Victor Scott II just silenced his critics and powered the Cardinals to a huge win

Whatever bad taste Victor Scott II's first stint in the Major Leagues left in your mouth, the St. Louis Cardinals' young center fielder is flipping the script in his second opportunity with the club.

Since being recalled to St. Louis, Scott is slashing .211/.211/.421 with a home run and four RBI, with two of those runs he drove in coming on this clutch double while the Cardinals were down a run with two outs in the top of the 8th inning.

Scott's first taste of big league action did not go according to plan, slashing .085/.138/.136 with a -22 wRC+ and looking completely overmatched by big league pitching. He was quickly demoted to Triple-A, where he has struggled most of the season as well, while Michael Siani took over and wowed the Cardinals with his Gold Glove-caliber defense and bat that was incrementally improving.

The criticism of Scott's debut was fair though. Scott was clearly not ready for the Major Leagues, and honestly, he seemed overmatched in Memphis as well. It made me and many others wonder how long it would be before Scott would get an opportunity again, as it was hard to imagine him having a significant impact any time soon.

Recently, Cardinals' hitting instructor Ryan Ludwick helped Scott make some major changes to his stance and mechanics at the plate. While his numbers aren't eye-popping in the short sample size he's had back at the big league level, Scott looks much more confident at the plate and his hitting the ball more often and with more authority this time around.

One part of Scott's game that we really haven't seen unleashed yet is his stolen base prowess. While there have been some opportunities that I was confused as to why the Cardinals did not give Scot the green light, overall, the opportunities would be there if Scott could get on base more often. As he is beginning to do that more and more, Scott's wheels will begin to have a massive impact on the Cardinals' offense.

Defensively, it would be unfair to expect Scott to match what Siani has done this year. Scott's speed and natural talent out in center field give him the potential to be great there long-term, but Siani was arguably one of the top five defenders in all of baseball this year, so that is a very difficult bar for Scott to clear. But he should still be impactful down the stretch.

The Cardinals need all hands on deck and doing their part if they want to secure a playoff spot down the stretch, and after the loss of Siani due to injury, there were many who questioned the Cardinals giving Scott a chance right now. While I understood the decision, I thought that with their need for offense as of late, moving Lars Nootbaar to center field and getting a better bat in the lineup would make more sense.

There is plenty of time left in August and September for Scott to revert back into the overmatched hitter that he was before, but he also has ample runway here to totally flip the narrative on him again and try to steal back the job from Siani that he gave up months ago.

The prior criticism was warranted, and Scott has not done enough yet to cement himself at this level, but his recent few games should at least quiet the doubters and criticism for now. And if he keeps this up, they may never come back.