Jordan Walker's 5 hits, Lars Nootbaar's 5 RBIs lead Cardinals to 14-7 win over Yankees

NEW YORK (AP) — Jordan Walker went 5 for 5, Lars Nootbaar hit a bases-clearing two-strike double in the seventh and added a two-run homer in the ninth, and the St. Louis Cardinals beat the New York Yankees 14-7 on Sunday.

New York's lead in the American League East over Baltimore was trimmed to a half-game.

Walker hit a long two-run homer in the fifth and drove in three runs. Walker had the first five-hit game by a Cardinal since teammate Matt Carpenter in 2018 after going 1 for 8 in his first two games following his recall from Triple-A Memphis.

At 22 years, 102 days, the former first-round pick became the third-youngest Cardinal to get five hits in a game, trailing Frank Snyder (21 years, 86 days on Sept. 21, 1915) and Rogers Hornsby (20 years, 62 days on June 28, 2016).

“I think five-hit days are sick,” Walker said. “It’s very nice to have for sure but I’m always confident in my abilities. But it’s definitely nice.”

Afterwards, Walker had a signed baseball to celebrate the occasion from pitcher Kyle Gibson, the home run ball and a signed scorecard from St. Louis television play-by-play broadcaster Chip Caray.

“It’s good to see him out there and just doing what he did today,” St. Louis manager Oliver Marmol said about Walker. “Obviously he’s not going to five knocks every day, but he stayed on the ball extremely well and just looks like he’s having fun out there.”

Nootbaar followed Walker’s fourth hit by lifting a fly ball to right field. New York’s Juan Soto appeared to struggle getting a read on the ball and it went over his head as the Cardinals took a 10-7 lead.

“I didn’t know, I was hoping here with the shorter right field that maybe it could distract him or something,” Nootbaar said of Soto’s read. “I was just hoping for anything at that point.”

“He just hit a line drive, it got good backspin and it just went over my head,” Soto said.

Nootbaar set a career high with five RBIs and had his fourth hit to give the Cardinals a lead in the seventh or later this season.

Victor Scott II hit an RBI double and scored on a throwing error by reliever Phil Bickford as the Cardinals set season highs for runs and hits (21) and were 8 for 18 with runners in scoring position.

St. Louis had double-digit hits for the sixth time and seven games and finished with at least 20 hits for the first time since totaling 23 at Cincinnati Sept. 1, 2020.

Nootbaar blasted his ninth homer after Walker opened the ninth with his fourth single.

Anthony Rizzo hit an RBI double to start a three-run fifth ahead of run-scoring singles by Alex Verdugo and Gleyber Torres. Anthony Volpe hit an RBI single and Torres lifted a tying sacrifice fly in the sixth but the Yankees lost for the fourth time in six games and gave up their most hits since allowing 24 to Cleveland on Aug. 15, 2019.

“We just couldn’t close out that inning,” New York manager Aaron Boone said. “I think we were still tied with two outs and they got all five of those runs. So, one of those games.”

JoJo Romero (6-2) retired Soto to end the sixth and set up the big inning for the Cardinals.

Walker hit his first homer since Sept. 17 to push the St. Louis lead to 7-2. He also had an RBI single in the second to give the Cardinals a 1-0 advantage.

Rookie Masyn Wynn hit a two-run double and Luken Baker hit a two-run homer in a four-run fourth off Nestor Cortes for the Cardinals, who were 0-7 in the regular season at Yankee Stadium before winning the final two games of the series.

Giancarlo Stanton homered and Jazz Chisholm Jr. scored on an error in the second. Aaron Judge remained at 51 homers, going homerless for the sixth straight game.

St. Louis starter Miles Mikolas allowed five runs (three earned) and seven hits in four-plus innings.

Cortes allowed five runs and nine hits in four innings.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Cardinals: LHP Steven Matz, who last appeared April 30, was activated after completing his rehab from a back injury and could start later this week. … OF Michael Siani also was activated after missing nearly a month with a strained right oblique and will join the team Monday in Milwaukee.

Yankees: RHP Luis Gil (lower back strain) threw 80 pitches in 3 2/3 innings in a rehab game for Double-A Somerset. … RHP Clarke Schmidt (strained right lat) will pitch in Somerset’s makeup game at Binghamton on Monday. Both pitchers could return to the rotation next weekend against the Cubs in Chicago. … RHP Ian Hamilton (strained right lat) threw a bullpen session Sunday and will make a rehab appearance for Somerset Wednesday.

UP NEXT

Cardinals: RHP Andre Pallante (6-6, 3.80 ERA) opposes RHP Freddy Peralta (9-8, 3.70) in the opener of a three-game series Monday in Milwaukee.

Yankees: RHP Gerrit Cole (5-3, 3.86) opens a three-game series in Texas Monday. Rookie RHP Jack Leiter (0-1, 12.83) will likely start for the Rangers.

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

Larry Fleisher, The Associated Press