ST. LOUIS – Masyn Winn has heard the jokes, and he’s admittedly somewhat bothered by the smirks and cracks about him hitting in the clean-up spot for the rebuilding Cardinals.

Sure, the 5-foot-9, 185-pound Winn isn’t the traditional No. 4 hitter in the lineup what with him having just 26 career homers over parts of four MLB seasons. However, Winn vowed that he will soon hit his groove and start packing the box score with hard-hit gappers for doubles and the occasional pull-side homers. For now, however, Winn is simply trying to work his way through a rough start that has become something of an annual tradition for him.

“I really don’t care one-through-nine where I hit and I just want to produce,” Winn said on Wednesday afternoon following his lazy fly ball to shallow right field that fell to lift the Cardinals to a 2-1 win over the Mets in 11 innings. “If I was hitting .350 right now, I don’t think anybody would care if I was hitting in the four-hole. But obviously, I’m struggling at the start of the year, and I did the same thing last year. I’m sure I’m going to hit the ground at some point and get hot again.”  

Winn’s first RBI of the season – and the first walk-off RBI of his career – allowed the Cardinals to take two of three from the star-studded Mets. It also gave the youth-filled Cardinals a 4-2 homestand to open the season – momentum they hope to take with them on the road when they face the Tigers and Nationals on a six-day trip that begins Friday afternoon in Detroit.

“We said it to one another in Spring Training, ‘Yeah, we’re young, but we’re not inexperienced,’” said lefty reliever JoJo Romero, who ended the seventh inning with a strikeout and pitched a scoreless eighth inning for his fourth clean outing thus far. “We actually have a lot of experience here. Guys have either been here in bits and pieces or steadily for the last 2-3 years and we’ve been playing together the last 2-3 years, and we vibe together really well. We’re playing for one another, and it’s been really fun so far.”   

Riley O’Brien allowed a double on his first pitch of the ninth inning – a line drive misplayed by Jordan Walker in right – but he retired three in a row to get out of trouble. In the 10th inning, lefty Justin Bruihl got Mets superstar Juan Soto to pop out with two runners on. And in the 11th, Gordon Graceffo came on in place of Chris Roycroft and pitched out of a bases-loaded jam to set the stage for Winn’s game-winning heroics.

Winn came to the plate in the 11th inning at 3 for 24 with five strikeouts and two walks. He is hopeful that seeing a lazy fly ball get down will spark a hot streak and get him out of an early skid.

“I think a swinging bunt was my first hit last year and that’s what got me going,” said Winn, who has two doubles among his first five hits of this season. “Maybe it’s something like (today’s shallow pop-up) or I might get another swinging bunt in Detroit, but at some point, I’m going to get hot, for sure.”

While Winn has been slogging through the early portion of the season at the plate, he has continued to remind opposing teams and Cardinals fans why he won the National League’s Gold Glove award at shortstop in 2025. He made one of the key plays in Tuesday’s defeat of the Mets by snaring a liner and using an 89.8 mph throw – one that ranks in MLB’s 99th percentile in arm strength – to turn an inning-ending double play to get his team out of a jam.

On Wednesday, Winn had a nifty sliding play on the outfield grass to rob Francisco Lindor of a hit in the eighth inning. Then, in the top of the 11th, Winn reacted quickly to field a ball that had caromed off reliever Chris Roycroft and threw onto first to retire Bo Bichette. That play proved pivotal in keeping the Mets off the scoreboard in the 11th and setting the stag for him to win the game at the plate.

“If I’m not performing on offense, I have to do something on defense to make up for it,” said Winn, who tied an MLB record for shortstops set by Cal Ripken (1990) and Omar Vizquel (2000) with just three errors over the 2025 season. “With where I stand with this team, I feel like I’m (the man) on the dirt right now and I don’t take that for granted at all. I want to lock in on every pitch and make every play.”  

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!