Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - Are The Cardinals For Real Or Pretenders?

Episode Date: May 31, 2024

Connor Thomas from Locked on Phillies joins us to talk about this weekend's upcoming series - How We Got Here - Biggest Surprises And Disappointments - Pitching Matchups - Final Thoughts Follow & Subscribe on all Podcast platforms… 🎧 https://link.chtbl.com/LOSTLCardinals?sid=YouTube Locked On MLB 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 Style that makes you feel as good as you look—get started today at StitchFix.com/MLB and get $20 off your first fix 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. 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. Right now, NEW customers get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS with any winning GUARANTEED That’s A HUNDRED AND FIFTY BUCKS – with any winning FIVE DOLLAR BET! Visit FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON to get started. 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.

The St. Louis Cardinals are one of the hottest teams in baseball over the last couple of weeks. The Phillies have been one of the best, if not the best team in baseball all year. Is this Cardinals team for real? Or are they about to get hit with a dose of reality this weekend in Philadelphia? We'll try to answer those questions in this special Locked on Cardinals, locked on Phillies crossover. You are Locked on Cardinals. Your daily St. Louis Cardinals podcast, part of the Locked on podcast network. your team every day.

Hey there, Cardinals and Phillies fans. I'm J.D. Haffernan and I'm a national radio sports anchor, born and raised in the Lou and a lifetime Cardinals fan. I'm your host for Lockdown Cardinals, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, covering your team every day. You can follow me on Twitter X at JD Sports Radio in the podcast at L0 underscore Cardinals, representing the city of brotherly love, my man, Connor Thomas, from Locktown, Philly's, which you can follow him on Twitter X at Connor Thomas 975 and L0 underscore Phillies.

and you can, of course, hear him on 97-5, The Fanatic in Philadelphia. We want to thank those of you who make Locked on Cardinals and Locked-on Phillies your first listen every day. We're free and available wherever you get your podcast. Make sure you stop by on YouTube and check us both out, like, subscribe, comment, interact with us, and hit that notification button so you know when the new episodes are posted. Today's episode being brought to you by Fandu. Make every moment more right now new customers get $150 in bonus bets with any winning $5 bet. That's $150 with any winning $5 bet.

just visit fandal.com slash locked on to get started. All right. First and foremost, hello, Connor. Good to see you again, my friend. How you've been? You too, J.D. I got no complaints, man. You've seen how the Phillies been playing ball. I got no issues with this. Well, I've got some issues with this team right now. We'll talk about it, but no big problems in Philadelphia right now when it comes to the baseball team. Yeah, I mean, nobody's perfect, but both of our teams come into this series feeling pretty darn good about themselves. And it should be a pretty good weekend of baseball in Philly. Let's go with how we got to where we are right now as we wrap up the first couple months of the season.

The Phillies seemingly been riding high since these two teams met back in the 2022 in a wildcard games. And where it looked like the Cardinals were going to seal up game one, me and you were texting. We felt like, okay, Cardinals going to wrap it up. This is going to be interesting. And then the Phillies explode in the ninth against the closer, Ryan Helsley. And they've never really looked back. They go on to the World Series that year, lose to the Astros. last year they go to the NLCS, lose to the Diamondbacks,

you go on and lose to the Rangers in the World Series. But you've got back-to-back seasons where, you know, they've been right there. Like they're right there. And they continue to add new players each year, try to get that combination right so they can bring home their first ring since 2008. So I guess my first question when talking about this year's Philly's team is do you think they're as good or better than the previous years

when they're fully healthy. Obviously, with Trey Turner out, a big piece of the puzzle missing right now with the hamstring injury. But how scary is this team compared to what we've seen over the past couple years? I'll tell you what. The funny thing is I don't think they're that much more talented. You largely kept the same core together. You had a Trey Turner last off season. So you already had him for a year. And it wasn't his best year. You had a rough start, the standing ovation, heard around the world, all of that stuff. But they didn't really do too much this off season. What the big benefit is, is this is now the third straight year that this core has been playing together where you haven't really made major, major changes.

And the one major change you made over the past two seasons was adding a guy who is at his best in all MLP shortstop and Trey Turner. This offseason was just filling out the depth, making sure that you have what you want in the bullpen. And I think what you're seeing are the fruits of the labors of the past three or four years from Dave Debrowski in this front office. So more talented, not necessarily playing better for sure. And I think it's just a comfortability with the guys around them.

It's also a renewed sense of, well, I guess a business attitude after losing to the Diamondbacks, all credit to Arizona, but the Phillies were the better team in the NLCS. It didn't turn out that way. And this team has had a chip on their shoulders since they showed up to spring training. So it's that focus. It's the familiarity. All of that is led into what's been one of the best starts in franchise. history for this Philadelphia Phillies team.

As far as the Cardinal side of things, they come in with, I guess, some expectations into the year. Obviously, hugely disappointing season. The previous year, they finished in last place. They got, you know, 71 and 91, just ugly, ugly stuff. But people thought that they'd be NL Central division contenders again this year, mostly because most people don't think the NL Central is all that good. But a lot of people thought that they also whiffed on

a chance to really make an impact by signing someone better to go along with the signing of Sunny Gray from Minnesota to add to that rotation offensively. This team came out really, really slow, like extremely slow talking Chicago, White Sox, Oakland A's type of slow with the offense. Like, it was really, really bad. Mother's Day, Ali gets thrown out of a game in Milwaukee. And since then, they've taken off. both sides of the equation with the offense and the pitching finally, you know, come together.

And now they're starting to see the results over the last 15 days. Their second and Major League Baseball and batting average at 282. They're tied for fifth in home runs, third in OPS, third in slugging, third and on base percentage. So the offense that we thought we were going to see from the get-go coming out of spring training has finally decided to show up. Are they somebody we can rely on all season? I think a lot of people are skeptical about that. Will this pitching staff hold up for the rest of the season?

I think people are very skeptical about that when you see the age of some of the guys that are in the station. But it took them about a month and a half to finally get everything to come together at once. And now we're starting to see some wins. And they've gained a lot of ground. I don't know if you saw this, Connor, but they're now second in the NL Central. Granted, they're only at the 500 mark. Okay. Let's not get great.

Right. They're running away with things by any means. But they got to that step, which was something that had alluded to them throughout the season. It seemed like they'd get close to 500 and then they fall right back down. Well, they finally hit that mark. And, you know, lo and behold, now we've got to go to Philadelphia and play the team with the best record of baseball. So things are going to be interesting this weekend. I want to talk about new surprises and disappointments that have happened for the Phillies and the Cardinals so far this season. And each team makes a few adjustments each year.

And then some people don't live up to expectations. Other people surpass them. So we're going to talk about our biggest surprises with you guys next on this special Locked on Cardinals, Locked on Phillies crossover. First, let's hear from our friends over at Fandall. Yeah, and this is a great deal for the time of year right now. It's winter take all time in the NBA and NHL. And Fandle's given you a shot to bring home a big win of your own.

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Are you watching Fox Sports or ESPN on your TV all day? You have to turn down the volume because of all the shouting. Something me and Connor will not be doing to you today. We'll talk like civilized gentlemen. We make the switch to locked on sports today and you should too. It's a free 24-7 sports streaming channel program for you every single day to bring you the biggest stories without all of that screaming. on sports today brings you can't miss analysis, opinions and news, streaming 24-7,

or you can find us on YouTube and the free Amazon Fire TV channels app. It's all part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. A reminder, you can catch every pitch of the Cardinals, hometown broadcast, and the Phillies hometown broadcast with Sirius XM. Just download the SXM app and search the word Cardinals or Phillies. And thank you guys for making Locktong Cardinals and Locked on Phillies your first listen every day. You can leave your comments on YouTube as well as on Twitter X. Anytime you want that feedback, always welcome and encouraged.

I'm J.D. Hafer from Locktown Cardinals, Connor Thomas from Locked on Phillies, talking about this big series this weekend in Philadelphia. Let's talk about the biggest surprises. We'll start with the positives, Connor. What are some of the biggest surprises for the Phillies so far in 2024 that has allowed them to reach the top of the mountain right now with the best record in Major League Baseball? Yeah, there's three guys that come to mind. We're going to start with a pitcher that you're going to see in this series.

Ranger Suarez has been out. standing for the Philadelphia Phillies. He's in the Sy Young conversation. He was undefeated up until his last start and kind of fell apart in Colorado. That happens. You're not going to win every single start. But he's been dominant. His change up is one of the best pitches in baseball right now.

And to see that alongside Zach Wheeler and Aeronola, that puts you into this stratosphere of great rotations in baseball. So he's been really good. On the offensive side of the ball, Alec Baum has been outstanding. There was a point. a month and a half into the season where we started to talk about, are we really witnessing an MVP year from this guy? And he was a number three overall picks.

So the pedigree is there. But you haven't seen him be this level of hitter at the Major League level yet. He's been a huge RBI guy, a little bit cold recently. So him picking it back up would be nice, but we know this lineup is deep. He's been awesome at the plate. And the one other guy, too, with Trey Turner. I know you brought up Trey Turner on the injured list right now, still coming back from left hamstring injury.

and Mundo Sosa, who you guys are familiar with, I know, out there at St. Louis. He has been unbelievable in his minor role with the team that's become a bigger one such Trey Turner went down. We're starting to have conversations in Philadelphia about how do you keep him in the lineup once Trey Turner returns to action? He's red hot right now. So it's great to see what Sosa has done after waiting for his turn and taking advantage of it. Couldn't be happier for him.

Couldn't be happier for all these guys. So there's a lot of bright spots. but those are the three biggest surprises. Yeah, the Edmundo Sosa deal. I mean, talk about a deal that has worked out well for both sides, where you got the depth for the Phillies with Sosa, who can play the middle end field, obviously shortstop. And then we get Jojo Romero coming back to St. Louis,

and people were like, who the hell is this guy when they got him? And, you know, because he was in the minor leagues with the Phillies at the time. He wasn't even up on the Major League roster. And now he's become one of the main three guys in the bullpen, in a situation we call the trio, we call him the Trinity over here at Locked on Cardinals, where he's been one of those guys that's been able to lock things down over that seventh, eighth,

the ninth inning. Now, does he still do the crush the Red Bull on his arm before he goes to the game? Have you seen him do that? I haven't seen him do that, but I can tell you what, he's extremely animated out there, which I always appreciate because I feel like some of these guys,

specifically with the Cardinals, they could be a little boring, a little doll out there. I mean, like Paul Goldsmith's now the most exciting guy in the world. Good player, but, you know, and I like it when some of these guys show some fire. So I think Jojo fits in nicely, especially in that, you know, relief pitcher role, especially at the back of the bullpen. Like, he's been fantastic.

So I traded a win-win for both sides of that one. As far as surprises for the Cardinals so far this year, I'm going to go kind of in the same direction with you where I'm going to go a guy that used to be a Philly. Kyle Gibson. Kyle Gibson, sadly, will not throw. in this series, but he's been a lot better than many people thought he'd be. So far, he's four and two. He's got a 3.60 ERA. He's got six quality starts, which is something the Cardinals really targeted this offseason

when looking for guys they wanted to bring into this rotation. I know Cardinals fans remember, and I'm sure Philly's fans do, remember the four home run game where the Cardinals went back to back to back to back off of Gibson in Philly. I don't think they realized how dependable this guy was going to be, despite winning 15 games with the Baltimore Orioles last year, outside of his starts against the Marlins, where we think he was tipping pitches, and then kind of had a rough start against the Red Sox.

The dude's been outstanding and has easily been their best starting pitcher, not named Sunny Gray this season. Another guy that you got to keep your eye on and be aware of is our rising young shortstop, Mason went. He's been something that took a lot of people by surprise this year because he came up last year. Rookie looked overwhelmed at the major league level, and it had a lot of people wondering whether or not

that bat was going to play up here in the big leagues. But the glove and arm, no problems there. Everybody liked that. The arm is talked about a lot, one of the best arms in baseball, but people were concerned about his bat, what would be good enough. And he's been outstanding. I mean, elite, to be honest with you, Connor.

He's batting 308, which is 10th and all of Major League Baseball. He's seventh in the NL. He's shown the ability to, be clutch, which is something that the Cardinals, I feel like, lack sometimes or they just can't seem to come up with that, that two out hit. He's been the guy that's been able to pull it off, very good speeds, got seven stolen bases, currently riding an 18-game hitting streak heading into this weekend, just been a special talent for sure. And one of the Cardinals are embracing because they're starting to start to use his image and plaster him all over the place as this young

superstar for the Cardinals. And then I do want to give a shout out to Yvonne Herrera, the catcher, also a rookie with the Cardinals, the Wilson Contreras injury. I don't know if you've heard, but got his arm broken by J.D. Martinez on a swing. Had his arm out there a little too far as a catcher. And he got clipped,

broke his arm. And the Cardinals are like, oh, gosh, we just lost at the time, who was our best hitter, our starting catcher. What do we do now? All we got is rookies behind him. And Ivan Herrera has been great with the pitching staff,

Pedro Pahas, who is the backup, also a rookie, has, filled in nicely as more of a defensive guy. And Yvonne Herrera's been able to pick up the pace that we thought they were going to fall off with Wilson Contreras getting hurt. Herrera's been able to back cleanup for this team recently. They've moved Aronado down to number five, and it's been the rookie Herrera. Catchers don't do that either.

Like J.T. Romuto does that sometimes, and he's amazing to have a guy not thought at that position. It's awesome. Yeah. And to be a rookie pulling it off is a very pleasant surprise for. the Cardinals. Now, on the other side of the coin, because, you know, we can't just be sunshine and rainbows here. Got to talk about some of the negatives. So we'll be going over some of the things that have disappointed us about our teams. We'll cover that next on this locked on Cardinals, locked on Phillies crossover. Connor, I don't know about you, but do you remember like the first day of school or maybe the first day at your new job when you started at the fanatic? You know how it is.

You want to come in wearing, you know, the brand new outfit. Yeah, got to get the fit off. You know, you want to come in there. You want to look good. You know, you look good. And when you look good, you feel good when you walk into the room or through those doors for the first time, whether it's a job or whatever it is that you're just starting. You can get instant confidence, boost satisfaction like that still with our friends at Stitch Fix. And get this. Stitch Fix is going to give you a stylist to help you out.

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So if you're ready to upgrade to styles that make you feel as good as you look, get started today at stitchfix.com slash MLB and get $20 off your first fix. That's stitchfix.com slash MLB for $20 off. Stitchfix.com slash MLB must redeem within seven days of signing up. Locked on his launch, the first ever national sports 24-7 streaming channel on YouTube. It's now also available on Amazon Fire TV in the first. free Fire TV channels app Locked on Sports Today is here for you 24-7 covering the top sports stories of the day along with the local experts of Lockdown, plus our national shows which cover

every league. So you can find Locked-on Sports today right now. It's available on the Free Fire TV channels app. Once again, Connor Thomas from Locked on Phillies, Jady Haffern from Lockedon Cardinals. We're doing our special Locked-on crossover for the weekend series between the second-place Cardinals and the first place Phillies. It sounds better that way. When I say it, second-place Cardinals, that. I like that. Even though it just happened. And again, we're only at the 500 mark. Still, she's got a better ring to it. Yeah, no doubt. And we got the brewers after you guys. So take it easy on us and we'll take care of Milwaukee coming up, all right? Okay. We can do ourselves aside. Each other is solid here. That would be nice. Let's talk about some of the disappointing things because not everything works out the way management plans that it should. Who are Philly fans? Disapport. pointed in so far this year. It's probably kind of tough considering where you guys are in the

standings and how well things are going. But, you know, last year you mentioned, Trey Turner was the guy that everybody was like, who this guy's terrible? What is this? And then things turned around for them. Who are they kind of upset with so far this year? Yeah, the list is minimal because his team's just been so darn good. There's two guys and they're both going to play big roles in this series, actually. We'll start with Tomlin Walker, who's starting game three. He'll be throwing on Sunday, Sunday night baseball, big stage. and he's had major issues. He got hit around his last couple times out.

There's talk about is there something we need to change in the rotation. So he very well could be pitching for his job. The Phil's go to London in a little bit to take on the Mets, and that'll give him a lot of days off so they can rework the rotation. There's a chance that this is Taiwan Walker's last start to prove that he's better than what he's been. And he's got a splitter that everyone in baseball knows about because it is a lockdown pitch that has really made his career. And he just hasn't found it yet this year.

So he's had trouble and with this rotation as good as it has been, it's been magnified a little bit because everyone else looks so good. But he does have things to figure out. Offensively, it's Nick Castagnos. He has been really, really rough. And I'm sure you'll remember him from his time in division and what he did in Cincinnati. But he's had moments this year. He's had chances to break out. He's spent a lot of the year below the Mendoza line.

He's just barely above it now. He hasn't really hit for power. And he just had a game in the final game of the series against the Giants at the Phillies just wrapped up on Wednesday, where he went three for five and was a triple shy of the cycle. So is there belief that he could be coming out of it? Well, we've seen him have good games at points this year. And then he goes right back to striking out four times. But there's belief because his exit velocity has been up and he's been barreling the baseball better than he has at any point this year.

He may be breaking out to this point. I got to say that Nick Castionis has been a disappointment for the. to Philly's so far. How things have been, like, as far as the bullpen, because, you know, the Cardinals have been able to kind of solidify a 7, 8, 9 type of rotation. Do you guys have it set up that way is, you know, do you have a guy that you consider your number one closer? Are you still kind of filling things out there? Yeah, it's very weird. Rob Thompson does not like to set bullpen. As a guy who pitched out of the bullpen in college myself, I love to find roles because I think it makes relievers feel a lot more comfortable.

But any given night, it could be Jose Alvarado closing the game, Jeff Hoffman closing the game, Orion Kirkering, who was a huge story of baseball last year, came up, paid it all the way from low way to the major league roster to pitching in the NLCS in a single year. So there have been guys that have had rough outings, but largely the talent level in this bullpen has just covered up any issues. You've got so many guys that are regularly good that if someone has an off night, it hasn't been noticed. But the two big name guys that have shared, the closing responsibility have been Jose Alvarado and Jeff Hoffman. And they've both been really darn good again this year after

great 20, 23 seasons. The rise of Jeff Hoffman has been a shocker to me. Like considering where he was. I mean, we know how life in Colorado could be very, very rough gets out of there. But then wasn't quite sure what he was going to do. Like he was with in the division with the Reds for a little bit. And, you know, he's kind of the butt of jokes at certain times. And now he's shiny with the Phillies. We'll take it. Well, yeah. When people see him when the Cardinals see him come out and they're going to be like, what?

That dude's good? Look at these numbers. It might surprise some Cardinals fans a little bit. On our side of things, I would say we got a few guys that are disappointed. One, I don't want to pick on him too much because he's young. But Jordan Walker, who was one of the elite talents in the minor leagues, He's one of the top prospects in baseball at one time. Some people thought he was the number one prospect for a bit there.

It's not even on the team right now. A bit of a letdown. Considering he was your up-and-coming slugger, he was supposed to be a bat that you could put, hopefully in the middle of the order at some point. He was your starting right fielder on opening day, and he's now a starting right fielder for AAA Memphis. He's been down there for about a month,

trying to work on launch angles again, trying to get the ball in the air because he's a massive man. He's 6 foot 6. He's 250 pounds. And he still does not have a home run at any level of baseball this year. Didn't hit one at the major leagues. Hasn't hit one yet at AAA. It's starting to hit more doubles down there. But still, I let down considering the ability of what we know he's capable of,

but still a young guy. So we're not trying to kick him all the way down the steps. Just yeah, we want them to, you know, to get things right. And lucky enough for the Cardinals, they've been able to put some outfield depth together to kind of fill that hole for now. But being that he's so young, he's not going to be on the top of my disappointment list. The top of the list is going to go to two names everybody's familiar with. And that's Nolan Aronado and Paul Goldschmidt, the so-called pillars of this team.

You know, the guys that the cardals thought that they could count him, day in, day out, have not lived up the expectations, not even the slightest. Goldie, I will admit, has been a lot better recently. So he's not quite where he was a couple of weeks ago. batting 289, three home runs, seven RBIs over the last like 15 days. But overall numbers are seeing 224, seven home runs, 22 RBIs. And to think that him hitting 289 only got him to 224 on the season, shows you how low he was.

He was bad. As you mentioned earlier with Castiano's Mendoza line, he was well under there for quite some time there. And then there's Nolan Aronado who's hitting 257, which isn't awful, but the power has just vanished from Nolan Aronado's game. I don't know if it's a health thing. He's never said that it's a back problem that's bothering him or a shoulder, whatever it may be, is not using that as an excuse, is just saying his swing is just off.

He's like, I can't figure it out. He's like, I'm working on it. I'm trying to get it right. I can't do it. Pitchers are starting to, you know, it took, what, a decade, but they're figuring out, don't throw it low and inside to no one Aronado, throw everything away, and he can't hit it over the wall. He has really no power to center field, no option.

opposite field power, really, and anything he's going to hit that way, he's just going to kind of flare it out there. So pitchers have finally learned that. So the home runs have vanished, 25 RBIs. The other side that's a little bit scary about what's going on with Aronado because he's making a lot of money and he's still under contract for a few more years. The defense has fallen off considerably. He's now a minus six in defensive run saved here in 2024.

Now, this is a guy who has won 10 goal gloves. He's a six-time platinum glove award winner, and he's at minus six at the hot corner right now, which is not something. That's insane. Yeah, like you look at it, and you're like, and it's like routine stuff. And the cardals have been in a weird way recently as far as the defense. They just kick like routine plays, and it's been odd. They had a 12-game streak of making an error until Tuesday. And then they finally didn't make an error, and then they made another one on Wednesday.

Wednesday. So we're starting a new one back up for you. But yeah, Aronado over there at third, it's weird that maybe the offensive side of things are now starting to affect what he's doing on the defensive side of things. And it's also led to more people thinking that, okay, maybe there is an injury here that's going on because it's weird that both pieces of the puzzle with Nolan Arnato are faltering as bad as they can. And then outfield injuries. That's the other thing that's been a huge problem with the Cardinals so far this year. Lars Neupar is a little banged up right now. They've never had Tommy Edmund yet this year,

who was supposed to be your starting center fielder. Jordan Walker with his issues, Dylan Carlson was hurt and still doesn't look good at the plate. And if Newpar is going to be banged up and may not be available this weekend, we haven't gotten official word on that, but he was dealing with some issues with the side. He had a little hammy thing going on there.

So we'll see what happens there. the one guy that's actually stepped up for them in the outfield has been a guy by the name of Michael Ciani, who most people have never even heard of. He's really no bat whatsoever. If you just don't let him bunt, probably not going to hurt too offensively, but defensively, he's been fantastic in center field and with this pitching staff, they certainly needed it. So let's talk about the pitching matchups real quick.

You hinted at a couple of them. Friday night, Miles Michaelis, against Aaronola. Nola signs that big contract to stay in Philadelphia. and has been living up to everything they wanted him to be, hasn't he? Well, somewhat. Yeah, I mean, listen, he's been there and all he's always been. He's got a very high ceiling. He's got some inconsistencies that will always be there.

And that's kind of the nature of most pitchers in baseball. No one's going to be their best self every start. So he could give you eight innings a shutout ball one day. He could give you six innings of four earns the next day. But the talent level and the ceiling has been what's so intriguing about in all and he's actually been pretty good against the Cardinals in his career and has had some success. So the expectation is that you get a good version of Aaron Nola tonight. Miles Michaelis going up against him.

Miles Michaelis has one bad inning every single game. And we don't know when it's going to be. Could be in the first, could be the fourth, could be in the fifth. We don't know. You just never know. I call it the Russian roulette, but it's like Michaelis roulette because you don't know where the bullet's going to be and everything's going to blow up on you. but outside of that one inning, he's like amazing.

It's so bizarre that there's one inning that everything just goes wrong, whether it's soft contact or he gives up two bombs. We don't know what it's going to be. So if he can avoid the massive inning, if he's going to give up a bad inning, if he's going to be two or three runs, I think the Cardinals will live with that, but it's when he really gets out of control and he gives up four or five.

And then it's big trouble because you're playing from behind. So that's something to keep an eye on for Friday night. On Saturday, you mentioned Ranger Suarez, how amazing he's been nine and one on the year. Cardl's A. Sunny Gray, last couple of outings, he's been dominant. And then he leaves early for certain reasons. Like last time it was because of the rainout situation that was going on with the Cubs. It was delayed. So he couldn't get his lower body loose and they didn't want to push things.

But that should be a really fun matchup as far as if you're into pitching matchups. That should be a good one on Saturday. And then you mentioned you got Sunday night baseball. You know, you get the nationally. televised game on ESPN. It's Taiwan Walker against Lance Lynn. Have you seen Lance Lynn recently, Connor? Have you seen what good of shape he's in? Yeah, we actually faced him in the first series we played against you guys this year. And he's, he's looking better. Listen, I remember a bigger Lance Lynn. But that'll be a fun one too. Yeah, he's mean looking. He's got the gray going on and he's as

feisty as ever. And certainly has deserved better in the games when he has pitched well for some, you know, the cardals won't hit. When he pitches bad, it just doesn't work out. So the record's a little bit misleading. But I think he's been better than they think, or at least thought that he was going to be this year. He hasn't been able to go long in games. They were hoping he'd be more like Kyle Gibson with six innings just about every time he goes out there. But he's been able to get you five. So that being at the end of the week, hopefully maybe our bullpins won't be worn out and we'll be able to, you know, cover what endings he leaves out there on the table. But it should be a fun matchup this weekend. What are you seeing? How do you think things are going to go?

Yeah. Sunny Gray is a great pitcher, but Rangers 4 has lost his last start out and that dude's going to be motivated. So if you're going to win this series, you're going to have to get games one and three. I think the Phil's look really good in that Saturday game. And Tywin Walker's been really bad. So I think who wins the series comes down to who wins game one. And it's another really interesting pitching matchup with Nola, Mikeliss. I think the Phillies will win this series only because they've lost two straight series. And prior to losing two straight, they had one 15 straight. So the sample size is in the Phil's favor.

But the offense for the Cardinals is really picked up. And I mean, I'm very interested to see what this series is like with another hot team their face. Yeah. And with two Ritees going for the Phillies, keep an eye on Nolan Gorman, who is a guy that was also struggling mightily at the beginning of the year. And things have picked up in a major way. hitting well above 300 over the last couple of weeks is now in double-digit home runs out of nowhere.

People are like, wait, what? How did that happen? Yeah, he snuck up on some people. So definitely a bad to keep your eye on in this series as well. As always, thank you guys for making Lockstone Cardinals of Lockstone Phillies. Your first listen every day. If you haven't already, do us a solid. Give us a follow on Twitter at L.O. underscore Cardinals and at JD Sports Radio for Connor.

It's L.O. underscore Phillies and at Connor Thomas 975. make sure you guys are liking and subscribing on YouTube to help our channels grow. It's very, very important that you do those things. That way we can get our reach out to other Cardinals and Phillies fans who may not have heard about us just yet. All right. Enjoy the series, everyone. Connor, I appreciate you as always, buddy. Of course, man.

It's always fun. All right. Thanks for being a part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day.