Labor Day week started with the St. Louis Cardinals winning the series against the Athletics, but that was lowest priority for members of the organization and and fans of the team. On a Tuesday spot with KMOX, both manager Oli Marmol and hitting coach Brant Brown had strong criticism of struggling youngster Jordan Walker, causing speculation and conversation about the outfielder’s future fit.

When asked about the feedback, specifically about his need to prepare for his at-bats better, Walker seemed to disagree about the urgency in which change needed to happen, but also admitted that maybe he does need to take a leap forward. When the comments were made, Walker was slashing an anemic .220/.274/.313 and was striking out over 30% of the time. Despite the struggles, Marmol said he was “nowhere close” to giving up on him and he held to his word with Walker starting four of the next five games. Since the radio interview, the outfielder was 0-for-7 with three strikeouts but he was in the lineup again for the middle game against the San Francisco Giants.

In his first at-bat against legend Justin Verlander, Walker made a good swing but was not rewarded as his 103.3mph exit velocity grounder ended with a groundout. The former top prospect grounded out two more times before four straight Cardinals reached base in the bottom of the ninth, bringing Walker to the plate with the winning run on second and nobody out. Walker responded by hammering a hanging slider to left field for a walk-off double and brought the Cardinals within one game of .500 for the season.

Once again, Walker found his name in the starting lineup for the series finale against righty Kai-Wai Teng. The pitcher from Taiwan won the first battle when he got Walker to swing and miss at a high fastball, but Walker drew a four-pitch walk his second time through to set up a big inning for St. Louis. The walk, which was just Walker’s fifth since the end of July, was the first of three consecutive free passes to load the bases in the fifth inning of a scoreless game.

The Cardinals would cash in on the Giants’ pitching issues and pushed across four runs to give Sonny Gray a cushion as he started building momentum towards a no-hit bid. Those dreams ended quickly and so did the Cardinals’ chance for a shutout. Gray walked the first two batters in the sixth and then allowed a one-out RBI single to end the chance at either milestone. Another walk and RBI hit brought Matt Svanson in from the bullpen, who promptly allowed one more run to score before a strikeout and lineout ended the inning with the Cardinals clinging to a one-run lead.

The bottom of the inning brought Walker back up to the plate against a reliever, a situation which drew more focus from Brant Brown when the coach said Walker needs to be ready against the bullpen arms. Walker responded with a one-out 108.4mph single when he turned on a 96mph sinker. Unfortunately, the nice weekend for the 23-year-old ended in another strikeout where he chased a low slider out of the zone but he at least had a couple big moments after the public criticism.