Walker ties Teddy Ballgame with 9-game hitting streak to open career

MILWAUKEE – Nine video games into his MLB profession and Cardinals blossoming star Jordan Walker nonetheless doesn’t know what it’s prefer to go hitless on the recreation’s highest degree.

When Walker drilled a line drive into heart subject within the fourth inning of Sunday’s 6-1 loss to the Brewers, it prolonged his hitting streak to 9 video games, and it helped him tie a few MLB and Cardinals franchise information. The 6-foot-6, 245-pound outfielder who made the Cardinals roster with out ever taking part in a recreation at Triple-A has a success in every of the primary 9 video games of his profession. Walker, 20, joined two-time World Series champion Eddie Murphy (12 video games) and Hall of Famer Ted Williams (9 video games) as the one place gamers, 20 years previous or youthful, to report a success in at the very least 9 straight video games to start a Major League profession since 1900.

Also, Walker equaled Magneuris Sierra’s franchise report with a nine-game hitting streak to start a profession. Sierra had hits in his first 9 MLB video games with the Cardinals in 2017.

Walker drove Freddy Peralta’s 82.3 mph slider again up by means of the center for the fourth-inning single that plated Nolan Arenado and pulled the Cardinals inside 2-1. Not solely was it Walker’s eighth RBI, however it was additionally the fifteenth hard-hit (95 mph-plus) ball of his younger profession. Walker’s single left the bat at 108.3 mph, per Statcast.

Walker hit the second residence run of his MLB profession on Saturday — a scorching line drive that left the bat at 110.4 mph and caromed off the highest of the fence. He got here into Sunday within the 98th percentile in max exit velocity, the 93rd percentile in hard-hit proportion and 96th percentile in anticipated batting common. Cardinals supervisor Oliver Marmol predicted that huge issues are forward for the Cardinals’ prime prospect when he learns to get extra balls into the air.

“He’s willing to [work through that] process and he has awareness of it,” Marmol stated of Walker working to enhance the launch angle of the balls he hits arduous. “[Saturday’s home run] is one thing, for my part, he’ll proceed to do increasingly of, particularly with how arduous he hits balls.

“He finds the barrel, but he’s also under control,” Marmol added. “They’re not like these big swings; they’re under control. But he’s a very strong human.”