ST. LOUIS -- As Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol went through the list of players who have made sizable gains in terms of production at the plate in 2025, Iván Herrera led the way because of how his approach has matured and his swing has become more consistent.
Sure, the 25-year-old Herrera still needs to find a full-time position to play defensively after splitting time at catcher, left fielder and DH, but there are no longer questions about his viability as a middle-of-the-order thumper for the Cardinals.
Herrera hit his 13th home run -- and his second in as many nights -- as the Cardinals got a strong start from veteran right-hander Miles Mikolas to rally past the Athletics, 2-1, at Busch Stadium on Tuesday night.
“I don’t know, I’m just trying to hit the ball hard,” said Herrera, who hit his sixth go-ahead home run in the sixth inning or later -- tied with Phillies star Kyle Schwarber for the National League lead in that category. “If I’m hitting [home runs] in the late innings, that’s good, right? Helping the team win, that’s what I want to do at the end of the day.”
Trailing 1-0, the Cardinals started a rally against right-hander Hogan Harris, who replaced Luis Severino after he yielded just three hits over five scoreless innings of work in his return from the injured list. Victor Scott II drew a leadoff walk and then Herrera hit a two-out, two-run homer off a Michael Kelly sweeper to give the Cards the lead. Whereas Herrera’s homer on Monday produced his hardest-hit ball of the season (113 mph), his 414-foot smash on Tuesday left the bat at 107.7 mph, per Statcast.
Herrera homered in consecutive games for the second time this season. Of the 18 home runs he has hit in a career that has spanned parts of the past four MLB seasons, Herrera has cranked nine go-ahead long balls.
“This means a lot because all we care about is winning, and that [homer] put us in a really good position to win the game,” Herrera said. “We got Miles a win because he pitched really good today. I want to help him as much as I can.”
The Athletics figured to be a tough matchup for Mikolas, having hit 85 homers since the start of July -- the third-most in MLB, trailing only the Yankees and Mariners. Meanwhile, Mikolas had surrendered 24 homers since the start of May -- tied with Bailey Ober for most in MLB going into Tuesday night. None of that mattered on Tuesday as Mikolas kept the ball in the park and limited the Athletics to one run and five hits over six strong innings of work. He won for the first time since July 25 -- a stretch of six starts without a victory.
“I just wanted to keep the ball down in the zone because they like to swing and swing pretty early in the count,” said Mikolas, who needed just three pitches to get through the fourth inning -- the fourth Cardinals pitcher to face three batters and record three outs on three pitches in an inning since 2000 (position player Garrett Hampson did so on June 25 of this season, while Randy Flores and Mike James achieved the feat in 2008 and 2000, respectively). “I just wanted to keep the ball on the ground and let my defense work. They’re going to swing a lot and swing early, and I want them to swing at my pitches.”