JJ Wetherholt, a strong candidate to win the National League's Rookie of the Year award, strengthened his case by smashing two homers and the Cardinals also got three-run long balls from Masyn Winn and Ivan Herrera in a wild 12-10 win over the Royals.
Drilled in the head and hit by a pitch for the jaw-dropping 10th time in June, Ivan Herrera finally got his revenge five innings later with one of his biggest swings of the season for the Cardinals.
Herrera, who has been hit an MLB-most 21 times this season, drilled a towering three-run homer in the sixth inning and teammate Jordan Walker made arguably the best defensive play of his young MLB career by robbing a homer as the Cardinals edged past the Royals 12-10 at Kauffman Stadium.
The Cards got two homers from standout rookie JJ Wetherholt and three-run shots from Masyn Winn and Herrera to prevail in the final game of the series and snap a three-game losing streak. Wetherholt (3 for 5, 3 RBI), Herrera (3 for 5, 3 RBI) and Alec Burleson (3 for 5, 1 RBI) combined to go nine for 15 with a triple, three homers, seven RBI and eight runs scored. Those numbers could have been even gaudier had Burleson not had a home run wiped off the board in the seventh inning when it curved just foul.
“It’s a long season and obviously we always want to come to the yard and win every game, but you are going to go through phases where you’re not playing your best ball,” Wetherholt told Cardinals.TV after delivering the second multi-homer game of his career. “It’s also really big for us to grind this one out and get back on the right track and hopefully go home and have a good homestand.”
With the Cardinals leading 12-8 going into the bottom of the ninth, Jac Caglianone drilled his second home run of the day – and his fourth homer of the series – to get the Royals within striking distance. Later, Salvador Perez scored on an infield grounder and the Royals had the potential tying runs at second and third before closer Riley O’Brien struck out John Rave looking and got Isaac Collins to tap back to the mound to preserve the victory.
“We’ve got to clean some things up on the (defensive) side of the baseball, but I’m glad to get out of here after a lot of runs were given up and we can get back home,” manager Oliver Marmol told Cardinals.TV. “Overall, we’re still doing a lot of things really well.”
The Cards dropped the first two games of the series when they surrendered big innings of six runs and four runs. Given their first day off since June 8 when Arrowhead Stadium hosted FIBA World Cup play on Saturday, the Cards clearly took advantage and came into Sunday ready to salvage the series with a win.
The two teams split the six-game series with the Cards winning two of three in St. Louis in mid-May, and the Royals taking the series in Kansas City.
After the Royals had trimmed a seven-run deficit to 9-7, Herrera restocked the Cards’ lead with a mighty clout. Herrera crushed a low-and-in fastball from Steven Cruz 414 feet. The three-run homer – Herrera’s 10th long ball of the season – pushed the Cards lead back to 12-7.
Herrera one hit by pitch away from MLB record for May
Herrera getting hit in the helmet in the first inning was the 10th time that he has been plunked in June. That’s already a franchise record for Cardinals and it is one off the MLB record for June. Don Baylor (1986) and Minnie Minoso (1956) were hit an MLB record 11 times in June in their respective years.
As has been the case all season, Wetherholt proved to be the rally starter the Cardinals needed. He led off the game with a homer – the second time he’s done that in his young career – to jump-start a five-run fifth. Lars Nootbaar had an RBI double, and Winn smacked a three-run homer on a hanging sweeper from Stephen Kolek to give the Cards an early 5-0 lead.
After the Royals got two runs back in the first inning, Wetherholt keyed another Cards’ surge. After a lead-off double by Nathan Church, Wetherholt went the other way for another homer – this one traveling 360 feet when Kolek challenged him up in the zone. It was the second multi-homer game for the standout rookie.
That second Wetherholt spark led to a four-run second. Alec Burleson’s liner got under the glove of a diving Lane Thomas and rolled to the wall to score Herrera and Winn delivered a two-out RBI.
“He’s steady and he’s as consistent as they get,” Marmol said of Wetherholt, who boosted his batting average to .268 and his on-base percentage to .370 to go along with his 12 homers and 34 RBI in 2026. “It’s just so fun to watch what he’s doing. The two homers today and the at bats he’s taking are super professional. I love where he’s at physically and mentally. He’s done a really nice job.”
The Cardinals needed all that offensive production as Dustin May clearly didn’t have the command that helped him throw the first complete-game, shutout of his career last week against the Padres. KC got to May with two runs and three hits in the first inning and another four runs in the second inning. Nick Loftin hit a hanging cutter for a homer and Caglianone blasted a 444-foot no-doubter that landed in the second level of fountains beyond the right field wall and got the Royals back within 9-6.
The 15 runs scored in the first two innings of the game were the most in an MLB game this season.
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