Nolan Arenado delivers walk-off home run to power Cardinals to 6-5 win over Brewers

Daniel Guerrero, St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Apr 26, 2025

Published in Baseball

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ST. LOUIS — A day after he helped the St. Louis Cardinals protect their one-run lead with a sharp defensive play at the plate vs. the Milwaukee Brewers, Cardinals third baseman Nolan Arenado powered them to a win with his walk-off home run.

When he stepped to the plate in the bottom of the ninth inning and one out after closer Ryan Helsley gave up a two-run home run in the top half of the frame, Arenado pulled a 97.8 mph fastball from Trevor Megill to left field for a solo home run that sent his teammates flooding out of the dugout and capped a 6-5 win Saturday at Busch Stadium over Milwaukee.

The walk-off home run was Arenado’s sixth of his career. The home run was the third of his season and helped his club secure a series over their National League Central rivals.

Arenado’s mighty swing bookended a carousel of doubles from his Cardinals teammates.

While the Cardinals (12-15) received RBIs from Lars Nootbaar (2 for 4), Brendan Donovan (2 for 4) and Pedro Pages (1 for 3), they received six innings and three runs allowed by starter Sonny Gray, whose start marked his third consecutive start of six or more innings by providing six innings and allowing three runs on seven hits and a season-high three walks.

Cardinals relievers Riley O’Brien (1/3 of an inning), Steven Matz (one inning) and Phil Maton (one inning) each tossed scoreless innings of relief before Helsey allowed the home run to Jackson Chourio with one out in the ninth inning.

Doubling up Priester

For the Cardinals’ bat to break open on Saturday, they combined for five doubles between the second, third and fourth innings to push across four runs against starter Quinn Priester.

At the designated hitter spot for a second consecutive game as he gets a “runway” consistent playing time, Nolan Gorman led off the second inning with a double down the right field line. A groundout to second base by Thomas Saggese advanced Gorman to third base, setting him up to score on a sacrifice to center field by Pedro Pages.

The Cardinals received a leadoff double from Masyn Winn that jump-started a two-run third inning that included doubles from Nootbaar and Donovan. Winn, who hadn’t doubled in 16 games to begin the year, doubled with one out and scored on a single from Nootbaar when the lineup turned over to the Cardinals’ leadoff hitter.

The Cardinals sent 14 batters to the plate between the third and fourth innings as they ran Priester’s pitch count to 85 pitches by the end of the fourth inning. Three of the five doubles against Priester had exit velocities above 100 mph, per Statcast, and were collected with hard base running by Cardinals batters.

Brewers’ triple-double inning

After keeping the Brewers scoreless and limited to two hits and a walk through four innings, Gray’s fifth inning proved to be his most troublesome. Milwaukee hitters forced Gray to throw 24 pitches as they produced three doubles and drew a walk to push across two runs.

Joey Ortiz was the first to reach bases against Gray with a double to center on a high fly ball to shallow left field that was out of reach from a diving Donovan. Ortiz’s fly ball appeared to get lost in the sun for Winn, which led to Donovan’s late charge and dive.

A double from Caleb Durbin, a Washington University in St. Louis product, gave Milwaukee its first run and a Chourio double plated Brice Turang from first base after Turang walked with two outs in the inning.

After a second mound visit in the inning, Gray escaped the frame by striking out Christian Yelich swinging on three pitches.

Scott’s and Saggese’s snags

Victor Scott II added a diving catch to his highlight reel in the fifth inning with a grab that stole a hit from Jake Bauers.

On a fly ball Bauers hit to the left-center field gap, Scott sprinted to the gap and leapt head-first to pluck Bauers’ fly ball out of the air for the inning’s first out. In the moments after the catch, Scott laid face down on the grass with his arm extended forward and mimicked a swimming motion before getting up to receive a high-five from left fielder Brendan Donovan.

As the Cardinals’ starting center fielder, Scott entered Saturday with a plus-three in Outs Above Average, which placed him in the top 4% of qualified major leaguers for that statistic, per Statcast.

When the bases filled up vs. Gray in the sixth inning, Saggese’s quick reaction to field a sharply hit ball from Ortiz that deflected off Gray’s glove helped prevent more than one run from scoring.

Ortiz line drive ball back up the middle, Gray reached out to try and snag the baseball but had it deflect off of his glove and continue on a path up the middle. As the ball bounced off the dirt once it had soared behind the second base bag, Saggese, with his back toward the home plate, lunged and made a play on the baseball to prevent it from reaching the outfield grass. Saggese quickly sat up and turned to second base to make a throw from the seat of his pants to Winn to complete a force out that kept the Brewers to their lone run in the inning.

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