Paul

Goldschmidt

Goldschmidt gave the Cardinals a 1-0 lead in the first with a blast off Shota Imanaga. That’s the 17th homer of the season for the 36-year-old, and six of those have come in the month of July. This is also the fourth time in five games that Goldschmidt has picked up multiple hits, and he appears to be getting hot at the right time. Fantasy managers probably would have preferred it a while ago, but better late than never.

Goldschmidt took Dylan Floro deep in the bottom of the ninth, as the Nationals declined to use a rested Kyle Finnegan in a tie game. It was Goldschmidt’s seventh career walkoff homer and 16th homer of the year. He’s homered five times in his last 15 games.

The veteran is hitting just .225 with 14 home runs on the season, but his underlying metrics heading into the All-Star break. He had cut his strikeout rate and was barreling the ball almost 14 percent of the time. Even though he has been dropped in the order, he continues to play every day and could be in for a much better second half.

It’s the first time that Goldschmidt is going to hit below fifth in a lineup since 2012. The 36-year-old has been one of the most productive hitters in baseball over his career, but he’s registered just a .652 OPS over the 2024 campaign. We’ll see if this move down sparks something, but Goldschmidt has been a massive disappointment over the first few months.

Goldschmidt extended the Cardinals’ early lead with a solo shot -- his 12th big fly of the season -- off Nationals starter Mitchell Parker in the fourth inning. He also reached on a fielding error and came around to score on a Brendan Donovan double in the eighth inning as well. The 36-year-old veteran first baseman has gone deep only five times over his last 30 games and simply hasn’t produced enough so far this season to remain rostered in shallow mixed leagues.

Goldschmidt took Carson Spiers deep for a solo homer in the sixth inning for his only hit of the game as the Cardinals fell to the Reds. The 36-year-old slugger is up to 11 homers while slashing .228/.298/.367 with 39 runs scored, 33 RBI, and four steals across 344 plate appearances.

Goldschmidt’s scheduled day off was originally set for Saturday, but it was pushed back because of Nolan Arenado’s ailments. It’s happening today anyway, even though Arenado still isn’t back. Alec Burleson is playing first base.

Goldschmidt didn’t crush this one; technically, it wasn’t even a hard-hit ball at 94.3 mph. He hit it to the right spot, though. This little outburst has led to calls that Goldschmidt is back, but we want to see the K rate drop some before we buy into that. His 31% strikeout rate this year is a huge increase over his career mark of 22%.

The 36-year-old slugger opened the scoring in the ballgame with a 424-foot (110.0 mph EV) two-run shot off of Javier Assad in the third inning. He then repeated the process in the fifth inning — that time a 399-foot (104.3 mph) two-run bomb. Goldschmidt finished the evening 2-for-4, raising his season-slash to a still disappointing .222/.298/.345 to go along with six homers, 21 RBI and three stolen bases.

After drawing a walk in the fourth, Goldschmidt ended the shutout in the sixth inning, putting the Cardinals on the board with a solo homer off Griffin Canning. The 36-year-old first baseman is slashing .206/.291/.300 with four homers, 20 runs scored, 15 RBI, and two steals across 181 plate appearances.