ST. LOUIS -- Atlanta is divided into six zones. The Sandtown neighborhood where Lawrence Butler grew up -- Zone 4 -- is where he first picked up a bat at the age of 3 and developed his love for baseball.

Throughout every level of pro ball, Butler has made it a point to pay homage to the area that molded him as a ballplayer by raising four fingers in the air as a home run celebration. On Tuesday night, Butler finally brought Zone 4 to the big leagues.

In the seventh inning of a 6-2 A’s loss to the Cardinals at Busch Stadium, Butler turned on a 1-1 slider from Dakota Hudson and launched a two-run shot halfway up the right-field bleachers for his first Major League home run.

“It was a surreal feeling,” Butler said. “You hit home runs throughout your whole career, but the first big league one is very special. It was a very cool moment.”

Just before crossing home plate, Butler paused, looked up to the sky and put up four fingers with each hand. As he made his way back to his teammates, Butler pointed to a section above the A’s dugout where his mother and several other family members were cheering in elation.

“I was born in New Jersey but I moved to Atlanta when I was 1,” said Butler, who chose the jersey No. 22 because its digits add up to four. “We moved to Zone 4, which is Southwest Atlanta. That’s just all I know growing up. It always reminds me where I come from and where I’ve made it from, so I’ll always throw up the fours.”

Upon returning to the visiting dugout, Butler walked through a tunnel of high-fives. At the end of the line, he removed his helmet and revealed a huge grin.

“That was an impressive swing,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay said. “I’m not sure the distance of the home run, but I know it was a lot further than I ever hit a ball. The kid’s got some power. He hit some balls like that in Triple-A.”

It was certainly a no-doubter, tagged at 111 mph off the bat with a Statcast-projected distance of a whopping 437 feet. The blast was just a few feet short of the longest first career home run by an A’s player in the Statcast era, held by Mark Canha, whose first long ball was a 440-foot blast on April 10, 2015, at the Coliseum.

Of course, power is just one of a handful of tantalizing tools in Butler’s bag that has the A’s excited about his future. In Monday’s series opener, Butler demonstrated his abilities as a center fielder by making a terrific sliding catch and throw to second base for his first Major League assist.

With five big league games under his belt, Oakland’s No. 5 prospect is quickly adapting to the highest level. It does help that fellow top prospects, such as Zack Gelof and Tyler Soderstrom, as well as rookie Jordan Diaz, have all been teammates of his throughout the Minors.

“He’s acclimating well,” Kotsay said of Butler. “These guys have all played together at some level in our system, so there is some culture there. They’re trying to form an identity. Lawrence came in here early this afternoon just asking questions about center field -- how he can improve and things he needs to work on. There’s a desire and work ethic.”

Sitting on the top shelf of Butler’s locker after the game was his first home run ball, which he was able to retrieve from the fan who caught the ball, thanks to Cardinals director of security Phil Melcher.

“A kid caught it and I had to sign a couple of balls for him,” Butler said. “I’m glad he got to catch it and give it back to me.”

Where will that baseball go next?

“I’ll put in a glass case,” Butler said. “Put it in my room and hope nobody ever touches it or steals it. I need that one.”