The Cardinals pulled off their 14th come-from-behind win, their MLB-best 10th one-run victory and their sixth extra-inning triumph of what is starting to resemble a special season in Friday's 5-4 defeat of the Royals in 11 innings.
ST. LOUIS – Not long after Yohel Pozo came through with his seventh pitch hit of the past two seasons and his second walk-off winner and the young and feisty Cardinals celebrated with the hundreds of bare-chested, shirt-waving fans who sent an unexpected jolt of energy through Busch Stadium, star slugger Jordan Walker shared a thought that has been percolating in the back of his brain for weeks.
“Absolutely, I’ve always believed that we have something special here and I’m just glad we’re showing it,” Walker said after a pulsating 5-4 defeat of the rival Royals in 11 innings on Friday. “As of right now, I just want to keep it going. That’s the goal for us – keep the vibes high, keep the energy levels up there.”
The energy delivered by the Cardinals (26-18) caused Busch Stadium to throb with raw emotion at several points on Friday night. The crowd roared when Walker crushed his 13th homer off an 0-2 Michael Wacha change up and again when Pedro Pages hit a slum-busting homer off the same grassy berm in center field. And the stadium air might have been filled with as much noise as it has had all season after the Cards pulled off their 14th come-from-behind win, their MLB-best 10th one-run victory and their sixth extra-inning triumph of what is starting to resemble a special season.
“I know that we have a group that’s really tough,” manager Oliver Marmol said in response to a direct question about whether he feels the Cardinals have something special cooking in a season that was supposed to be all about rebuilding. “They’re going to play hard, play the game the right way and be really hungry to improve – and they’re going to have a lot of fun while we do it. So, that’s what I know.”
Pozo came up prepared in 11th inning
After the Cardinals repeatedly stumbled all night in big spots – they were just 2 for 13 with runners in scoring position with 12 men left on base – Pozo rescued his teammates once again. The journeyman catcher, who clawed his way to the big leagues by being able to hit even after several days in a row of inactivity, slapped the first pitch he saw into right field to plate Nathan Church and win the game. Pozo, who had the second-most pinch-hit RBI (seven) in MLB in 2025, was ready after for Steven Cruz’s 100.1 mph four-seam fastball because of the work he did preparing himself in the batting cages just off the Cards dugout.
“I had been hitting since the sixth inning,” said Pozo, whose voice was hoarse after celebrating Thursday’s road win against the Athletics and again on Friday night. “When we went to extra-innings, I started facing all the pitchers we could face on the (simulation pitching machine). I had a lot of swings and I was ready.”
Pozo, who started Thursday’s game-winning rally with a ninth-inning single, was so overjoyed by Friday’s winning hit that he had to be reminded by first base coach Stubby Clapp to touch the bag. Afterward, the 5-foot-11, 200-pound Pozo admitted that he was tempted to take off his jersey and celebrate with the bare-chested, shirt-waving fans that clustered in the right field seats and tripled in size as the game continued.
“We saw them jumping in the last three innings and more people were coming and more people were coming, and that was amazing,” Pozo said. “I’ve never seen that before since I’ve been here last year and this year, and it was really cool.
“I was about to take my jersey off and start doing it, but I controlled myself.”
Nolan Gorman, who had two hits and a big single in a 10th inning rally, agreed with Walker that the Cardinals truly have something cooking a little more than a fourth of the way into the season.
“I think this group just plays together all nine innings or more if we need to and we’re having a lot of fun,” Gorman said. “In past years, we might have said, ‘Oh well, another one’ and dropped those games, But, we’ve got guys who are willing to put it all out on the line. You can have a special team when you do that, and we’ve got that now.”
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