ATLANTA — While the final estimate came shy of how it felt, Alec Burleson figures he has yet to hit a pitch any better than one he catapulted onto the roof of a restaurant Sunday afternoon at Truist Park. The solo homer, one of four hit by the Cardinals in the game, hugged the right field line and appeared to be headed for the foul pole until it appeared as if it might clear the foul pole.
It skipped on the roof of the Chop House, three stories over the right-field wall and an estimated 435 feet away from where it left Burleson’s bat.
A conservative estimate, to be sure.
“That’s probably my best bolt,†he said. “I got all of that. All I had.â€
Far easier and more reliable to measure is all he’s given to the Cardinals.
The team’s sudden leader in power numbers galore, Burleson added two more RBIs as the Cardinals outslugged Atlanta for a 6-2 victory Sunday. The win claimed the first series following the All-Star break and assured the Cardinals of the tiebreaker against the Braves by winning the season series, four games to two, if needed for playoff seeding.
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Burleson had six RBIs in the weekend visit, moving into a tie with Aaron Judge’s 41 RBIs for the most in the majors since June 1. Burleson leads the Cardinals in home runs, slugging percentage and RBIs and has provided all of it at a time when other power sources have been injured or struggling.
“He’s been leading the charge,†Paul Goldschmidt said.
“Burly,†Matt Carpenter said. “The former college rapper who has been carrying us at the plate.â€
About the same time Burleson became an everyday and prominent member of the lineup, moving eventually to the No. 2 spot, his teammates embraced and then edited a nickname he claimed in college. A roommate had a turntable, and Burleson would grab the headphones and start spinning records. He called himself “DJ Burly Biscuits.†Even had it stitched onto his glove in college, he said.
And yes, “Biscuits,†plural.
“Yeah,†Burleson said. “Multiple biscuits.â€
Kyle Gibson shortened the nickname from “Burly Biscuits†to just “Biscuits,†and outfielder Lars Nootbaar drew inspiration from the “DJ†part for a celebratory hand gesture he urged Burleson to do. It was clear he’d get plenty of opportunity.
At a time when Willson Contreras and Nootbaar were on the injured list and Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado were scuffling to provide power, Burleson has. An essential part of the Cardinals’ climb back to a winning record and into a playoff spot, snug beside Atlanta, was how Burleson expedited the offense. His slugging while others struggled meant a swing from him could produce two runs instead of relying on a series of singles to conjure one run.
“You’re missing a power bat,†Marmol said. “You’re missing a guy who was doing a lot of damage in Contreras prior to the injury. He was a scary hitter. And when you lose that, somebody has to step in and just produce. ... When you look at the games that we’ve won, our margins are pretty thin, so his production has been important.â€
A weekend series delayed by Friday’s thunderstorms became quickly defined by bolts such as Burleson’s. Atlanta hit four solo homers in Saturday night’s game, but a steady downpour of offense kept the Cardinals ahead to split the doubleheader. Burleson had three hits in the win and a sacrifice fly, thrice delivering a run to harden the Cardinals lead.
The hitter-friendly Truist and the homer-happy Atlanta lineup had pitcher Miles Mikolas attention as he readied for his first start of after the break. Mikolas wanted to drive his pitches lower, so he pulled out a string for a recent bullpen session and stretched it between two stakes atop home plate. He then tried to strum it with pitches to calibrate his aim for low, low, low.
In six innings Sunday, he got three double-play ground balls.
“This is a team where you look at them and there’s big swings, big guys and a lot of pop up and down the lineup,†said Mikolas (8-8) of the Braves. “It’s definitely a group you want to keep on the ground.â€
The Cardinals took to the air quickly. In his first start for the Cardinals at No. 7 in the lineup, Goldschmidt homered in the first. Burleson followed with his blast in the third. Nootbaar added a solo homer in the fourth, and Contreras hit his 11th homer of the season in the eighth. Burleson mixed in an RBI single, and the Cardinals stole a run in the ninth to give closer Ryan Helsley added insurance for his first inning since the break.
A few hours after describing how the season had forced them to win some games in ways they did not expect, Marmol agreed this is a win like they imagined.
Right according to script.
“You get homers from Contreras and ‘Goldy’ and ‘Noot’ and ‘Burly,’†he said. “You get Miles doing what he does — attacking the zone, having a low pitch count, getting guys on the ground. We played good defense. This is the style of ball that we’re used to playing. Seeing the bats come alive and doing more damage is obviously a good thing.â€
And in the midst of it all is the breakout hitter for the Cardinals this season.
Biscuits.
Gifted with a knack for contact, Burleson wows teammates with his ability to reach a pitch just before or after it bounces and also drill a pitch that’s above the zone. Burleson could “roll out of bed and hit,†his manager once said, and he felt confident that hit could be a single. What Burleson worked to enhance was his ability to do damage — to lay off the pitches early in the count that he could poke for a single and coax out the pitch he could plant on top of a roof somewhere. Adjusting that approach has led to this surge.
His 13 homers since June 1 are second in the National League to Shohei Ohtani’s 16. In his previous 42 games, he has the 41 RBIs and a .915 OPS to go with 100 total bases and a .592 slugging percentage.
“I’ve always been a hit-for-average guy, and I can getting pitches when I need to,†Burleson said. “I’ve run into a couple more this year than I thought I would. The power has always been there. It’s just a matter of getting the right pitch and the right count and doing damage with that pitch and trying to drive it rather than just take my single the other way.
“I’m going to take my singles when I need to.â€
Spoken like a DJ.
Biscuits plays the hits.