All the hours Nathan Lukes spent in front of a computer, watching videos of his swing, will have been beneficial for the Toronto Blue Jays outfielder.
With a couple of fixes, the 30-year-old Californian had a stellar run this weekend, capped off Sunday with a walk-off double in the eighth inning that gave the Blue Jays a 3-2 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals and a sweep of their three-game series.
In that interleague series, Lukes had five hits in 14 plate appearances, including two doubles in Game 3.
His second double Sunday came with one out. Lukes hit a line drive deep into left field, allowing speedy George Springer to cross home from first base. Springer had singled to center as a reliever.
“I was leaning over the plate a little too much and getting beat with pitches to the inside corner,” Lukes said. “Luckily, I found a solution [for that problem].”
Lukes’ double off pitcher Andrew Kittredge (4-5) secured the Blue Jays (72-78) a fifth sweep in 2024, while the Cardinals (74-75) left Toronto with a sub-.500 record.
Lukes and Kittredge know each other from playing together in Durham, at the AAA level.
“I knew how his pitches were going to react. I was just waiting for a pitch in the [strike] zone and I wanted to make a good swing.”
Ontario’s Zach Pop (2-4) faced just one batter, but he got the final out in the top half of the eighth inning to earn the win.
Chad Green led off the ninth with a single, but he recovered and retired three of the next four batters for his 17th save of the season.
The Cardinals made it 2-2 in the seventh inning on a home run to right field by Lars Nootbaar, his 10th in 2024, off reliever Ryan Yarbrough as the first batter of the inning.
The visitors had taken a 1-0 lead when catcher Ivan Herrera led off the fifth inning with a single. One out later, he reached home on Jordan Walker’s double that hit the center-field fence.
The Blue Jays responded with two runs in the bottom half of the inning, thanks to a home run by Davis Schneider, his 12th of the season, with a teammate on base. It was his second home run in as many games.
Cardinals starter Miles Mikolas faced the minimum 12 batters over the first four innings. However, he led off the fifth by hitting Leo Jimenez.
Schneider made him pay for his mistake with his slap to left field, after one out.
Mikolas pitched five innings, giving up two runs, three hits and no walks. He recorded four strikeouts.
Yariel Rodriguez, who started the game on the mound for the Blue Jays, pitched only 4 ⅓ innings. He allowed one run, three hits, two walks and struck out two.
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