Nathan Church Saves Cardinals With Walk-Off Home Run Robbery

The St. Louis Cardinals outfielder made one of the better catches you're going to see.

Apr 26, 2026; St. Louis, Missouri, USA; St. Louis Cardinals left fielder Nathan Church (27) catches fly ball hit by the Seattle Mariners in the seventh inning at Busch Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Joe Puetz-Imagn Images | Joe Puetz-Imagn Images

The St. Louis Cardinals are young and hungry and are finding a way to excite the fanbase on a nightly basis at this point.

If you're hesitant on that point, look no further than how Nathan Church ended the game for the Cardinals on Wednesday night. St. Louis will conclude a four-game series against the Pittsburgh Pirates on Thursday, but it already has won the series. The Cardinals have won the first three games of the series, including a wild 5-4 win on Wednesday night.

There was a brief moment when it looked like the Pirates were going to walk off with the win. In the ninth inning, the Pirates had Nick Gonzales at the plate and it looked like he had a walk-off homer to left field. Instead, St. Louis had a walk-off home run robbery, thanks to Church.

What A Play By Nathan Church

Apr 29, 2026; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; St. Louis Cardinals left fielder Nathan Church (27) gets the game ball after defeating the Pittsburgh Pirates at PNC Park. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images | Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images

NATHAN CHURCH ROBS A WOULD-BE WALK-OFF HOMER 🤯@CARDINALS WIN! pic.twitter.com/4cz5zHWJXm

— MLB (@MLB) April 30, 2026

Now, that's wild. You see plenty of walk-off homers each year. But how many walk-off home run robberies do you see? That's significantly rarer.

Church has been doing a lot for the franchise lately. The 25-year-old actually entered the contest as one of the Cardinals' hottest hitters after crushing three homers in his last four games. On top of that, he entered Wednesday night's contest slashing .321/.333/.750 over his last seven games.

His bat didn't make much of an impact on Wednesday. Church went 0-for-4 in the win. But that doesn't matter when you pull off a walk-off home run robbery. He found a way to impact the game, even though he struck out twice. That's impressive. Now, again, you're not always going to see a game end like this. But having a young guy still find a way to make an impact even when he didn't do anything offensively is growth. You're not going to get hits every day. But you still have to find a way to help. That could be good defense. It could be work on the base paths. It could simply be leadership in the clubhouse. No matter what, you have to be able to compartmentalize and that's what Church did on Wednesday.

His bat wasn't doing anything, so he made the biggest play of the night with his glove instead. If you're a Cardinals fan, you should be really excited about the way Church is playing. He struggled to begin the season, but he's finding his footing.