Crawford has breakout game for Cards with his kids at park

PHILADELPHIA -- As loud as Brandon Crawford’s five children were cheering upon seeing their dad go deep at Citizens Bank Park, the veteran shortstop was rooting just as hard for Masyn Winn when the rookie pinch-hit for him in the seventh inning.

Winn, after all, came to the plate against Phillies left-hander Matt Strahm with an 18-game hitting streak on the line. Because the Cardinals purposefully scheduled an off-day for Winn as a preventative measure for the back issues he dealt with early in the season, the at-bat proved to be the rookie’s only chance to try to extend the second-longest hit streak among rookies in Cardinals history.

“He kind of got put in that situation where he only had one at-bat to continue his hit streak, and that was the last thing I wanted, and I was rooting as hard as anybody in the dugout for him,” the 37-year-old Crawford said after the Cardinals’ 4-2 loss to the Phillies. “The fact that [Winn] was willing to do that and potentially end his hitting streak says a lot about him. He doesn’t care as much about that as he does helping the team win.

“I’d be surprised if an 18-game hit streak is his career high at the end of it.”

Winn’s hit streak came to an end when he flied out to deep left. At the time, the Cards were trailing just 3-2, and Winn proved to be the best option when the Phillies surprisingly pulled starter Aaron Nola and turned to Strahm. After all, Winn had been 25-for-68 (.368) during a hitting streak that began on May 5 and was highlighted by three two-strike hits on Wednesday in Cincinnati.

Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said he didn’t take Winn’s personal-best hit streak lightly and he fretted about whether he should use the rookie at some point as a pinch-hitter. He eventually talked to Winn about the scenario during batting practice.

“It’s the only thing I thought of all morning and it’s the first thing I thought of when I woke up because I care about it, especially for Masyn and the job he’s been doing,” Marmol said. “I asked Masyn, ‘Hey, if this presents itself, what do you want to do?’ He said, ‘I want to win a ballgame. Put me in there.’

“So, I do care about [the hitting streak]. It was the one decision I didn’t want to have to make all day. It’s a one-run ballgame, and if you ask him if he wants to extend [the hit streak] one more day or win the division, I’m pretty sure he’d be pretty clear on which he’d prefer.”

Winn, who said earlier in the week that he would prefer to face even the game’s toughest left-handed pitcher over just about any right-hander, was more mad about flying out than seeing his streak end.

“The lefty came in, and you’ve got to bring me in in that situation and I’ve got to get the job done and get on base,” said Winn, whose 18-game hit streak as a rookie is one more than that of Albert Pujols (2001) and close friend Jordan Walker (2023), but shy of the 25 games by Joe McEwing in 1999. “We’ve got to go for the win every day. That definitely sucks to get one AB, but with the lefty coming in, you don’t want [Crawford] facing left on left because that’s tough. I’ve just got to get the job done and get on base.”

Crawford, the four-time Gold Glover and two-time World Series champion with the Giants, was signed by the Cardinals on Feb. 27 as veteran insurance behind Winn. Crawford played 143 games or more every year between 2012-19, but now he’s in a role where he rarely plays -- something that has been exacerbated by Winn’s rousing success. Even though he was playing for just the fifth time in May on Friday, Crawford drilled a solo homer 410 feet off Nola, had another line-drive single and made a nifty diving stop to rob Nick Castellanos of a hit.

“It’s way different, for sure,” Crawford said of his new role. “I’ve been going through different prep work to try and figure out what works best for translating it into games.”

Crawford said a motivating factor for playing this season was wanting his kids to see him play. With the kids fresh out of school, wife Jalynne brought the crew to Philadelphia for the weekend series, and they timed it perfectly with Brandon hitting his first homer in a Cards uniform.

“I saw a video that my wife sent me, and they were really excited,” he said.