ST. LOUIS – What are the odds, Matthew Liberatore wondered aloud, that two kids would grow up in suburban Phoenix – bonded by baseball – and not only reach the big leagues, but often deliver big performances in the same game?

Incredibly, Friday night at raucous Busch Stadium was another of those unlikely instances as Gorman smacked a two-run homer and Liberatore limited the Dodgers to two runs over 5 2/3 innings as the Cardinals throttled the back-to-back champs 7-2 for their fifth straight victory.

In their 4 ½-year MLB careers, Gorman has hit homers in 10 of Liberatore’s starts. As was the case earlier this season in Houston, Gorman also played a solid third base Friday to lift his childhood buddy to his first pitching win of 2026.

“It’s pretty unbelievable,” raved Liberatore, who featured a much-improved slider on Friday that came following an extra day of rest in the rotation. “He played really good defense for me tonight. And for him to put a couple of runs for us, give me some breathing room and be able to go right at guys, you couldn’t ask for more than that.”

Added Gorman: “That’s a pretty cool stat (about the 10 homers in Liberatore’s starts). It’s always good to provide him runs and play good defense behind him. It’s just a lot of fun playing with him.”

Here are three takeaways from the Cardinals’ start-to-finish throttling of the back-to-back champions:

Coming off a four-game sweep in Pittsburgh where he went 5 of 17 with a homer and seven RBI, Walker continued to swing a hot bat for the Cardinals. Walker authored a four-hit night and briefly seemed to be close to hitting for the cycle. What was originally ruled to be triple in the seventh inning was later changed to a double and a fielding error on Teoscar Hernandez.

It was Walker’s first four-hit game since Sept. 1, 2024, when he had a five-hit afternoon at Yankee Stadium in a Cardinals’ win. He is the first Cardinals player to have four hits against the Dodgers since Jose Martinez in 2019.

“I give him a lot of credit and there’s a lot of work that goes into it,” manager Oliver Marmol said of Walker making adjustments after the league cooled off his fast start to the season. “There are times when you are going through that period of the league flipping the script on you and the work you’re doing does immediately come into play. But you just have to stick to it and be confident in what you are doing before the game – whether it (shows during the game or not.”

After singling in the first and third innings, Walker pulled a double down the left field line in the fifth and he doubled in two runs in the seventh to turn the game into a laugher.

Gorman had just three hits in the four-game sweep of the Pirates, but one of them was a 413-foot home run, and he drove in three runs in the series.

Clearly seeing the ball well, Gorman jumped all over a letter-high fastball on a 3-2 count and drilled it into the seats in right to give the Cardinals an early 3-0 lead.

“That’s part of what I attacked this offseason – being able to get pitches up there,” said Gorman after his fifth homer of the season. “When that happens, they have to respect (his swing) a lot more. So, a lot of this offseason was about being focused on being able to get to those pitches. The pitch was a little higher than I thought it was, but it ended in a good result.”

Burleson also used that Pittsburgh series to get him bat going after struggling through an 0 for 15 skid previously against the Mariners. Burleson had eight hits, two doubles, a homer and eight RBI against the Pirates. On Friday, he deftly pulled his hands in to get to an inside pitch that he pulled down the right field line for his fifth homer of the season.

Burleson, who has thrived defensively in his first season as a full-time first baseman, turned in another gem in the ninth inning. He ranged to his left to snag an inside-out grounder off the bat of Miguel Rojas, tumbled to the ground and then fired a strike to Matt Svanson for the second out of the inning. 

Thanks to Hunter Dobbins being promoted for Thursday’s start in Pittsburgh, Liberatore got another day of rest, and it showed in a strong start on Friday.

Liberatore sailed through the Dodgers lineup in the first inning – a troublesome spot for the Redbirds’ pitching staff all season. The only damage he sustained over the first five innings was a single by Andy Pages and an RBI double by Max Muncy.

In the sixth, Liberatore was hurt by an ABS challenge by Dodgers catcher Will Smith. Just when it looked like Liberatore had Smith struck out following a Freddie Freeman single, Smith challenged successful and had the low fastball overturned to ball four. Freeman ultimately came around to score on a sacrifice fly by Kyle Tucker.

Of his 96 pitches, Liberatore leaned heavily on his four-seam fastball (29) and slider (28). Six of his seven swings and misses came off those two pitches.

“That’s a pretty good lineup over there, but I felt like I was in control of the game tonight and I executed a lot of pitches,” Liberatore said. “I made some mechanical tweaks from last start to this start (with the slider) and I felt like it helped me synch that up. The curveball was better, fastball command was better and the slider was the best it’s been so far.”  

Liberatore, who notched his first win of the season, held Shohei Ohtani hitless in three at bats and reliever George Soriano caught the superstar looking on strike three in the seventh inning. Ohtani was 0 for 5 on the night.

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