The St. Louis Cardinals’ first series of the 2026 Major League Baseball season is over and it was a success, despite an 11-7 loss against the Tampa Bay Rays on Sunday.
Dustin May made his first start in a Cardinals jersey and things didn’t go as planned. May allowed six earned runs in four innings pitched. Not exactly what you want to see. On the bright side, though, the Cardinals launched three homers in the game, including two from guys who really need to get going this season: Nolan Gorman and Jordan Walker. Gorman, Walker and Pedro Pagés hit the three homers for the Cardinals.
The Cardinals went 2-1 against the Rays and will begin a three-game series on Monday against the New York Mets. The first series of the season brought a lot of positives for St. Louis. The biggest was the performance of JJ Wetherholt, of course. He launched the first homer of his career on Opening Day and a walk-off base hit on Saturday. He added another base hit on Sunday as well.
The Cardinals slugger had a good weekend
Mar 29, 2026; St. Louis, Missouri, USA; St. Louis Cardinals right fielder Jordan Walker (18) hits a two run home run against the Tampa Bay Rays during the fourth inning at Busch Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-Imagn Images | Jeff Curry-Imagn Images
Wetherholt looked great, but arguably the second biggest bright spot for the Cardinals in the first series of the season was the performance of Walker. The young outfielder dealt with some offensive struggles throughout camp that led some to be ready to send him down to the minors. The takes got pretty wild there for a little bit. The Cardinals, of course, didn’t send him down and he’s responded.
Walker is 4-for-10 on the season so far with one homer, six runs scored, three RBIs, one double and two walks. All of these numbers are positive. Obviously, the base hits and runs scored stand out, but the two walks in three games are important as well. He walked just 29 times in 2025 in 111 games played. He’s already got two under his belt in three games. If he can see the ball better in the zone — which he at least has shown so far — then that’s going to take his game to another level. In 2023, he had just 37 walks in 117 games as a rookie. If he’s not chasing and is able to take his walks, pitchers are going to have to attack him more in the zone, which will give him more to hit.
Overall, a very positive weekend for the young outfielder. Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat shared on X that this is the first series in which he has recorded at least three extra-base hits in a series since 2023.
“This is the first series in which Jordan Walker has recorded at least three extra-base hits since September 29-October 1, 2023, when he had three doubles in three games against Cincinnati,” Jones wrote.
This is the exact type of series Walker needed to kick off the season.