Cardinals' Nolan Gorman Might’ve Found a Turning Point in Astros Win

It was a good night for the St. Louis Cardinals overall on Friday.

After a day off on Thursday, the Cardinals returned to the field to face off against the Houston Astros on the road. Houston has been one of baseball's biggest surprises this season, like the Cardinals, but for a different reason. The Cardinals have been much better than many gave them credit for entering the season and the Astros have struggled, to say the least.

On Friday, the Cardinals faced off against Houston and came out on top, 9-4. Kyle Leahy had his best start of the season as he went five innings and allowed three earned runs while striking out six batters. The home run ball was a problem. He allowed five base hits, but three of them were homers. But he minimized the damage and looked good. The bullpen followed with four innings of one-run ball and both JoJo Romero and George Soriano stayed hot in the process with a scoreless inning each.

There were a lot of positives throughout the game, including Iván Herrera breaking out towards the top of the lineup. While this is the case, arguably, the biggest bright spot of the day was Nolan Gorman crushing his third homer of the season.

The Cardinals Slugger Woke Up

Apr 12, 2026; St. Louis, Missouri, USA; St. Louis Cardinals designated hitter Nolan Gorman (16) hits a one run sacrifice fly against the Boston Red Sox during the sixth inning at Busch Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-Imagn Images | Jeff Curry-Imagn Images

Nolan Gorman puts 3 big runs on the board with one swing! pic.twitter.com/9bXsfjpVT6
— MLB (@MLB) April 18, 2026

It wasn't a perfect day, by any means. Gorman went 1-for-5 with three strikeouts. But his three-run homer broke open the game and hopefully will be a sign of more to come. With Nolan Arenado out the door, the Cardinals opened the door for Gorman to have a big role in 2026. That's a good thing because there are few others in the organization with as much raw power as he has. But it's a bit more than that. It's also arguably the most important season of Gorman's career to this point.

In 2023, he hit 27 homers and drove in 76 runs and looked like he was on his way to stardom. But he has been inconsistent offensively since and hasn't reached that level of play again. When it comes to Gorman, it was easy to say over the last few years that the reason for this was a lack of consistent opportunities in the lineup. That's not the case this season, but he has still been slumping. Overall, he's slashing .207/.284/.362 in 18 games played. He has taken a significant step forward defensively, but he needs to show more offensively to be a core member of this team moving forward.

Hopefully, his homer on Friday is what gets him going now. The long ball helped the Cardinals win on Friday. Hopefully, it's a sign of what's to come next now for Gorman.

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