PHILADELPHIA -- Last season, when shortstop Masyn Winn was showing off his vast potential as a hitter to the Cardinals, he admitted something that seemed outlandish at the time, but it was something he ultimately backed up with his bat.
“I’d rather hit off the best left-handed pitcher in baseball -- even off [Cy Young Award-winner] Chris Sale -- than I would against any right-hander,” admitted Winn, who smashed nine of his 15 home runs in 2024 off southpaws.
Uncharacteristically struggling most of this season against lefties, Winn finally did some significant damage in a key spot on Monday when he drilled a high fastball off Phillies lefty Matt Strahm for the go-ahead homer that lifted the Cardinals to a 3-2 victory and their ninth consecutive win.
“I just feel like we’re just playing free,” Winn said of MLB’s longest winning streak of 2025. “Obviously, we’ve been winning a lot of games, but we show up every day pretending like we’re still negative. We’re fighting every day to try and get a win. And, it’s been a lot of fun, especially of late with Willson [Contreras] diving and [Nolan Arenado] tagging up on a fly ball to center field. That’s huge for our team, and seeing our veterans do stuff like that pushes the younger guys.”
Winn entered Monday just 2-for-26 against left-handed pitching, and his .077 batting average plunged even lower when he failed to get a hit in his first two at-bats against Phillies star left-hander Cristopher Sánchez. However, Winn didn’t miss in the seventh inning when Strahm left a 91.4 mph four-seam fastball up. The Cardinals’ shortstop smashed it a Statcast-projected 377 feet into the seats in left field. The shot left Winn’s bat at 101.5 mph. It was the first home run allowed by Strahm this season, who grimaced noticeably when the ball left the bat.
“I was really sitting [on a high fastball],” Winn said. “I was watching [Jose] Barrero’s at-bat earlier in the inning and [Strahm] attacked him the same way with that first-pitch slider and going up. I was sitting dead red for something up, and I took a hack. It probably doesn’t get out of Busch [Stadium], but you know here the ball flies, so I’m glad that I hit it here.”
Slogging along at 14-19 in early May and looking like the team that had its intentions set on rebuilding in 2025, the Cardinals came alive at an unlikely time. Following a day off due to a rainout, the Cards then swept a doubleheader from the red-hot Mets on May 4. They tore through the Pirates (May 5-7) and Nationals (Friday-Sunday), beating aces Paul Skenes and MacKenzie Gore along the way.
What the Cards did on Monday -- beating a Phillies team that came in as winners of 11 of its previous 14 games -- had the feeling of a truly special accomplishment. It pulled St. Louis to 10-10 against teams with winning records and 3-1 this season against the Phillies. (The Cardinals also won the April 11-13 series in St. Louis.)
“That was really good all the way around. I’d say a win like that gives that group some good confidence in knowing that they can hang with anybody,” said manager Oliver Marmol, whose club has its longest winning streak since September 2021, when it extended its winning spree to a franchise-record 17 games.
Winn’s shot made a winner out of quickly blossoming right-hander Kyle Leahy, who worked out of a jam in the sixth and pitched 2 1/3 innings of scoreless relief. It’s been quite a climb to leverage reliever for the 27-year-old Leahy, who spent six seasons and seven years in the Minor Leagues, had a 21.60 ERA in three big league outings in 2023 and was optioned to Triple-A Memphis five times in 2024. On Monday, Leahy found himself up against superstar slugger Bryce Harper deep into his pitch count and the Citizens Bank Park sellout crowd of 42,513 roaring with noise.
As he’s done all season, Leahy got the best of Harper by striking him out looking. On Monday, he added his first win of 2025 to his team-best nine holds and a sterling 1.09 ERA.
“I’ve said this before, but it doesn’t matter what situation I come into because the goal is always to put up a zero,” Leahy said. “The situation doesn’t really change. The mindset doesn’t really change. I just try to be the same guy every day.”
Winn has been the same guy against lefties since he broke into the big leagues in 2023: He loves hitting them, and he often does damage.
“It’s been weird this year because I haven’t been hitting [lefties] well, but I feel super comfortable against them,” Winn said. “That’s probably it -- I feel super comfortable against them, and their pitches find my barrel for some slug.”