MINNEAPOLIS — The Cardinals had misplaced a four-run lead Saturday and maneuvered the game right where they apparently like it this season — close and about to be decided by the bullpens — when they chose an alternate and emphatic tack.

The opted for a show of force.

The Cardinals cranked three home runs in the seventh inning to pull away for a 9-6 victory against the Minnesota Twins at Target Field. Ivan Herrera sparked the uprising with his second home run of the game and Jordan Walker followed with the longest home run so far this season at the Minneapolis downtown ballpark. Rookie Blaze Jordan put the punctuation on the inning with a three-run shot for his first major league homer.

The flex in the seventh provided a necessary firewall to protect against the spark in the ninth. The Twins got the tying run to the plate with no outs against Riley O'Brien. The Cardinals closer created the potential conflagration by walking the first three batters of the inning.

O'Brien limited the Twins to a run and escaped the jam with the homer-hoisted win still in hand.

Herrera reached base four times, and his second home run of the game broke a 4-4 tie going into the final three innings. The one-two punch from Walker and Jordan obliterated that tie.

All three homers came with two outs in the inning.

Two came against Twins right-handed reliever Justin Lawrence.

On the first pitch he saw from Lawrence, Walker mashed his 18th homer of the season and bruised the front-facing ribbon advertisement on the third deck above left field at Target Field. The ball traveled an estimated 454 feet — the second-longest homer of the season by a Cardinal. The ball left Walker’s bat at 116.6 mph. That is the fourth-fastest exit velocity for any Cardinal in the 10 years of the Statcast Era. The top 13 exit-velocities on hits so far this season by a Cardinal all belong to Walker.

The five-run burst in the seventh made a winner of reliever Matt Svanson for his crucial appearance Saturday and it cleaned up what had come undone for starter Matthew Liberatore.

The Cardinals lefty retired the side in the first inning on seven pitches, and by the time he threw his first pitch of the second inning the Cardinals’ lineup had taken a 4-0 lead. Minnesota chipped away at it and Liberatore. A pair of solo homers in the fourth inning cleaved the Cardinals’ lead in half, and Liberatore did not finish the fifth inning after allowing a game-tying, two-run homer. Liberatore allowed five hits and four runs in 4 1/3 innings, and all four of those runs scored via homer.

In the early moments of Minnesota’s eighth-inning threat, Cardinals manager Oli Marmol was ejected. One of the league leaders in ejections during his first few seasons as manager, Marmol’s time in the dugout has been increased this season by the advent of the Automated Ball-Strike (ABS) system. He doesn’t have to argue ball-strike calls when they can just challenge them.

On Saturday, he appeared irritated at the time Austin Martin got to challenge a strike call with the ABS. Martin ultimately walked in the eighth.

Marmol spoke his opinion and was told to return to his offense.

It was his first ejection of the ABS era.

Svanson’s pivotal appearance

Only brought back to the majors recently because of his availability and the Cardinals’ need due to injury, right-hander Svanson has quickly asserted himself in the role the team once had him earmarked to play for them this season.

Svanson elbowed his way into a late-inning, higher-leverage spot this past season, and coming out of spring training the Cardinals saw the right-hander as a possible setup man, a future closer, and definitely a multi-inning reliever to hold leads tight.

He struggled until late May, when he was demoted with an 8.77 ERA.

Back in the bullpen from Class AAA Memphis for this road trip, Svanson pitched two pivotal innings Saturday in relief. Put another way: If not for Svanson’s superb work in two innings, the Cardinals are likely chasing in the game, not surging ahead to take a lead in the game.

Svanson entered the game in the fifth inning with one out. Liberatore had just allowed the tying, two-run homer to No. 8 hitter Luke Keaschall. The Cardinals got one last out from Liberatore when he retired the No. 9 hitter. Svanson entered with a tie game and the bases empty — and he buzzsawed through the part of the lineup that had given the Cardinals fits.

Byron Buxton hit his second homer of the series in the fourth inning Saturday.

Svanson struck him out looking in the fifth inning.

Royce Lewis doubled and homered off Liberatore and hit a key homer in Friday’s win for the Twins to give him three extra-base hits in three consecutive at-bats against the Cardinals.

Svanson struck him out in the sixth inning.

Svanson retired all five batters he faced. The two batters he struck out were the two right-handed batters making all the noise for the Twins so far this weekend, Buxton and Lewis. It took Svanson 15 pitches to get five outs and freeze the Twins just in time for the Cardinals to let loose their barrage of three homers in the top of the seventh inning.

For Svanson, the outing was his third consecutive scoreless appearance of road trip, and he’s yet to allow a hit in any of them. The outing that got the Cardinals out of the fifth and through the sixth with the score still tied put Svanson in position for his second win of the season.

Herrera takes lead, sets Cards DH record

Six pitches into the game the Cardinals had a lead and a new all-time leader.

All with the same swing.

Herrera crushed a two-run homer in the top of the first inning to vault him into the all-time lead for career homers by — wait for it — a Cardinals’ designated hitter. The position, of course, is relatively new to the 134-year National League club. One of its all-time greats actually had the all-time lead for DH home runs because he returned to the team when the DH was introduced to the NL and had a few cameos there during his first decade with the Cardinals.

Albert Pujols, Mr. 700 for a career home runs, entered this season with the most home runs as a DH for the St. Louis Cardinals.

He had 19.

Herrera entered Saturday’s game tied with Pujols, and his two-run shot in the top of the first pushed him ahead to 20 for the all-time lead. (For context, the Twins, an American League club, has Nelson Cruz as its all-time leader for homers by a DH and he had 76.) The solo homer that gave the Cardinals back the lead in the seventh inning moved Herrera to 21 career homers from the DH position.

The Cardinals leaned hard right for their starting lineup Saturday against Minnesota lefty Connor Prielipp, and that immediately paid off.

Masyn Winn began the game with a walk on five pitches.

Herrera pounced on the first pitch of his at-bat for the two-run homer.

The first time through their lineup, the Cardinals had a four-run lead and four extra-base hits off of starter Prielipp.

Jordan blazes for 1st triple

The Cardinals doubled their lead in the second inning with a career-first triple.

Jordan, who made his major league debut Friday night at Target Field, poked an opposite-field line drive into right field in his first at-bat Saturday. The baseball caromed around and gave the rookie time to blaze for third base and his first career triple. When he added the three-run homer later in the game, Jordan stood a double shy of hitting for the cycle in his first two big league games.

He was the swiftest Cardinal to his first career triple since teammate Lars Nootbaar. They both got their first career triple in the first at-bat of their second game.

Jordan scored on Pedro Pages’ double to right.

Pages came home on a sacrifice fly from Winn that gave Liberatore a 4-0 lead before he faced fourth batter of the game.

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