Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - A Brutal Weekend For The Cardinals In Chicago
Episode Date: August 5, 2024- Helsley Blown Save- Fedde Stumbles In His 1st Start- Two Moments That Made Me Angry Follow & Subscribe on all Podcast platforms… 🎧 https://link.chtbl.com/LOSTLCardinals?sid=YouTube Locked On ML...B League-Wide: Every Team, Prospects & More 🎧 https://linktr.ee/LockedOnMLB Follow on Twitter/X: @JDSPORTSRADIO Follow the show on Twitter/X: @LO_Cardinals Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! Stitch Fix With Stitch Fix, you get a Stylist who understands your style, size and budget—they do all the shopping for you! Now’s the best time to get started at StitchFix.com/MLB and get $20 off your first fix! Must redeem within 7 days of sign up. Offer does not include Kids Fixes. Liquid IV No more thirsty summers when you indulge in hydration with Liquid I.V. Get 20% off your first order of Liquid I.V. when you go to LIQUIDIV.COM and use code MLB at checkout. SupplyHouse SupplyHouse.com is the reliable way to get parts fast. Shop for your next plumbing, h-vac, or electrical job and get fast shipping from coast to coast. Booking.com The right stay can make you a fan of any US city - even your rival’s. Book today on Booking.com on the site or in the Booking.com app! Booking.com, Booking dot YEAH! PrizePicks Go to https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/LOCKEDONMLB and use code lockedonmlb for a first deposit match up to $100! eBay Motors From brakes to exhaust kits and beyond, eBay Motors has over 122 million parts to keep your ride-or-die alive. With all the parts you need at the prices you want, it’s easy to bring home that big win. Keep your ride-or-die alive at EbayMotors.com. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers. Gametime Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONMLB for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. FanDuel FanDuel, America’s Number One Sportsbook. As playoffs wind down, the sports stop sporting like we want them to. But this summer, FanDuel is hooking up ALL CUSTOMERS with a boost or a bonus, DAILY! That’s right, there’s something for everyone, every day, all summer long! Visit FANDUEL.COM/LOCKEDON and add a big win to your summer bucket list! FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) #ForTheLou #stlcards #mlb #lockedoncardinals Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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A gut-wrenching loss for the Cardinals on Thursday,
a rough first start for newcomer Eric Fetty on Friday,
a come-from-behind on Saturday.
But then we get a Michaelis many meltdown on Sunday night baseball.
It's safe to say the boys did not have a good time in Chicago.
And my gosh, we had to hear that stupid song way too much.
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So I had a lot of outside of work things to do over the last couple of days.
So we're a little behind on what has happened with the series in Chicago.
He had a couple of day games on Thursday and Friday.
And then we had the whole weekend.
So we got to play catch up a little bit here.
Okay, so I do apologize, but life gets in the way sometimes.
So let's go back and start with what's going on with the Cardinals on Thursday and Friday.
Things were, we're going so well leading into the series in Chicago, right?
The Cardinals had just won two in a row over the Rangers that defending World Series champions.
The offense was crushing the ball.
Their top pitcher, Sunny Gray, had a nice game on Friday.
The bullpen was rested in Hellsley.
was on to make the save to give the Cardinals a three-game winning streak.
Everything was great.
And then the wheels came off for Hellsley, who after getting the first out,
a lot of home run to Cody Belliger, then with two outs, Nico Horner singles,
Steele's second.
He scores the game tying run on a double by Danesby Swanson, who was down to his last strike
at one point.
Again, the Cardinals can't throw anybody out on the base paths hardly ever.
And it's killing them with these guys stretching what are,
just singles, they become doubles right away and sometimes even triples.
Then the legendary Mike Talkman, who beat the hell out of the Cardinals this weekend,
came up as a pinch hitter and his devil down the left field line, completes the three-run rally
that gave the Cubs the victory and just ripped the hearts and souls out of the Cardinal fans
across the nation. To say that this was unexpected is a little bit of an understatement.
This was the first loss of the season for the Cardinals when they were leading going into the ninth inning.
It's not like this is something that's happened very often.
They had been 48 known in those games.
So for the people on the Internet saying that the team should have traded Ryan
Hellsley, that he isn't really that good.
Please show yourself out.
Ryan Hellsley is a very good closer.
Sure, things get a little interesting from time to time, but nobody's perfect.
You know, Helsley for sure, though, has had his issues with the Cubs so far this year.
That we cannot deny.
So if you want to say he's not that great against the Cubs, you'd be correct because the numbers have not been fantastic, although he's had saves against Chicago this year.
On the good side, he's got five of them, five saves this year against the Cubs, but it hasn't been easy.
It's been very difficult for most of them.
And five and two-thirds inning so far this year, Helsley has allowed six runs on 12 hits, including two home runs against the Cubs.
by far the most hits and runs given up against any team this year.
The next highest hit total against him is four by the Braves and the Dodgers.
Now, he has faced the Cubs six times now.
I believe it's seven times now because he ended up facing them on Saturday.
So seven times now.
But leading up to where we were on Thursday at the time of when that game went down,
he'd only face them six times.
And you know how it is when you see a pitcher more.
You're going to pick up on what he's.
He throws even more. You're likely to have more success against them. But the Cubs have been ripping him since day one. It's not like it just started happening in these last couple times that he's faced Chicago. They've been hitting him the entire time. Remember they were always swinging at that first pitch fastball of Hellsleys. And so you saw it in that game when it was happening. He was like, all right, we got to switch this up because they're just teeing off on the straight stuff right away. Friday or Thursday, he's throwing a lot of breaking pitches.
instead. And that didn't work out so well either. It was a curve ball that Cody Bellinger hit out for
the home run to make it four to three. It was all sliders to Danceby Swanson, five at a row before he
doubled to tie things up. Talkman hit a fastball. But everything they hit was up in the zone on Thursday,
all of it. And it's not like Helsley has issues at Wrigley. That wasn't the case either. You know,
people are going to say, well, you know, maybe he has trouble pitching at Wrigley. No, he had a lot of
run there in its last seven appearances.
I know you don't want to hear this, and I know it's like a very cardinal thing to say
and a very, very John Mosaic-type of thing to say here, but just a bad night.
It was a bad night for Halsley because he came back on Saturday and looked normal.
So just a bad night.
It happens.
It does happen.
Every closer at one time or another is going to blow a save.
The idea that Helsley is all of a sudden a terrible closer and it.
and is not good. That's silly. That's freaking silly.
33 or 36 and save opportunities, again, going into coming out of Thursday's game.
So sure, they weren't always clean outings, but the guy is one of the best in the league.
That's something you really can't deny.
The Cubs definitely aren't intimidated by them, though, in any way, shape, or form.
So they'll have to figure something out.
They're moving forward when Helsley faces them, although they don't have to face them anymore this year.
The series is over after Sunday night's games.
But Nico Horner, Swanson, Talkman, that trio loves hitting against Healsley.
After the game on Thursday, they were a combined 12 of 20 against them.
So that's just bonkers that they hit that well against Ryan Healsley because nobody really does.
Another bummer about that game is that it wasted a very nice outing by Sunny Gray, who went seven innings,
struck out nine, gave up just two runs.
It was his best start in quite a while.
He was very unsunny-like in the month of July with an ERA of 6.75 and 4.4.
It starts. I've had to do a lot of sticking up for Sunny Gray recently due to his four of July.
You know, when things aren't going well, the trolls, as some people call them, they come out.
I don't necessarily think they're trolls. I think they're more just when there's a chance to, okay, maybe they're trolls.
Because when there's a chance to say something negative, all of a sudden, that's when they come out.
They're like, hey, and then they just destroy the Cardinals, which is your right to do that.
And that's fine.
You can be that way.
If that's the type of fan you want to be, go for it.
Go for it.
No problem there.
But, you know, he's still, in my opinion, the best starting pitch of the Cardinals have.
And they're going to need him to be more like he was on Thursday if they're going to get back into this playoff chase.
They didn't do themselves any favors the rest of this weekend, really.
Friday night didn't help the cause specifically because I should say Friday day because it was a day game on Friday.
Eric Fetty made his debut with the team, and it was one bad inning that doomed the newest Cardinals.
So I want to discuss his start next on Locktown Cardinals.
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So the Eric Fetty era of Cardinal Baseball got off to a very rocky start on Friday.
When he got dinged by the Cubs for five runs on six hits, including two home runs,
all of the scoring coming against him in that second inning.
Now, Fetty gave up, what was it, three consecutive, one-out singles before the first three-run
Homer went down.
Christian Betancourt ends up hitting that.
He was the ninth play sitter, which gosh, that sucks.
Like, if you're going to get burned, like you'd expect it from guys who are in the heart of the order.
But when the number nine hitter comes up with something big like that, it really stings.
He lined a home run into the basket in right field.
Michael Bush also hits a home run.
He had a good series against the Cardinals this weekend.
And just like that, the Cardinals were down five to nothing.
And essentially, the game was over.
Now, Thetty had a rough first two winnings.
He threw 23 pitches in the first inning, which probably took its toll on how his command
to how he was feeling when that second inning rolled around.
I think it was 64 pitches he threw in the first two innings.
I think that's what it was.
He just wasn't very sharp.
He wasn't very sharp in the first couple of innings.
After the game, he admitted that, saying,
honestly, I just had terrible command.
I was missing a ton to arm side and up in the zone,
and that brought me to long at bats,
and I couldn't put people away.
I've got to be better about making the correction in the inning,
and I just let the moment get too big,
and I let the moment speed up.
It's a mistake.
I can't make again.
And we hope he doesn't because this is not why you traded for him.
You didn't trade for him to just do what Cardinal pitchers have done for most of the year.
And that's, you know, pitch okay for most of the game, but then have like the one bad inning.
And it puts you behind the eight ball and you're down five nothing and your guy's got to play catch up.
And it's really, really difficult to do that.
Fetty came into the day seven and four with a three point one, one ERA falls to seven and five overall.
E.R. Rae shoots up to 3.34, which is still outstanding, but obviously not the results we were hoping for in his first game with the St. Louis Cardos. You know, you were hoping that the momentum and the excitement of all of it would help him pitch even better, and it did not. He's also had his troubles with the Cubs already this year. So the fact that they were able to hit him a little bit should not have come as much of a surprise. He's now allowed eight earned runs and 10 innings against them this season.
That's a 7.20 ERA.
So, cool.
That's not what we want to hear.
When asked about how he felt about his debut, he said, you know,
what they say about first impressions.
And I wanted it to be a special one,
but I didn't quite have that today.
I just have to move on to the next one and start working my way back,
which is all you can really do.
I mean, you can't just sit here and dwell about it all the time.
You got to get back on the horse, right?
You get bucked off.
It means you got to get back on that horse to try it again.
Now, as rough as that second inning was, and it was rough.
It was not fun to watch.
It was just one of those infuriating moments because not only is it happening in
his first game with the Cardinals, but it's happening against the Cubs,
which makes things oh so worse because if there is a team in this league that the Cardinal fans do not want to lose two ever,
it is the Chicago Cubs.
And for them to bang out a bunch of hits and home runs and stuff against the Cardle's new
Toy, kind of frustrating, kind of frustrating.
But after that second inning, Eric Fetty did settle in kind of nicely.
He retired the final 10 hitters that he faced.
And I know that it doesn't matter.
The damage had already been done.
They lost the game.
Fetty looked very average in the first couple of innings.
And people are angry about it, man.
And they're going to jump to conclusions.
They're going to have reactions to it.
I got plenty of comments.
Here, I'll give you a couple of these.
looks like the typical pitcher that the Cardinals go after.
Great. We got another pitcher who isn't any good against the Cubs.
Mo thinks picking up a guy with a history of a four or five ERA is going to help this team.
Please, DeWitt, fire Moe and his sidekick Heim Bloom.
Now we want Heim Bloom fired? Wow.
Higher pools as your new president of baseball operations with all new front office people who know baseball talent,
not computer databases, clean out the house.
a lot of stuff like that.
A lot of stuff like that kept coming to me.
I'm not going to condemn Eric Fetty after one really bad inning and say that,
yeah, he's a boss.
It's over because I did see improvement over the rest of the game.
You have to admit that he did look better and had a lot better pitch placement the rest of the way.
You know, his command, which was.
It was sloppy. It was just kind of all over the place in the first couple of innings.
He finally reeled it in, got into a zone and pitched pretty well over the next few
innings. But again, yeah, damage is done already. All right, too little too late, right?
So need a couple more starts, though, before I start making judgments on what Eric Fetty is going
to be for this team moving forward. Obviously, the fan and me is hoping that he does wonderful
things and throws like seven no headers, but that's not real. But, you know, you hope that he
that he pitches better and gives the boys a better chance to win from the get-go.
Like if you're going to give up five-er and runs, like, I mean, you don't really want that to ever happen,
but you don't want to be down five-nothing by the second inning, you know,
because right then you're already, the life is just sucked out of the game.
But there were some opportunities on Friday where the Cardinals could get back into it,
and that's where I can make a judgment call.
I'm not going to make a judgment on Eric Fetty yet,
but I can make a judgment on the Nolan Aronado.
at that in the third inning, which was one of the biggest, what the funk are you doing moments of the weekend.
And then Ali pinch hitting for Michael Siani late in the game. Both situations, the bases were loaded,
cardinals were threatening. Got to talk about those next on Locked on Cardinals. Going to baseball games in
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So in Friday's loss, there were two big moments,
two big moments where I was visibly upset watching the game.
Two big moments for the Cardinals offense.
I wasn't even that upset when Fetty was getting knocked around in the second inning.
I was just kind of like, this isn't fun.
But I was upset at these two moments, all right?
And it has to do with the Cardinals' offense.
and obviously these moments didn't work out where I wouldn't be so upset about them.
But the first was in the third inning.
So you've got Cub starter Javier Assad.
So we know that the pitch count for Eric Fetty, it was going up, up, up, and that was bad.
Well, guess what?
Same thing was going on with the Cubs starter Javier Assad.
His pitch count was going up, up, up.
He was struggling with his command as well.
He gives up singles to Michael Ciani and Mason win.
This is in the third inning, by the way.
He ends up walking Wilson Contreras on seven pitches.
He then walks Goldschmidt on five, which actually brings in the first run of the game.
Up next is Nolan Aronado.
Assad goes 2 and O on Aronado.
Neither pitch is anywhere near the strike zone, not even close.
Assad at this moment, the pressure crashing in on him does not have a clue where this ball is going.
the command is completely gone, he's drowning out there on the mound.
And what do we always say about your opponent?
If they're making mistakes and they're having problems, don't get in the way.
Let them continue to screw it up.
Don't do anything.
Do nothing.
Do less.
These are the moments, this particular one, where it's 2 and 0, and this guy has walked to run in,
and he's getting more and more wild.
It's not like he's just missing.
The strikes like he's all over the place.
This is one of those moments where you do not take the bat off your shoulder.
You stand there.
I mean, you look like you're going to swing, but you don't swing.
You take a strike.
You make him throw a strike before you do anything.
This is little league stuff we're talking about here.
How many times do you hear the coaches, make them come to you, make them throw you a strike?
This is that moment in a major league game.
Nolan Aronado is a 12-year vet.
He's an eight-time all-star.
He's a five-time silver slugger.
Nobody should have to tell him that if the ball isn't in the exact spot, and it's got to be the perfect spot, it's got to be the perfect pitch.
They call it tunneling.
It's tunnel vision.
Like if it is not right there and where's Nolan Arnato sweet spot, right?
Loan inside.
Anything inside, inner half of the plate, loves it.
It's a fastball on the inside part of the plate.
And you feel like that is where you can do the most damage.
And to steal the word from Chip Carrey, ambush the pitcher, then go for it.
All right.
Personally, I would rather have you stand there and take a strike.
but if it's in that perfect spot,
you're Nolan Aronado.
All right?
You can do what you do.
But for whatever reason,
Nolan Aronado swings at a pitch that is about,
I don't know, letter high.
Like, even if it was over the plate,
I think it still would have been up in the zone.
I don't think it would have been a strike.
But it's that high,
and it's about a foot outside.
It's a cutter.
There's no way that that is where he was looking for the pitch to be.
And like, that's what I want.
I want the up and away pitch.
That is not Nolan Aronado's strong suit.
And he swings at it.
And it's a lazy fly ball that crushes the threat, ends the inning,
and cause me to start hyperventiliting.
I'm like, what is he doing?
How are you swinging at that?
What about that pitch possibly look good?
I have no idea.
It was ridiculous and frankly terrible, terrible baseball.
Then in the eighth inning,
the Cardinals are threatening again,
bases loaded again.
The Cardinals have scored two more runs,
thanks to Cubs walks.
They walked two more guys in.
Score at this point, it's five to three.
And instead of letting your center fielder,
who you just basically said, you're our guy.
You traded Tommy Edmund,
no longer a threat to come back and steal any playing time.
Dylan Carlson's out of the picture.
He's not going to bother you anymore.
Michael Ciani's your dude, right?
He was already one for two in the game,
was writing a nine-game heading streak,
was batting 4-44 over that nine-game span.
He's one of your hottest hitters.
and manager Ali Marble,
pinch hits for him with Brandon Crawford.
Now, during the telecast,
they put up on the screen what Brandon Crawford had done
against Cubs reliever, Hector Nerris, and his career,
five for seven.
But those at bats were quite a while ago.
When he did the damage against Hector Nerris,
he was not wearing a St. Louis Carliners.
Colonel's uniform.
Brandon Crawford is a shell of the hitter that he used to be when he was in his heyday
with the Giants.
And what does he do? You pinched hit for him. He strikes out on four pitches.
Thread over.
Moving on to the bottom half, Cubs get another run on a error when they picked off the guy
at second. Lay lose six to three.
I'm sorry, and I stick up for Ali a lot for things that he does.
But that was a terrible move.
That didn't make any sense.
This is not the Giants, Brandon Crawford, that is in your dugout.
You have got to quit looking at him as if he's that guy still.
He's not.
He's a guy the Giants didn't want anymore because his skills have eroded enough
where they didn't find him useful.
Cardinals picked him up, thought he'd be a good presence in the clubhouse,
helped Mason win, kind of learn the shortstop position.
And these are things that as far as I know,
he's done fantastic at him. He's been a great guy. They love him. They love him in the clubhouse so much that I'm told that even if it came up to whether or not to DFA Brandon Crawford, there's no way. They're cutting him. They love him. They think he's great. But you have to realize what kind of player he still is. He's a guy that's batting 179 with an OPS plus of 62. That's who he is now. He's not the guy from three years ago that was,
is mashing the ball in San Francisco.
And your choice was to replace your best outfielder,
your center fielder, and one of the hottest hitters on your team
with the bases loaded and the game in the balance with that guy,
a guy who's hitting 179 with an OPS plus of 62.
Don't care what the career numbers were from a couple of years ago.
Who is he now?
I hated it.
I still hate it.
And if I wasn't angry after the hells-a-le- meltdown on Thursday,
this game put me over the top with all of the crap that went on in it. Cardle scored three times
in that game. All of them walks by Cubs pitchers. They were 0 for 7 with runners in scoring position,
0 for 2 with the bases loaded. They drew those three walks, but then they let the pitchers off the hook.
Strike out, fly out by Aronado. They're 14 of 76 with the bases loaded this season after Friday's game.
That's a 184 average, 29th in the major leagues ahead of only the White Sox who have now lost.
lost 20 games in a row.
That's how bad they've been.
I'm not sure what happens,
why their buttholes pucker up,
and they can't perform in these moments,
but the lack of clutch hitting has been an issue all year.
Tommy Fam has done great since he's come over,
but the lack of clutch hitting has been a problem all year long,
and it showed up a lot in this series.
Saturday was quite dramatic, obviously,
as the Cardinals come from behind to win,
thanks to a lot of help from the Chicago Cubs defense,
and then they lay a massive egg.
on Sunday night baseball.
We're going to talk about those games in our next episode because we're out of time
in this one.
But thank you for making Locktown Cardinals for first listen every day.
If you haven't already, please give us a follow on Twitter,
X at LO underscore Cardinals and at JD Sports Radio.
Like, subscribe, and comment on YouTube, help our channel and love for the Cardinals grow.
You guys are the best fans in baseball for a reason,
and I will see you next time on Lockdown Cardinals.
