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A conversation between two of the youngest Cardinals about swings they misplaced and how they could regain them again resumed on the field as a jolting ninth inning percolated.

Thomas Saggese was due up, and Jordan Walker stood on deck as Giants closer Ryan Walker hosted his coach and catcher on the mound late Saturday evening. The Cardinals trailed 2-0 but loaded the bases before San Francisco’s closer could get an out. Waiting for their turn to hit, Saggese and Walker pivoted from talking about swings they had to the hitters they are.

“It’s in there,� Saggese recalled them saying. “It’s in there, Walk.�

“I told him how good of a hitter he is,� Walker said. “He told me how good of a hitter I am.�

“We can do this,� Saggese responded.

And they did.

Saggese laced a single to center that scored the Cardinals’ first run, and Walker followed by piercing his own personal and prolonged slump with the first walk-off hit of his career. Walker pounced on the first pitch he saw from the Giants’ closer and pulled it down the left field line, off third baseman Matt Chapman’s glove and onto the scoreboard for a two-run double and a 3-2 victory. The Cardinals’ sixth walk-off win of the season ended Walker’s 0-for-25 skid.

His teammates’ euphoric celebration, which found Walker on the field, came at the end of a difficult week when his approach, his swing and his preparation became fodder for articles in publications like this one, talk radio and comments from him, his manager and the hitting coach.

“Cool moment for him,� Saggese smiled.

“He’s had a tough week,� manager Oli Marmol said. “Everyone in this industry at some point is going to go through something publicly that just doesn’t feel great. I think he’s handled it really well. An at-bat like that can instill a lot of confidence in you.�

How the ninth even reached Walker and put him position to end his difficult stretch with that reassuring swing took rebounds and resilience from multiple teammates.

Andre Pallante had not thrown a quality start since July, but opposite Justin Verlander’s six scoreless innings, the Cardinals right-hander did just that. Nolan Gorman struck out three times in his first three at-bats Saturday, but he opened the ninth with a leadoff single that sparked the dramatics. Saggese misplayed the first grounder of the game into an error, and there he was at the end of it to deliver an RBI single that scored Gorman.

And then came Walker.

Trapped in a 0-for-22 free fall when the game started and looking for his first hit in more than a week, Walker had grounded out in three previous at-bats.

“It’s tough, man,� Walker said. “Honestly, it’s tough when things don’t feel as good. In that moment, I couldn’t think of it. I had just one goal and one approach that I had to think about.�

The Giants had won 11 of their previous dozen games, and in a win Friday, they peppered the Cardinals with 18 hits. Pallante cooled the Giants by limiting them to two runs on five hits through six innings. Pallante complicated some of his innings with two hit batters and two wild pitches — and those only contributed to the ragged feel of the game at times.

The offense didn’t help.

When Verlander responded to the hit batters by plunking Masyn Winn, the Giants then committed an error to give the Cardinals a chance to capitalize. A ground out ended that idea.

In the fifth, a single by Victor Scott II and a broken-bat single by Jose Fermin got the top of the lineup around with two on and one out. The inning fizzled when Scott was thrown out trying to steal third before leadoff hitter Lars Nootbaar had a chance for the one-out hit.

Verlander struck out the side in order in the sixth to finish his evening and leapfrog former Giants great Gaylord Perry into eighth all time in career strikeouts. Verlander finished the day with 3,536 to Perry’s 3,534. Don Sutton, at seventh, is next with 3,574.

The strikeout that surpassed Perry was against Gorman in the sixth.

The Cardinals infielder entered the game 2 for 2 with two home runs against Verlander. The veteran didn’t flinch. Verlander defied Gorman with his fastball, and in the sixth, Gorman got him to a full count. That was when the right-hander dotted a 94 mph fastball that tickled the lowest edge of the zone for a called third strike.

The next time Gorman came up, in the ninth, he did so with advice.

“It was short approach and single him to death,� Marmol said, repeating what hitting coach Brant Brown told the batters. “And guys did a really nice job of not trying to do a whole lot against their closer there. It showed. It was just getting the next guy up. These guys have done a nice job of flushing whatever happened and going after what’s next.�

Gorman flushed the three strikeouts and delivered a leadoff single.

Winn flushed an 0-for-2 opening and an achy knee with a single to right field.

Rookie Jimmy Crooks flushed a quick 0-2 against Walker when he had a chance to drive home a run for his first big league RBI that wasn’t himself. The right-handed Walker started Crooks off with a 97.4 mph sinker — or what the rookie called “one of the nastiest sinkers I’ve seen.� He called time after the first one to take a breath and reset. Crooks then saw four more sinkers. He fouled off one to avoid a strikeout. The fifth sinker of the plate appearance drilled him.

“Got to 0-2, and it’s battle mode,� Crooks said. “Fouled one off. Took one. And then he threw one at me, and I wore it for the team, wore it for the club. And then let Walk do this thing.�

First, Saggese did.

Saggese lifted one of Walker’s 97 mph sinkers to center, and that RBI cleaved the Giants’ lead in half while keeping the bases loaded for Walker.

It’s in there, Saggese had said.

It’s in there, Saggese had done.

It’s in there, Walk.

The game was over one pitch later.

“Him coming through right there and getting that big RBI,� Walker said. “I just felt like that energy was passed on.�