Winn homers in Houston homecoming: 'A dream come true'

HOUSTON -- Cardinals rookie Masyn Winn had a memorable game in his hometown on Tuesday night against the team he grew up watching.

Winn hit one of three home runs for the Cardinals as part of their 8-5 loss to the Astros at Minute Maid Park as St. Louis lost its fourth in the past five games, but it was a night the 22-year-old shortstop won’t soon forget.

Playing in front of friends and family, Winn had a career-high-tying three hits, including a two-run homer in the sixth inning. He also drew a 10-pitch walk in the second.

“It’s amazing,” Winn said. “I got just about everybody in my family here today. My grandparents made the trip down from Austin. My grandma had to stay at the house, but my papa made it out to the game. To be able to do that in front of him -- the first game he’s ever seen me play, it could be the last. I’m glad he got to witness that.”

Winn graduated from Kingwood High School about 30 minutes northeast of Minute Maid Park and attended numerous games at the ballpark growing up.

“It was a lot of fun,” Winn said. “I got a couple cheap hits, I got the homer. That was huge. And a nice walk. It was great out there trying to compete, trying to give my team a chance to win. To do it here makes it a little more special.”

Winn homered in the sixth into the Crawford Boxes in left.

“It felt like everything I’ve ever dreamed of,” he said. “I’ve seen [Jose] Altuve hit a lot of balls over there when I was growing up, and a lot of other guys, too. To be on the same field as that team and perform well against them, it’s really a dream come true to me.”

During the game, Winn said he tried not to look up into the stands at his family, but he couldn’t help it for his home run trot.

“During the home run, I gave them an ‘I love you’ sign when I was about to round third base,” Winn said. “They’re always in the back of my mind. I know they’re up there cheering me on.”

Winn has three home runs in his last 15 games after going homerless in his first 39 games this season.

Winn wasn’t alone in going deep, as Alec Burleson and Nolan Gorman each homered for the third consecutive game, the longest streaks by a Cardinals player this season.

Burleson hit a solo shot in the first inning for a second straight night for his eighth home run of the season.

Gorman homered to lead off the seventh to cut the Houston lead to 7-5. It was Gorman’s team-leading 14th homer of the season.

“We battled back, took some really good at-bats,” St. Louis manager Oliver Marmol said. “Masyn had a really good game with the homer. You got Gorman, you got Burleson continuing to swing it really well. … Overall, I felt the rest of that game was good, battling back after giving up six early runs was impressive to see.”

Andre Pallante allowed six runs on six hits with three walks in three innings.

“He didn’t get ahead,” Marmol said. “He was inconsistent with his overall command. [The Astros are] a group that knows what they’re doing. They had a really good approach against him as well.”

Pallante surrendered two runs in the first on RBI groundouts by Yordan Alvarez and Jake Meyers.

After settling down in the second, the Astros jumped on Pallante in the third, sending nine batters to the plate. Pallante gave up a one-out RBI double to Jeremy Peña and a three-run homer to Yainer Diaz.

“I just didn’t execute my pitches as well as I needed to get hitters out,” Pallante said. “I walked too many guys, was behind in counts.”

It was a far cry from his first start of the season on May 29, when he threw six scoreless innings against the Reds.

“When you fall behind against those guys, it’s a veteran group that knows what they’re doing, that can execute a game plan,” Marmol said. “They were in some hitter-advantage counts throughout the entire game against Pallante, and they took advantage of it.”