turned and fired a strike into second base to retire Seattle’s Coile Young, the Cardinals continue to win on the margins by doing the little things.

Scott’s outfield assist was the ninth of the season for the Cards, which easily ranks first in MLB. The nine assists are three ahead of the White Sox, Dodgers and Brewers, who all have recorded six outfield assists.

Cardinals’ outfielder Jordan Walker leads all of MLB in outfield assists with four. Nathan Church, who has split time between left field and center, has two assists, while Scott also has two assists when runners have tried testing his throwing arm.

In addition to throwing out two runners, Church has gone high above the top of the wall in left field twice and robbed two homers. In addition to recording three hits on Opening Day, Church also robbed a homer. In Saturday’s 11-9 loss to the Mariners, Church recorded the first multi-homer game of his MLB career and he robbed a potential home run by Mitch Garver to open the seventh inning.

“I mean, the first rule of thumb is to get to the wall as fast as you can,” said Church, who pulled back a homer on a day when the ball was uncharacteristically flying out of Busch and eight long balls were hit. “Then, if there’s a play to be made, then you can jump at the wall and try to catch it.

“I’m always out there trying to make big plays on defense. On offense, I’m just trying to get on base. Whenever we makes a good play defensively, we all get excited for each other because we’re all pulling the same string together.”  

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