Masyn Winn finally went deep Saturday, but the swing that produced the home run was one of the few clean moments in an otherwise messy afternoon. He went 1-for-5 in the win over the Astros in Houston, finishing with one run scored, two RBI and three strikeouts.
The homer mattered because it was his first of the season, and it came as the Cardinals won on April 19. Winn, 23, was batting.190 through 16 games after the game, with one home run, five RBI, eight runs scored and two stolen bases. It was a needed jolt for a player whose start has been slow enough that the one extra-base hit stood out more than the final line suggested.
There is still a bigger issue underneath the box score. Winn’s 27% hard-hit rate sat in the bottom-10th percentile, a number that fits with the view that he has never hit the ball extremely hard and that his hard-hit rate is bottoming out this year. That is the tension for the Cardinals: the defense, speed and occasional pop remain, but the bat has not yet caught up with the rest of his game.
The three strikeouts against Houston were part of the box score, though strikeouts have not been a major season-long problem for him. That keeps the focus on quality of contact, not just contact itself. For Winn, Saturday was a step forward in the most visible way possible, but the larger question is whether the home run marks a turn or just a brief interruption in a slow first month.
