{"id":126946,"date":"2026-07-26T22:13:04","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T02:13:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=126946"},"modified":"2026-07-26T22:13:04","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T02:13:04","slug":"cardinals-standouts-9","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/07\/26\/cardinals-standouts-9\/","title":{"rendered":"Cardinals’ Standouts of the Week: Svanson, Soriano, and Herrera"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is time once again to identify the St. Louis Cardinals’ standouts of the week. The Cardinals are coming off a 2-5 week. Multiple things went wrong this week, but there were some bright spots. Who, or what, stood out the most? Who are the Cardinals’ standouts of this past week?<\/p>\n

Cardinals’ Standouts of the Week<\/h2>\n

Standout #3: Ivan Herrera<\/a><\/h3>\n

The All-Star<\/a> entered the week in a slump. Things did not get any better against the Anaheim Angels, as Herrera went 1-12 in the series. The slump resulted in the Panama native getting his first day off of the season. It is impressive that he played in all games before that point, but a day off to reset made sense.<\/p>\n

<\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n

The day off seemed to have helped Herrera. Against the Cincinnati Reds, Herrera recorded four hits in 12 at-bats. He hit a home run, drove in three runs, and hit his 11th home run of the season. Furthermore, he was behind the plate for the team’s 7-0 shutout win on Saturday. Herrera is not known for his game management as a catcher, so seeing the team record a shutout with him there is impressive. Of course, a lot of credit goes to Andre Pallante<\/a> for his seven shutout innings.<\/p>\n

Herrera entered the week as a slumping player. He ends it as a surging player\u2014a fitting resume to be one of the Cardinals’ standouts.<\/p>\n

Standout #2: George Soriano<\/a><\/h3>\n

Soriano has been a bright spot in an otherwise struggling bullpen. With JoJo Romero<\/a> out with appendicitis<\/a>, Soriano has taken an extended role since the All-Star Break.<\/p>\n

Soriano made three appearances for the Cardinals this week. He earned two holds against the Angels, pitching two innings and giving up just one hit. He had a rough outing on Friday, giving up a two-run home run and taking the loss against the Reds. However, the righty bounced back with a scoreless ninth inning in a game the Cardinals eventually lost in extra innings. Overall, it was an effective week.<\/p>\n

\"George
Jul 24, 2026; St. Louis, Missouri, USA; St. Louis Cardinals pitcher George Soriano (65) throws against the Cincinnati Reds during the seventh inning at Busch Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Soriano’s role with the Cardinals is interesting moving forward. If the Cardinals trade Romero<\/a> and\/or Riley O’Brien<\/a> at the trade deadline<\/a>, Soriano is the likely candidate to take over the closer role. He is under team control until 2031. Could he be the closer of the future? Possibly, but time will tell. For now, he is definitely one of the Cardinals’ standouts.<\/p>\n

Standout #1: Matt Svanson<\/a><\/h3>\n

Unfortunately, we end this week’s Cardinals’ standouts on a negative note.<\/p>\n

After a great 2025 season, Svanson is one of many struggling arms in the Cardinals’ bullpen. His week started fine, pitching two-thirds of an inning in a mop-up role, giving up zero runs. However, that is where the positivity ends.<\/p>\n

In the make-up game on Thursday, Svanson entered in the eighth inning with the Cardinals only down by two runs. Things then unraveled, as the 27-year-old gave up three runs to put the game away. On Sunday, Svanson started the top of the tenth inning and allowed three runs (two earned due to the ghost runner).<\/p>\n

Svanson’s ERA now stands at 7.23 for the season. He does have options left. The Cardinals need to consider sending him to the minors to give him a chance to straighten out. When he is on his game, he is an effective reliever<\/a>. When he is not, things get ugly fast, as the Cardinals saw twice this week.<\/p>\n

The Week Ahead<\/h3>\n

The Cardinals wrap up their homestand this week with a four-game series against the Chicago Cubs. It will be the Cubs’ last visit to Busch Stadium III in 2026. The Cardinals then leave the comforts of Busch and the United States, as they will head north to play the Toronto Blue Jays.<\/p>\n

As always, tune in next week to see the newest Cardinals’ standouts!<\/p>\n

Main Photo: Joe Puetz- Imagn Images<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is time once again to identify the St. Louis Cardinals’ standouts of the week. The Cardinals are coming off a 2-5 week. Multiple things went wrong this week, but there were some bright spots. Who, or what, stood out the most? Who are the Cardinals’ standouts of this past week? Cardinals’ Standouts of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3464,"featured_media":126948,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1071,25],"tags":[29390,6415,29388],"class_list":["post-126946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb","category-cardinals","tag-george-soriano","tag-ivan-herrera","tag-matt-svanson"],"modified_by":"Andrew Willis","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3464"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126946"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126946\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":126953,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126946\/revisions\/126953"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}