ST. LOUIS -- A popular sentiment in the early portion of the Cardinals’ season was to treat Jordan Walker’s fledgling star turn like a house of cards, due to tumble at any given moment.
Sometimes, it felt as though even whispering about the brilliant things Walker was doing on a baseball field could be enough for it all to come crashing down.
That’s how it felt to watch him play for the past few seasons. In many ways, Walker’s mentality regarding the fragility of achievement in a sport where success can be so elusive hasn’t changed.
“I get really superstitious, so I don’t like thinking about stuff like that, especially right now,” Walker said Wednesday after a reporter merely introduced the topic of his potential All-Star Game candidacy. “But it would be cool, for sure.”
“I’m just going to leave it at that,” Walker grinned.
So, aside from Walker’s sheepishness surrounding his own triumphs, this year has been different in every way for the 24-year-old outfielder.
With each pocket of adversity that Walker has faced this season, he’s found noteworthy ways to assert himself thereafter, climbing out of the doldrums to find steady footing.
During the first two games of this week’s series against the Rangers at Busch Stadium, Walker endured arguably the roughest mini-slump of his career.
Walker kicked off June on Monday by donning the golden sombrero, striking out in each of his four times at bat. Tuesday, he struck out in each of his first three plate appearances to mark seven consecutive plate appearances with a K to begin the series.
The span of seven straight strikeouts marked the longest of Walker’s career. It was the first time a Cardinal had whiffed his way into the history books to that extent since Tyler O’Neill went down on strikes seven straight times from August 10-12, 2022.
In years past, concentrated futility of that magnitude might have tanked Walker for weeks. But in 2026, that’s not the story.
Walker actually first pulled himself out of the funk late in Tuesday’s loss, with a seventh-inning RBI single. The backdrop of how Walker began the series, though, is still relevant after Wednesday’s finale against the Rangers, a game that so perfectly illustrates how Walker now bounces back.
Similar to the Cardinals in the context of the three-game series, Walker continued his rebound on Wednesday, contributing a 3-for-4 outing in St. Louis' win over Texas.
Walker reached on a fielder’s choice and scored a run in the bottom of the first as the Cardinals' lineup worked three walks and a single to push MacKenzie Gore in a 31-pitch inning. Walker collected base hits in each of his next three at-bats, scoring three of the Cardinals’ five runs in the win.
Among Walker’s contributions Wednesday was a key sixth-inning sequence that stood out to Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol.
With the Cardinals seeking insurance but seemingly due for a quick one-two-three frame, Walker found himself aboard with his third hit of the night.
Looking to generate something from scratch, and with the game situation dictating it, Walker used his speed to swipe second base, his eighth steal of the season.
That landed Walker in scoring position to turn Nelson Velázquez’s hit into an RBI.
“The confidence for him to be able to take that bag is something we didn’t see in the past,” Marmol said. “We’re just seeing him show up in different ways now. Defensively, it looks really good. Offensively, we’ve talked about it quite a bit. But on the bases, as well.
“He’s looking for opportunities to be able to impact the game on the bases. That was a big one, for sure.”
As quick as a hiccup, Walker had helped manufacture an insurance run, which would come in handy in establishing more breathing room after JoJo Romero allowed a pair of Rangers runs in the seventh inning. In a rebound of his own, closer Riley O’Brien recorded his 15th save of the season after permitting three runs in the ninth inning on Tuesday.
On Walker, Marmol described a distinction that he’s noticed in the developing slugger relative to his demeanor amid slumps in the past -- and it speaks to why, these days, he doesn’t stay down for long.
“I’m trying to figure out the best way to describe this because it’s like -- he’s mad about it rather than searching,” Marmol said. “There’s a difference there where you’re in that little lull for a week, and you start searching and things kind of speed up on you.
“You could just tell that he was mad at the fact that he was allowing himself to do that. And that’s a good sign.”