Cardinals fans finally had the chance to welcome Jordan Walker back to Busch Stadium after his unforgettable Home Run Derby triumph, but what began with excitement quickly turned into another disappointing afternoon for St. Louis. Following a lengthy road trip after the All-Star break, the Cardinals returned home for a makeup game against the Arizona Diamondbacks, where Walker received a hero’s welcome from the home crowd. Unfortunately, despite an early offensive spark from the All-Star slugger, the Cardinals couldn’t sustain the momentum as their recent offensive struggles continued in a 10-6 defeat.
Ten days earlier, Cardinals fans had celebrated Walker’s Home Run Derby victory from afar while the team remained on the road. By the time St. Louis returned home, manager Oliver Marmol joked that the moment almost felt like ancient history.
“That seemed like a month ago,” Marmol remarked on Thursday afternoon. “I was like, I wonder if I’m going to have to answer Home Run Derby questions coming back to St. Louis. That’s like, two years ago.”
Although Thursday’s contest against the Diamondbacks wasn’t part of the original schedule, the atmosphere at Busch Stadium reflected a fan base eager to welcome baseball back to St. Louis. Walker, who is set to receive a commemorative Home Run Derby T-shirt giveaway on Friday, didn’t have to wait for the weekend festivities to feel appreciated.
Before his first plate appearance, the crowd of 32,381 gave Walker a loud standing ovation, and he immediately rewarded them by ripping the first pitch he saw into an RBI double against Arizona starter Brandon Pfaadt to put the Cardinals on the scoreboard.
The early rally continued as St. Louis collected four consecutive hits to begin the game, coming one day after managing only three hits in a 1-0 victory over the Angels in Anaheim. However, after surrendering two runs in the opening inning, Pfaadt quickly settled into a rhythm and controlled the Cardinals for the remainder of his outing. The Arizona right-hander worked through six innings, earning the victory with a quality start.
Marmol believed the Cardinals missed a golden opportunity to seize control early.
“We got off to a pretty good start, but the reality is, we let them off the hook in that first [inning],” Marmol said. “I’m glad we got two, but those are those ones where you want to continue to add and get three or four — which is not always the easiest thing to do. But that was our opportunity to kind of take advantage of. So, I felt like, although we put up a crooked number, we could have done a little better. He settled in and did a nice job.”
Those two first-inning runs proved to be the Cardinals’ only meaningful offense until a late four-run rally in the ninth inning made the final score appear more competitive than the game actually was. Meanwhile, St. Louis’ bullpen unraveled, allowing six runs over 2 2/3 innings to put the contest well out of reach.
The Cardinals’ offensive slump has become increasingly noticeable. After scoring only four runs during their three-game series against the Angels, the lineup remained mostly quiet against Arizona. Throughout July, St. Louis has ranked 28th in Major League Baseball with a .636 OPS.
Marmol acknowledged the challenge facing his lineup.
“We’re not slugging a ton so then you do have to bunch them together in order to score,” Marmol said. “We’ve done that at times, we haven’t done that at times. That’s just the nature of our lineup.”
Starter Michael McGreevy kept the Cardinals in the game until the fourth inning, when Tyler Locklear lined a home run just inside the left-field foul pole to give Arizona a 3-2 lead.
Although the ball barely cleared the fence, it proved to be the game’s turning point as the Diamondbacks never relinquished the advantage.
McGreevy pointed to that pitch as his biggest mistake of the afternoon.
“That was like, the one pitch I wasn’t really convicted in today,” McGreevy said. “It’s baseball, of course it’ll bite you … like that. But I think if I execute that pitch and I throw it a little farther down in the zone, it’s not a homer. He might take it, he might hit a double down the line, but it’s not a two-run shot. But that’s just something you can learn from.”
Even without his best command, McGreevy battled into the seventh inning, providing valuable length for a Cardinals pitching staff that continues balancing its rotation while keeping sixth starter Hunter Dobbins on the active roster after his six scoreless innings against the Angels the previous day.