Henry Davis hits first home run of 2024

ST. LOUIS — Given his big Spring Training where he won the Opening Day catching job and his pedigree of a first overall Draft pick, it seems safe to assume that nobody had June 12 being the day Henry Davis finally cracked his first home run of the season.

Better late than never. Although Davis homered in the eighth, the Cardinals would go on to beat the Pirates, 4-2, Wednesday at Busch Stadium. It was a game where Bailey Falter was singled to death, Sonny Gray’s breaking stuff was darn near unhittable and the Pirates’ offense struggled to get into gear.

But maybe it will mean more for Davis in the long run.

“Maybe the fact that that’s the first homer now, there’s a little sigh of relief,” Derek Shelton said.

The homer by itself was a tank, a 412-footer off of an Andrew Kittredge slider. That wasn’t his only good swing of the night. The at-bat prior, Davis nearly homered as well, pulling a line drive that left the bat at 109.2 mph nearly 400 feet, but just foul. Of course there are no trophies given for foul balls, but two very loud swings are definitely a good sign for a young player looking for his game power.

What was supposed to be Davis’ first full season in the Majors hasn’t gone according to plan at the dish. He was optioned to the Minors in early May after hitting just .162 with a .206 slugging percentage, a far cry from the potential he has for the latter statistic. After tearing up Triple-A pitching for a month, he was recalled during the last homestand, and while he doubled in his first game back, he then went hitless in his next three games.

Those early struggles back are understandable, if not in a way somewhat expected. Davis reverted back to his old stance and swing mechanics down in the Minors, and some time needs to be afforded to see how that plays against Major League stuff.

“We’re gonna have to give it a little bit of runway,” Shelton said. “We just got to continue to see that adjustments are being made.”

It’s still a work in progress, but the labor bared some fruit on Wednesday.

“I’m actually not trying to think about anything,” Davis said about tapping into his pop. “Help the team whatever way I need to.”

That team-first mentality has always been at the center of Davis’ approach, but on an individual level, thinking less is probably a good thing. When he was optioned to the Minors last month, the first thing he was able to do was work with a pitching machine and his brother, Morgan, at the University at Louisville. The machine spat out fastballs at the highest velocity, and Davis worked to reinforce that if he was thinking too much, he wouldn’t hit it.

Baseball is as much mental as it is physical, so feeling comfortable enough that he can think less and instead just perform is probably a good sign.

“I think that it’s such a complicated game,” Davis said. “Things don’t go well, you’re trying to go in the rearview mirror and find out what’s worked in the past, or you’re just trying to be in the present. I think that really helps. Obviously just trying to help the team win, keeping things simple. I think at times probably letting how poorly things have gone the day before affect trying to do [something like] get two hits in one at-bat, whatever it may be. But just try to keep it as simple as possible has helped.”

It’s a start. Now the question is can he build on a couple of good swings, and a good swing isn’t just a long ball. Playing the situation and contributing in other ways, whether it’s advancing a runner or knocking a guy home can do the job too, or even Davis running to Connor Joe after his homer to tell him about the pitch shapes he saw that at-bat. Little things can go a long way.

“I just never really care about anything I do, as long as I’m helping the team win,” Davis said. “Not worrying about whatever it may be. Just whatever I need to do in that at-bat to get the job done.”