ST. LOUIS -- Having been burned before by the pitcher-friendly environs of Busch Stadium, Cardinals outfielder Jordan Walker has learned to take nothing for granted when it comes to barreling up balls and assuming they will leave the park.

However, Walker knew that not even Busch could hold the ball he squared up in the seventh inning of the Cardinals' 6-1 loss to the Mariners on Friday night.

In a game the Cardinals could hardly afford to lose because of their precarious positioning in the chase for a National League Wild Card spot, Walker¡¯s Statcast-projected 405-foot home run proved to be the lone bright spot on Friday night. One pitch after being brushed back by an up-and-in fastball from Seattle right-hander Troy Taylor, Walker crushed a pitch that left the bat at 105.2 mph and would have been a homer in all 30 MLB ballparks.

¡°Busch Stadium is weird sometimes and you never really know what¡¯s going to get out, but I had a pretty good feeling that that one was gone,¡± said Walker, who homered for the second time in the Cardinals' past six games.

After hitting 16 homers as a rookie last season -- eight at home and eight on the road -- the 22-year-old Walker likely never would have guessed that his first Busch Stadium home run of 2024 would come the first week of September. However, Walker was sent down to Triple-A following a tepid 20-game start to the season, and his second stint with the Cardinals would last just 11 at-bats over a week¡¯s time.

Now, he's back and scheduled to play most every day for a Cardinals club eager to see if he can show the strides he¡¯s made over a mostly uneven season. His homer on Friday was his first at Busch Stadium since Sept. 17, 2023, against the Phillies.

¡°It¡¯s been a journey and I¡¯m feeling a lot better with my swing than I was at the beginning [of the season], that¡¯s definitely for sure,¡± said Walker, whose first home run of the season came last Sunday in Yankee Stadium as he was compiling his first five-hit game. ¡°I think my swing is fine, and I just need to be more selective on what I¡¯m trying to hit.¡±

The Cardinals didn¡¯t hit much at all against Seattle starter Bryce Miller, who allowed just three singles over six scoreless innings. Cards slugger Paul Goldschmidt came into the night hitting .477 with two homers, eight doubles and nine RBIs during his 11-game hitting streak, but he went hitless in four at-bats on Friday. Goldschmidt, whose power and production numbers have been at career-worst levels much of the season, used the hitting streak to raise his batting average from .226 to .247 during the hitting streak prior to Friday.

¡°[Miller] is a tough pitcher and I felt like he did a nice job against us,¡± said Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol. ¡°We took some other good at-bats, but we had nothing to show for it. We hit some balls hard, but not enough of them, obviously.¡±

Walker¡¯s hard contact came about because he¡¯s learned to lay off the sweepers that the Yankees and Brewers threw at him repeatedly on a six-game road trip where the Cards posted a 4-2 record. The 6-foot-6, 250-pounder said the keys to him having more success at the big-league level is laying off the tantalizing outside pitches that hurlers want him to swing at and being patient to hit mistakes that are over the heart of the plate.

¡°These [MLB pitchers] are really good, they locate, and they know what you like swinging at and what you don¡¯t swing at,¡± said Walker, who is 7-for-25 (.280) in his third stint with the Cardinals this season. ¡°They¡¯ve got good stuff, and they throw it off the plate a lot, so it¡¯s tough to lay off it. But seeing the ball more and getting more reps, I really think that will help with my plate discipline.¡±

Walker¡¯s growth was also evident in the sliding catch he made in the eighth inning to rob Mariners DH Justin Turner of a base hit. Walker used 28.9 feet-per-second sprint speed to cover the 119 feet needed to make the sliding catch.

¡°I think I¡¯ve definitely gotten better since last season because I¡¯m seeing the ball better and my reads are a lot better,¡± Walker said. ¡°I think there¡¯s still a lot of work to do, but as of right now I¡¯ve progressed a lot better than where I was last year.¡±