Thinking they would be a team with limited power that would have to scratch and claw for runs most nights, the Cardinals collectively made a vow in Spring Training to run the bases with reckless abandon and to outhustle foes all over the diamond.

While that strategy has worked wonders for the Cards throughout a start that has been surprising to some, they replaced it on Saturday night and flexed their considerable muscles as a lineup.

Masyn Winn, José Fermín and Alec Burleson hit towering homers, Nolan Gorman stayed hot at the plate with two more RBI and Andre Pallante pitched five solid innings as the Cardinals hung on to beat the Astros 7-5 in Houston for their fourth straight victory.

“Burly had a good wing, Masyn hit the two-run homer and Fermin contributed as well with his homer and Gorman drives in two – so up and down that lineup we did some things well,” Cardinals' manager Oliver Marmol said to Cardinals.TV.

Buoyed by the power of Jordan Walker and his eight homers, the Cardinals got flashes of power from others to lock up another series victory on Saturday. Burleson hit a 408-foot homer in Daikin Park’s second deck and Winn delighted his Houston-based friends and family in the crowd by smashing a 373-foot. Fermín concluded a gritty, 10-pitch at bat with a 370-foot blast into the left-field seats.

“It’s a lot of fun right now,” Fermin said after his first homer of the season. “The vibes are really good in the clubhouse and we have a really good group. The birds are flying now.”

Later in the night, Burleson and Gorman came within a few feet of two more homers. Burleson’s opposite-field smash hit off the top of the wall, while Gorman had a potential homer robbed in front of the right-field wall.

Here are three takeaways from Saturday’s win:

Combined with their 9-4 win in Houston on Friday night, the Cardinals locked up yet another early-season series victory with Saturday’s power show. A late three-run homer in the ninth inning by Houston’s Shay Whitcomb got closer Riley O’Brien into game and he helped the Cardinals improve to an MLB-best 9-0 in games decided by two runs or less.

The series win was the Cardinals’ second of the season away from Busch Stadium. They took two of three from the Nationals in Washington, D.C., and now they have put themselves in a position to sweep the reeling Astros on Sunday.

The Cards now own series victories over the Rays, Mets, Guardians and Astros.

A night delighting his family and living out a boyhood dream by singling in two runs near his Texas hometown, Winn reached even greater heights by turning around a fastball with a no-doubter of a long ball that left the bat at 99.3 mph.

Winn’s blast put the Cards up 4-1 and sent them on their way to the win. Earlier, Gorman drilled a two-run single down the first base line. That key hit came one night after he smashed a three-run home run to escape the grips of a recent slump.

Fermín got a rare start against a right-handed starting pitcher and delivered the best at bat of the game. In the sixth inning, he worked the count full before fouling off four pitches from left-handed pitcher Colton Gordon. On the 10th pitch of the at bat, Fermín sent a 98.5 mph screamer into the seats.

“I was just trying to have a good AB and the guy kept throwing fastballs in there and I just ended up putting a good swing on it,” Fermin said.

Burleson, who hit a towering, go-ahead homer on Opening Day, smashed the 50th homer of his career last week against Boston. On Saturday, he smashed a ball in the upper deck and nearly left the park a second time in the eighth inning.

Pallante not only went 6-15 with a 5.31 ERA in a nightmarish 2025 season, but he finished the year by failing to win any of his last 10 starts.

Pallante went to work on his pitch mix and pitch shapes in the offseason, and he looks like a completely different pitcher now.

Pallante allowed just three hits and one run – a 421-foot homer by superstar slugger Yordan Alvsarez that left the bat at 117.8 mph – while striking out five.

Pallante only threw his new kick-change pitch three times, but he dramatically switched up his pitch mix as the game went on. While Pallante threw sinkers 27 percent of the time the first time through the Houston order, he switched to sinkers for 43 percent of his pitches the second time through. Of the 29 sinkers he threw in the game, 27 were to right-handed hitters – a source of major problems for Pallante in the past.        

“When you look at his stuff, it wasn’t as sharp as he wanted, but he made pitches and got out of innings,” Marmol said of Pallante. He had some stressful pitches, but it went our way.”

Remember to join our CARDINALS on ROUNDTABLE community, which is FREE! You can post your own thoughts, in text or video form, and you can engage with our Roundtable staff, as well as other CARDINALS fans. If prompted to download the Roundtable APP, that's free too!