Walker posts second career multihomer game

Jordan Walker’s sophomore season just keeps on getting sweeter.

Facing No. 6 Mariners prospect Levi Stoudt, the Cardinals' top prospect notched his second career two-homer game as part of a three-hit, three-RBI day in Double-A Springfield’s 16-5 loss to Arkansas.

"[Arkansas] has really good pitchers, so my approach was just to attack whatever I felt like I could hit early, because getting late into a count is going to make it a difficult at-bat," Walker said. "I wanted to try and attack so I wouldn't get behind early."

Walker’s night was poised to be a special one from the get-go. On the very first pitch he saw, MLB’s No. 25 prospect drove in a run with his 14th double of the season off the righty Stoudt. With the aggressive approach yielding good results in the first turn, he stuck with it in his second at-bat and launched a first-pitch curveball over the wall in left-center for a solo blast.

When Stoudt exited the game with two outs in the fifth, Walker took one pitch from righty reliever Devin Sweet before teeing off on an outside offspeed pitch for his second solo dinger of the game and his sixth of the season. The last time he posted a multihomer game was Sept. 12 of last year with High-A Peoria.

"I wasn't going for another homer, but it happened," Walker said with a laugh.

Just two weeks removed from his 20th birthday, Walker has not shied away from Double-A pitching in his first time in the circuit. With his fifth three-hit game of the season, he raised his average to .321 and now has 45 multihit games (16 this season) through his first 123 career games.

The secret to his success? Just staying calm -- with a little help from his teammates.

"A lot of my teammates said I get really tense sometimes when I'm playing baseball, and that's really when I'm at my worst," Walker said. "When I'm calmed down and I let the game come to me, I feel like I do a pretty good job at the plate or in the field. It's something I struggled with sometimes last year, but I wanted to work on it this year. I feel like most of the year, I've felt myself relaxed on the field and at the plate, and I wanted to continue doing that."

The 21st overall pick of the 2020 Draft, Walker has as many walks as RBIs (25) with an OBP of .429 through 41 games. With 11 steals, he’s well on his way to surpassing the 14 bags he swiped in 82 contests last season.

Walker is just the latest in a crop of exciting young talent for the Cardinals. When he learned that Nolan Gorman and Matthew Liberatore were being called up, he immediately reposted the news on Instagram.

It's a fun time to be a Cardinals prospect, Walker said.

"Seeing Nolan crush the ball at the MLB level, and seeing Liberatore having really good outings, it's cool. You see those guys play in Spring Training and you learn from them coming in as a rookie," Walker said. "It really is exciting to see that, and waiting for my turn, it's exciting."