ST. LOUIS -- The moment wasn’t too big for Cardinals rookie JJ Wetherholt, and that was by design.
But it did finally hit him as he rounded the bases after hitting a two-run homer in the eighth inning.
“Going into that at-bat, I honestly don't even think I really knew the score,” Wetherholt said. “That's usually when something like that happens, because when you understand the score, you can let the moment get too big. So literally, I was just out there and … when I'm rounding the bases, I'm like, ‘Oh, shoot. Now it's a close game.’”
St. Louis' top prospect belted two homers and made a dazzling catch in the Cardinals’ 6-5 win in 10 innings over the Guardians on Tuesday night at Busch Stadium. It was the first multihomer game for the 23-year-old rookie, who has cemented his role as the team’s leadoff hitter.
Wetherholt’s dingers each came in different fashions, but both came off first pitches from lefties.
His solo shot in the third inning was a laser over the right-field wall that left his bat at 106.4 mph, according to Statcast. It was his first homer since Opening Day.
Wetherholt’s second long ball, a two-run shot in the eighth inning, left his bat at 99 mph but carried over the left-field wall for his first career opposite-field homer.
The outburst snapped a 7-for-41 stretch for Wetherholt since April 1.
“That's awesome from a confidence standpoint, because he's working hard,” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said. “And it's one of those ones where we've discussed it. You're not worried, because he knows what he's doing, how he's going about it, how he's going to get back to where it's expected. And it's good to see him doing it against two lefties, too.”
Most importantly, the second homer gave the Cardinals life after they surrendered three runs in the top of the eighth. They capitalized on that second chance in the bottom of the ninth, tying the game after Masyn Winn reached on a two-out error, went to second on a wild pitch and scored to tie the game on a Yohel Pozo double.
“It's always great when you can do something to help the team win,” Wetherholt said. “Especially [with] how hard hitting is at this level. To be able to square two balls up like that in the same game is really, really cool.”
Riley O’Brien held the Guardians off the board in the 10th and Nathan Church’s sacrifice fly scored Thomas Saggese in the bottom of the frame as the Cardinals improved to 4-0 in extra innings and notched their seventh comeback win of the season.
“It's given me a lot of gray hairs, but I'll take every one of them because you want to build an identity around them,” Marmol said. “You really do. You want these guys fighting to the very end.”
Iván Herrera hit his first homer of the season in the first inning and Jordan Walker singled to extend his hitting streak to 10 games.
Wetherholt also turned in a defensive gem in the fifth, leaping to snag a Brayan Rocchio line drive that left his bat at 104 mph.
“I was looking at Rocchio, he was maybe 10 feet away from me and he was just like, ‘No way,’” Cardinals starter Michael McGreevy said. “And he looked at me, and I looked at him, I'm like, ‘Wow, that was incredible.’”
McGreevy allowed two runs on four hits in five innings. Most notably though, his 24 fastballs averaged 92.1 mph. It is a positive uptick from the 90.7 mph average he had during his first three starts of the season.
The 92.1 mph average is more in line with McGreevy’s average fastball last season (93 mph).
“I was just trusting the process,” McGreevy said. “There's not this thing that was like, ‘Oh, I fixed this.’ This is just being intentional, having a good week of concentrated work, maybe taking a step back with how many throws I make throughout the week.”