Cards' offense keeps 'putting the pressure on' ... up and down lineup

HOUSTON -- So far this season, the Cardinals have been able to win in a number of ways. They mixed it up on Friday night with small ball early before capping it off with the long ball.

Nolan Gorman hit a three-run homer and Iván Herrera had a two-run blast as St. Louis won its third straight with a 9-4 victory over Houston at Daikin Park.

“We’ve got a good offense,” Gorman said. “There’s no doubt about that. Tonight was just another night of doing good things.”

Leading 4-3 in the seventh, Alec Burleson hit a double and Jordan Walker walked with one out before Gorman hit his home run to right field off Bryan Abreu. All three of Gorman’s home runs and 10 of his 12 RBIs this season have come off right-handers. He also scored his 200th career run on the homer.

“I was looking for a good pitch to hit,” Gorman said. “It really wasn’t, but I was able to put a good swing on it and have a good result.”

Gorman said he’s had mixed results so far this season despite things not clicking consistently for him.

“Mechanics aren’t too far off,” Gorman said. “I should be able to play with what I’ve got, but I also have to swing at good pitches.”

Gorman had struck out in his first three at-bats before the home run.

“It’s a good mental flip,” Gorman said. “Obviously, you never want the first three at-bats to go that way.”

Manager Oliver Marmol said Gorman’s home run was huge.

“To have three punchouts and then go up there and come up there with a swing as big as the one he had, I mean in this ballpark, adding on runs is important,” Marmol said. “You see why. ... For him to stay locked in enough to give us that at-bat was great.”

It was Gorman’s 10th career three-run homer, but his first since June 28, 2025, at Cleveland, and it was his first extra-base hit with runners in scoring position since homering in that situation on Aug. 18, 2025, at Miami.

Herrera, who also had an RBI single in the fourth, hit his second homer of the season in the eighth to the Crawford Boxes in left field.

“I’ve been feeling a little better at the plate,” Herrera said. “I’ve been grinding all season. It’s nice to have a couple results. I’ve been hitting the ball hard, too. It’s just unlucky. My swing has been feeling a little better. I’m trying to work every day so I can get back to where I was last year.”

Jordan Walker extended his hitting streak to 12 games and gave the Cardinals a 1-0 lead with an RBI single in the first, and Masyn Winn increased the lead to 3-0 with a two-run single in the third.

“Everybody here is putting together great at-bats,” Herrera said. “From one to nine, nobody is an easy out right now. We’re putting the pressure on them.”

The offense did more than enough to support starter Kyle Leahy, who got the win allowing three runs on five hits to go with no walks and six strikeouts in five innings.

“I’m just trying to put the team in a position to win the game,” Leahy said. “I would have liked to leave the game with more than a one-run game, but our bats took care of that, and we were able to add on. Our offense was great today.”

The Cardinals matched their season high in runs, which they set in their 9-7 win over the Rays on March 26, and improved to 7-0 when scoring first this season, remaining the only undefeated team left when scoring first.

In total, eight Cardinals had hits and six scored.

“We’re just trying to keep adding pressure the whole way through,” Marmol said. “That’s why I keep saying, regardless of the situation, whether we’re down or up, just the style of play of adding pressure and executing. Tonight, we were able to play from a lead and continue to add pressure and execute.”