In arguably their most complete victory of the season, the Cardinals got hits from eight players, homers from Iván Herrera and Nolan Gorman, runs scored by six players and a dream scenario from Masyn Winn in a 9-4 defeat of the Astros at Daikin Park in Houston.

Playing in front of a dozen friends and family and close to his suburban Houston hometown, Winn drilled a single through the left side to drive in two runs in the third inning to set the stage for the runaway win.

“That’s kind of the team we are – we’re real scrappy,” Winn told Cardinals.TV. “Obviously, Iván and (Gorman) went big fly tonight, but for the most part that’s not us. For us to be able to maintain wins, it’s just going to be about producing runs like we did tonight.”

Here are three takeaways from Friday’s win for the Cardinals:

Winn, a native of Kingwood, Texas, grew up idolizing Jose Altuve and dreaming of playing baseball at the park formerly known as Minute Maid Park. Winn not only got to live out that dream again on Friday, but he also had one of the game’s biggest hits.

With the Cardinals leading 1-0 and threatening again in the third inning, Houston starter Peter Lambert struck out Jordan Walker and Nolan Gorman with the bases loaded. However, Winn made Lambert pay for hanging a cutter by driving it between third and short for a two-run single.

Winn’s personal cheering section loved seeing the 24-year-old shortstop come through in a big spot for the Cardinals.

“It’s amazing,” Winn said in the postgame interview on Cardinals.TV. “It’s always nice coming home and (family) getting to see me play, it feels amazing knowing that I have so much love behind me.”

Showing the kind of improvement between starts that the Cards thought was possible for him because of his high baseball IQ, right-hander Kyle Leahy limited the Astros to five hits and three earned runs over five innings of work. Not only did Leahy strike out six, but he got nine swings and misses.

Leahy’s line might not have looked so solid without some dazzling escape work in the fourth inning. With runners on first and second, rookie standout JJ Wetherholt knocked down a sinking liner off the bat of Taylor Trammell to keep a run from scoring. Leahy then struck out Christian Vazquez and Isaac Paredes to end the fourth and preserve the Cardinals 4-2 lead.     

“He was on the attack, and the sinker was a really good pitch for him,” Cardinals’ manager Oliver Marmol said of Leahy. “He mixed everything else well.”

Leads are rarely safe at Daikin Park with the way the ball tends to fly out of the park there. However, it was the Cardinals driving the ball out of the park late in the game.

Gorman, who struck out in his first three at bats, drilled an inside fastball for a three-run shot in the seventh inning. Gorman, who had seen his average plummet in recent weeks and his strikeout totals start to creep up again, homered for the first time since March 30.

Herrera, who came into Friday as one of MLB’s walks leaders, crushed a pitch 383 feet for a two-run homer in the eight inning that turned the game into a rout.

“Things can change quickly in this ballpark, especially with that lineup across the way because they are so deep,” Marmol said. “So, to be able to add on like we did, that was important.”

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