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Jordan Walker on Comeback Cards: 'I've Always Believed We Had Something Special'
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- Jordan Walker on Comeback Cards: 'I've Always Believed We Had Something Special'
Cardinals ' manager Oli Marmol discusses the energy the bare-chested, shirt-waving section of fans brought to Busch Stadium on Friday — a 5-4 defeat of the Royals in 11 innings.
ST. LOUIS – Not long after Yohel Pozo came through with hisseventh pitch hit of the past two seasons and his second walk-off winner and theyoung and feisty Cardinals celebrated with the hundreds of bare-chested, shirt-wavingfans who sent an unexpected jolt of energy through Busch Stadium, star slugger JordanWalker shared a thought that has been percolating in the back of his brain forweeks.
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"Absolutely, I've always believed that we have somethingspecial here and I'm just glad we're showing it," Walker said after a pulsating5-4 defeat of the rival Royals in 11 innings on Friday. "As of right now, Ijust want to keep it going. That's the goal for us – keep the vibes high, keepthe energy levels up there."
The energy delivered by the Cardinals (26-18) caused BuschStadium to throb with raw emotion at several points on Friday night. The crowdroared when Walker crushed his 13th homer off an 0-2 Michael Wacha change up and again when Pedro Pages hit a slum-busting homer off the same grassyberm in center field. And the stadium air might have been filled with as muchnoise as it has had all season after the Cards pulled off their 14thcome-from-behind win, their MLB-best 10th one-run victory and theirsixth extra-inning triumph of what is starting to resemble a special season.
"I know that we have a group that's really tough," managerOliver Marmol said in response to a direct question about whether he feels theCardinals have something special cooking in a season that was supposed to beall about rebuilding. "They're going to play hard, play the game the right wayand be really hungry to improve – and they're going to have a lot of fun whilewe do it. So, that's what I know."
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Pozo came up prepared in 11th inning
After the Cardinals repeatedly stumbled all night in bigspots – they were just 2 for 13 with runners in scoring position with 12 menleft on base – Pozo rescued his teammates once again. The journeyman catcher,who clawed his way to the big leagues by being able to hit even after several daysin a row of inactivity, slapped the first pitch he saw into right field toplate Nathan Church and win the game. Pozo, who had the second-most pinch-hitRBI (seven) in MLB in 2025, was ready after for Steven Cruz 's 100.1 mphfour-seam fastball because of the work he did preparing himself in the battingcages just off the Cards dugout.
"I had been hitting since the sixth inning," said Pozo,whose voice was hoarse after celebrating Thursday's road win against theAthletics and again on Friday night. "When we went to extra-innings, I startedfacing all the pitchers we could face on the (simulation pitching machine). Ihad a lot of swings and I was ready."
Pozo, who started Thursday's game-winning rally with aninth-inning single , was so overjoyed by Friday's winning hit that he had to bereminded by first base coach Stubby Clapp to touch the bag. Afterward, the5-foot-11, 200-pound Pozo admitted that he was tempted to take off his jerseyand celebrate with the bare-chested, shirt-waving fans that clustered in theright field seats and tripled in size as the game continued.
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"We saw them jumping in the last three innings and morepeople were coming and more people were coming, and that was amazing," Pozosaid. "I've never seen that before since I've been here last year and thisyear, and it was really cool.
"I was about to take my jersey off and start doing it, butI controlled myself."
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Nolan Gorman , who had two hits and a big single in a 10thinning rally, agreed with Walker that the Cardinals truly have something cookinga little more than a fourth of the way into the season.
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"I think this group just plays together all nine innings ormore if we need to and we're having a lot of fun," Gorman said. "In past years,we might have said, 'Oh well, another one' and dropped those games, But, we'vegot guys who are willing to put it all out on the line. You can have a specialteam when you do that, and we've got that now."
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