ST. LOUIS -- On a day that Lars Nootbaar wasn’t even supposed to play for the Cardinals amid his carefully-curated return to the St. Louis lineup following offseason double heel surgery, he became the unexpected hero in the Cardinals' 6-5 win over the Reds.
With the Cardinals trailing 5-4 in the bottom of the eighth inning, Nootbaar clubbed his first big league home run of 2026, sending the Busch Stadium crowd into a frenzy of ‘Nooooots’ until the beloved outfielder returned to the playing surface to acknowledge their curtain call.
The no-doubt blast traveled a Statcast-projected 433 feet and put the Cardinals ahead.
That put the game into Riley O’Brien territory. The Cardinals closer quickly readied to try and put a back-and-forth affair in the win column for St. Louis, but his appearance was anything but clean.
O’Brien breezed through two outs before allowing consecutive hits to tighten the moment. A walk to Spencer Steer jammed up the bases with Reds, bringing standout rookie Sal Stewart to the plate for all the marbles.
The final at-bat contained an ABS challenge win by both sides, culminating in a harmless grounder to second base to cement the Cardinals victory.