The St. Louis Cardinals are set to open up a weekend series with the Pittsburgh Pirates on Friday evening.
The Cards are one game below .500, and starting to fade in the NL Wild Card picture. While not all hope is lost, St. Louis will need to put together a winning stretch of baseball again shortly if they want to play October baseball.
Before the series began on Friday, the Cardinals announced a Jordan Walker change in the batting order.
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Jordan Walker Batting Cleanup for Series Finale
The Cardinals are coming off a series loss to the Baltimore Orioles, but are returning home for the Pirates series.
In St. Louis’s last game, Jordan Walker hit third for manager Oli Marmol.
He’s been switching between 3rd and 4th in the lineup, but on Friday, he is the Cardinals’ cleanup man, as he and Alec Burleson are flipping in the order.
Here’s the St. Louis Cardinals’ full batting order for 8/28, per @UnderdogMLB:
Cardinals 8/28: “J. Wetherholt SS I. Herrera DH A. Burleson 1B J. Walker RF J. Fermín 2B N. Church CF J. Báez LF N. Gorman 3B J. Crooks C Q. Mathews SP”
J. Wetherholt SS I. Herrera DH A. Burleson 1B J. Walker RF J. Fermín 2B N. Church CF J. Báez LF N. Gorman 3B J. Crooks C
Q. Mathews SP
Quinn Matthews is getting the start for the Cards, and Jimmy Crooks is forming a battery with him. St. Louis has endured some tough injury luck over the past week, but Matthews has been good in his first handful of starts in the bigs.
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Taking a Look at Jordan Walker This Season
Jordan Walker has enjoyed a breakout campaign thus far in 2026, and even if the Cardinals don’t make the playoffs, there is at least some excitement headed into 2027 due to Walker.
He’s batting .286 with 146 hits, 27 home runs, 97 RBI, 18 stolen bases, and an OPS+ of 139.
He earned an All-Star bid and won the home run derby in July.
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St. Louis Cardinals Announce Jordan Walker Change Before Pirates Series