A Cardinals Rookie Just Did Something Only Pujols and Boyer Had Done Before Him

JJ Wetherholt picked a hell of a day to go deep twice. Father’s Day. National TV audience. Rivalry game against the Royals. And now he’s sitting in a record book that includes Albert Pujols and Ken Boyer. Not bad for a guy who wasn’t even supposed to be on this roster when the season started.

OptaSTATS flagged it Sunday. Wetherholt became the third Cardinals rookie ever to have two multi-homer games before July. The other two? Albert Pujols in 2001 and Ken Boyer in 1955. That’s the kind of company that gets people talking in St. Louis, where they remember what Pujols did during that 2001 Rookie of the Year campaign.

The kid didn’t waste any time either. He went yard in the first inning off the Royals starter. Then he did it again in the second. Back-to-back innings with home runs. Paul Goldschmidt was the last Cardinal to pull that off back in 2022, and Goldschmidt’s an MVP winner. Wetherholt’s a rookie who wasn’t on anyone’s draft board this time last year.

The Cardinals are quietly becoming a problem

St. Louis sat at 41-34 after Sunday’s 12-10 win, good for second place in the NL Central. That’s not where the experts had them. Before the season, the Cardinals traded away Sonny Gray, Brendan Donovan and Nolan Arenado. Most national writers wrote them off as a rebuild project. A dead team walking.

But somebody forgot to tell the guys actually wearing the uniforms. This team is pushing the Brewers for first place and they’re doing it with a bunch of kids. Wetherholt’s been the engine lately. He’s hitting .400 over his last seven games with 12 homers and 34 RBIs on the season. Those aren’t rookie numbers. Those are “hey, maybe they found their guy” numbers.

The win snapped a three-game losing streak for St. Louis, which was starting to feel like a rough patch after how well they’d been playing. Next up is a series against the Diamondbacks on Monday. Arizona’s been scuffling lately, so the Cardinals have a chance to build some momentum before the All-Star break.

Nobody’s saying Wetherholt is the next Pujols. That’s an unfair expectation for any rookie. But he’s giving St. Louis fans something real to believe in during a season that was supposed to be about figuring out who stays and who goes. Instead, it’s turning into a race.