Central STL News

Yohel Pozo delivered a key RBI single late in the game to help the St. Louis Cardinals secure a 3-2 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium. Pozo’s hit drove in pinch-runner Garrett Hampson and marked another strong performance as a pinch-hitter, improving his season stats in that role to 6-for-12 with two doubles, a home run, seven RBIs, and four go-ahead RBIs.

“I always get ready as soon as the sixth inning hits and you can pinch-hit me any time after I get some swings in, get my body ready and get a sweat going,” said Pozo, who hit a 95.9 mph cutter from Brock Stewart to drive in Hampson. “Even if we’re losing by a lot, I go hit and if we’re winning by a lot, I go hit.

“So, I’m always ready to hit. But if you ask me if I was able to do this at the beginning of the year, I’d say, ‘I don’t know.’ But it makes me super happy to do this.”

Pozo’s path to this moment has been challenging. He grew up in Maracaibo, Venezuela, practicing his swing by hitting black beans thrown by his father and grandfather. His father played Minor League baseball but did not reach the majors; Pozo himself spent over a decade in the minors before brief MLB time with Texas in 2021. He joined the Cardinals following an early-season injury to Iván Herrera.

“More than anybody I’ve probably ever been around, he takes it all in and appreciates it every single day,” Cardinals’ manager Oliver Marmol said. “There’s not a day where he shows up and says, ‘Gosh dang it, it’s hot out’ or ‘we’re playing 17 [days] in a row.’ It’s always a new day for him and he’s happy as hell to be out there.”

To share his journey with family back home, Pozo documents each stadium visit on video for his father and grandfather. Monday was his first appearance at Dodger Stadium.

His opportunity came after starting pitcher Sonny Gray held the Dodgers to one hit across seven innings while striking out eight batters—including Shohei Ohtani twice using his sweeper pitch.

“I knew [the sweeper] was sharp when Shohei swung at it as the first batter of the game, but I also set it up pretty well because I got the ball to his hands so that his hips were moving earlier,” Gray analyzed. “But when I threw that first one to [Ohtani] and he swung at it, I knew that was a good thing. Then, when Freddie [Freeman] did it as well [in a first-inning strikeout], it was executed. Then, I felt more comfortable in those moments because I was executing, and I had done the work to force them to swing.”

Pozo worked into favorable counts during his at-bats before making contact for what would be the deciding run.

While building success off limited opportunities this season with St. Louis after nearly signing with a Mexican League team last winter due to lack of offers elsewhere—a period that followed homelessness during part of 2020—Pozo said:

“I had almost no offers, I almost signed to play baseball in the Mexican League and I had to sign a Minor League contract with no invitation to big league camp,” Pozo said. “I signed with [the Cardinals] just for the opportunity and to keep myself in baseball. So, to now be doing this in the big leagues, it’s really special.”