Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - Cardinals Feeling Good About Themselves After Huge Homestand

Episode Date: May 27, 2024

- The Homestand - Shota Imanaga Decision - Cubs Series - Andre Pallante Returns 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 Cardinals Cubs series lived up to all the hype. And I, for one, think that the Cardinals should be banking, Mother Nature, Craig Counsel, and the Cubs for a certain decision that just may have resurrected this bitter and disappointed fan base. This is Locked on Cardinals. 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 fans.

I'm J.D. Hafford. Haffern and I'm a national radio. sports anchor born and raised in the Lou and a lifetime Cardinals fan and I'm your host for Locked on Cardinals part of the Locked on podcast network covering your team every day you can follow me on Twitter X at JD Sports Radio you can follow the podcast at L0 underscore Cardinals. I want to thank those of you who make Locktown Cardinals your first listen every day. We're free and available wherever you get your podcast. You can also find us on YouTube. If you haven't been there yet, stop on by, like, subscribe, comment, hit that notification button so you know when the new episodes are posted. This is a show serving Cardle Nation and giving the best fans and

baseball, all of the info about the birds on the bat. Today's episode brought to you by Game Time, download the Game Time map, create an account, and use the code locked on MLB for $20 off your first purchase, term supply. So Mother Nature played a few tricks on the Cardinals in this homestand, right? It sadly cost us one of the games against the Cubs, but might have worked out in the Cardinals favor in the long run.

So I'll talk more about that later. but the two games that the Cubs and the Cardinals were able to play were nothing less than spectacular to watch. You know, throw out the records because we know that these two franchises have been a little bit disappointing in the last couple of years. Just go talk to their fan bases about it and you'll pick up on that. But it honestly for once finally felt like real Cardinal baseball had returned to Bush Stadium. And the Chicago Cubs were a big piece of that. the Chicago Cubs fans, a big piece of that. You know, the stands were packed with red and blue.

They were chanting. There was trash talking. Family members split right down the center. You got, you know, mom and brother wearing Cubs stuff. And then you got sister and dad over here in the Cardinals gear and wearing the Cardinals attire. You had the city connects making their debut. The beer lines were long. Food lines were long.

But that's the atmosphere you want at Bush Stadium. and surrounding the actual gameplay on the field, which lived up to what we wanted, you know? I don't think anybody's going to accuse these teams of being ready to hang with the big dogs in Major League Baseball. Not yet, even though the Cardinals have been playing very, very well, but I don't think you're going to say, hey, we should have them up there with teams like the Phillies, you know.

I don't think we're there yet, although the Cardinals did just sweep the Orioles, who are a legit powerhouse after leaving. St. Louis, the Orioles just swept the white socks, one four straight. But I think we can all agree that what we saw over the past two days with the Cubs being in town, that was a whole lot of fun. And of course, it doesn't hurt because the Cardinals won both the games. You know, we had, we had drama throughout both of them, timely hitting on both sides and pretty good defense, despite seeing a few routine errors for both teams, but that happens. The bullpins were utilized

and smart and in good ways. It just felt like meaningful, dare I say, almost playoff atmosphere type of baseball. And you're getting that at the end of May in St. Louis with a team that's under 500, despite as well as they've played recently, they're still under 500 on the season. And I think part of the reason it felt this way for the Cardinals is because so much was actually riding on this homestand. I spoke about that. And in this series in particular,

as the Cardinals try to prove, you know, to the league, to themselves, and in my opinion, most importantly, to the fans, that they're not the sub-500 perennial losers that they've been playing

like since the beginning of the 2020 season. And it's been tough to try to get fans to come back on board and to try to enjoy Cardinal baseball again. and to be as supportive as they normally are. I mean, losing will do that to you. Coming into the homestand, the Cardinals were going to face three teams

that at the time had records of 500 or better. Personally, I was hoping, let's just get five wins out of the nine games, just come away with a winning record, and it would be something to build on. And instead, the Cardinals go seven and one in this homestand. Seven and one. Had the one rain out,

so they didn't get to play that ninth game. But they lose the one game to the Red Sox on Sunday, which was an ugly game. They get trounced 11 to 3. It was brutal. But then they sweep the Orioles. They win both games against the Cubs. They're now 25 and 26 on the season, have won 10 of their last 12. They've won five in a row, which is currently the second longest winning streak in baseball

behind the Cleveland Guardians, who miraculously have won nine in a row, and they're doing it without Shane Bieber, who's done for the year. Like, I don't know how Cleveland's pulling it off. I have no clue, but they've been impressive in the AL Central. And, you know, after the Orioles series, you can feel the fan base, which has been angry and bitter and disappointed since the beginning of the 2020s season. You could feel them start to turn following the performance you saw against Baltimore. Winning two of three against that team would have made people happy, but to sweep the Orioles. With all that talent coming off a 100 win season,

that was a huge confidence boost for everyone involved, coaches, players, front office, and of course the fans. And you started to see them trickle back a little bit. Like if you are online and you're kind of going off the vibes of what people are saying online about this team, you could feel them starting to ease up a little bit, not quite trying to strangle everybody involved. You know how when you're, you know, you're living in your neighborhood. and you see a fire truck or you see police lights or an ambulance pull up and you can't help it,

right? You go out to your window and you open the blinds. You're like, okay, what's going on out there? Maybe you're curious enough that you walk out onto the porch to go see what's going on. You start, you know, doing that neck move, you know, where you're looking around for some reason. You're trying to get a better angle. You refuse to move your feet, but you move your neck around in all these weird ways to try to get a better view. kind of like, what's going on over there? That's how I think fans fell after the Orioles series. Oh, what is that? Is that cheering and excitement coming from Bush Stadium?

I wonder what's going on down there. Maybe I should put on my slippers and go check it out. But as great as that was, you lose to the Cubs, and it's all for not, right? The Orioles are great, but they aren't the Cubs. They're not your division rival. You lose to Chicago, and that would have said everything back, where we wore before he even started the series against Baltimore. And then the trolls and the naysayers, they'd be able to rise once again and say, see, we told you don't trust them. Fire, Olly, Fire Mo, Trade Goldie, Trade Aeronado, send Gorman down, sign Bauer.

You see them. They write in all caps in the comments and online. and over and over. You know who they are. And despite it being a huge bummer that Friday's game got rained out, because that sucked, because we're all excited to see a Cardinals Cub series, right? First time we got to see them this year, play each other. It did force a decision to be made by Cubs manager Craig Counsel and the Cubs that likely helped lead the Cardinals to winning both games of the series. I'm going to tell you what that decision was next on Locked-out Cardinals. Going to baseball games in St. Louis, it is a tradition, even when the team is losing, although they haven't done a lot of that recently.

You still want to make that trek down to Ballpark Village, at least once a summer, right? You're going to go do it. You're going to go with the family. You're going to take either your kids and your wife or you're going to go with your family and go with your parents. And, you know, you're going to go down there and cheer on the boys of Bush Stadium. And when you need tickets to the game, you shouldn't be looking any farther than going to the game time app.

It is the best way to get tickets to go see not only the St. Louis Cardinals, but any of the teams in Major League Baseball. It's an authorized ticket marketplace of Major League Baseball, which makes getting tickets faster, makes it easier. Prices on the app actually go down. The closer you get to the first pitch, they get those killer last minute deals for you. They got the all-in prices so you're not, you know how you'll see on some places where you got a ticket price. Then you're like, oh, cool.

And then it just like triples because they add all the taxes and the fees and all that stuff on there. You get the all-in prices right away, so they're not trying to sneak anything past you. You get views from your seat, wherever you're choosing from, and you get the lowest price guarantee. It takes the guesswork out of buying tickets to any Major League Baseball games. You get the Flash deals, the Zone deals, the lowest price guarantee or game time will credit you 110% of the difference. And your purchase is covered with the most flexible customer service policy in the ticketing industry. So take the guesswork out of it. What are you doing? Why are you getting tickets to other places? Download the game time app.

Create an account. Use the code locked on MLB. We'll save you some money. You'll get $20 off your first purchase. Pretty nice. Terms apply again, create an account, redeem the code L-O-C-K-E-D-O-N-M-LB for $20 off. Download game time today. Last minute tickets lowest price, guaranteed. Are you watching Fox Sports or ESPN on your TV all day and have to turn down the volume because they keep screaming at you through the television? then make the switch to Lockdown Sports Today. It's a free 24-7 sports streaming channel, and it's programmed for you every day to bring you the biggest stories without all of that screaming.

You get analysis, opinions, news, and it's streaming 24-7, so no matter what your schedule is, it's going to be available for you. On YouTube or the free Amazon Fire TV channels app, it's part of the Lockdown Podcast Network. You're a team every day. Thanks for making a lockdown cartels your first listen every day. Leave your comments on YouTube as well as on Twitter X.

Anytime you want, feedback, always welcome and encouraged. even if you are in all caps and you're yelling at me that the Cardinals need to sign Trevor Bauer, that's fine. You can still put it in there. I don't mind. I'm just glad you're a part of it all. So let's get back to the Cardinals and Cubs series, okay? Because of the rain on Friday, Cubs and the Cardinals couldn't play.

Like I said, that was a bummer. And the game, by the way, in case you didn't know, rescheduled for July the 13th. But due to the rain to Mother Nature, the Cubs decided not to throw their number one pitcher, Shota and Managa. Not just, you know, on Friday because it rain, but decided to push him back out of the series. Clearly scared of the Cardinal's thunderous lineup at the time, I'm sure. But they chose to push him back. They wanted to give him some extra rest.

Honestly, no shame in that whatsoever. I completely understand that. I do. Looking at the big picture of the season, you know, you want to keep him fresh. And that makes sense. But it really benefited what was. going on with the Cardinals at the time, who again, they come into the series riding high after sweeping the Orioles. And if the Cubs decided to slide Eminaga back to Saturday,

and then he ends up pitching the way he has been pitching against everybody so far during the regular season, he ends up shoving against the Cardinals and locking them up. We'd be talking about this series in a completely different way. It wouldn't be so, sunshine and rainbows on this Monday. But instead of having to face Eminaga, the The Cardinals get the guys the Cubs had already lined up for Saturday and Sunday and James and Tayaon and Javier Assad. And it's not like those guys didn't pitch well because they did, but when you can avoid the other team's ace like the Cardinals were able to do in the Baltimore series, they didn't have to see Corbyn Burns. That's always a good thing. You know, just mentally going into a game and it's not one of their best pitchers, you feel like you have a better shot at winning.

You just do. you know when that other team's number one is in staring you down you feel better you also didn't have to face just in steel in this series against the cubs who was their number one he's dealt with some injuries this year so his numbers aren't quite what we're used to seeing but you know Justin steel has dominated the cardinals you know he's pitched very very well against them I think he's four and one in like six starts the r a under three and a half like he's been very good against the cardinals so it was nice that this Cardinals didn't have to see him either. Saturday's game, the team debuts the new City Connects.

So you had that buzz around the ballpark because of that. And you had 45,000 plus in attendance, which, again, how awesome is it to see Bush Stadium packed again? Like, it just, it just feels right. It feels right. And the Cardinals jump out early in that one. They score two in the third inning. But then Miles Michaelis, he does what he does in pretty much every game this year. He has one. bad inning. One bad inning. I mean, honestly, if Michaelis was able to avoid the one big bad inning, I mean, we might be talking Cy Young's for this guy right now because he seems amazing in every other inning. But then he always says that one where he gives up three, four, five, and it just throws everything off. But for whatever reason, it just is what happens.

And you never know what inning it's going to be. Is it going to be in the first, the third, the fifth? I mean, you don't know when it's coming at you. It's like playing Miles Michaelis Roulette. You never know where the bullet's going to be. But it was the fourth. Fourth inning on Saturday, dreaded two-out walk, proceeded a two-run double by Nico Horner,

and then you get the RBA single by Michael Bush, and Cardinals are in a hole. But even after they coughed up the lead, the way they've been playing, you know, you still had confidence that the team could come back. They've been doing it all year, despite the losing record. They have been able to come back in a lot of games this year.

So trailing by just one run, It didn't feel insurmountable by any means. And the Cardinals nodded things back up on a two-out RBI double by Mason Wynn, who is now starting to get that national attention that he deserves. I only wish Jordan Walker was here to be a part of it and do things with Mason Wend, their best friends. They're the future of the Cardinals. And, you know, Walker's stuck in Memphis right now trying to get right.

He'll be back at some point. I have faith in that. But it's just kind of a bummer because you're seeing the photos and stuff. and Mason Wend all over the place, right? They're all over the ballpark and they're starting to push him as a superstar. And I just wish Jordan Walker could be a part of it because he's supposed to be there doing it with him. And it sucks that he's not. But anyway, scores tied now, right?

3-3. You get the weird error on Paul Goldsman over at first base. That's following a walk by Andrew Kittridge. And that leads to the Cubs taking the lead in the seventh. But the cartels end up rallying in the eighth inning. Griseled veteran Matt Carpenter, Marp gets the. clutch single to right field with two wild scoring Alec Berlison from second base. And I tell you what, if the Cardinals end up continuing to progress the way they are,

and this becomes a more successful season than the way things started and, of course, better than what we saw last year, that play is going to go down as one of the big highlights for sure. You get clutch hit from Carb, great base running. You get the great slide. It's a bang, bang play at the plate, the reaction from Burley following the call, you know, it was just awesome. And for my older Cardinal fans out there, you could probably relate to this one. It reminds me of when Glenn Brummer stole home for the Cardinals in 1982 to win a game. I think they were facing the Giants that day. Just like the mannerisms involved and, you know, the intensity of the situation just kind

of made me flash back to that highlight. So you might remember that one. but just a huge play. And then the Cardinals continue the rally. You get the clutch two-run single from Brennan Donovan, then the new triple. And all of a sudden you're looking at a seven to four ball game. Bush is rocking, you know, but the Cubs, they don't go away.

They might have come back in the ninth inning against Halsley, who was uncharacteristically very hitable in the two games against Chicago. They were jumping on him early in count, specifically the fastball. You saw him kind of switch things up in game two. but he finally shuts the door on Saturday night. Cardinals win the game seven to six. Then on Sunday,

we had the, what, two and a half hour rain delay? Sunny Gray got the ball against Assad, who we mentioned earlier, and Sonny was dominant. He goes five innings. He allows one hit, no run, strikes out eight, throws just 74 pitches, ends up getting pulled after five innings,

which had us all worried that maybe Sunny was dealing with an injury or something, but that wasn't the case. Precautionary. Ali said after the game that Sunny was having, trouble getting his lower half loose throughout the entire day. And with his extensive way that he goes about setting up for games and his pregame stuff, it just didn't make sense to keep pushing him. So the Cardinals didn't want to do that.

So they decided let's let's be cautious here. No use in pushing it. Five solid innings. We got a healthy rested bullpen. So he leaves with a 4-0 lead thanks to two run shots by Paul Goldschmidt, who don't Look now, I'm not saying he's starting to resemble MVP Goldsmith, but starting to look like the Goldsmith we are used to seeing in a Cardle uniform. The guy we've been accustomed to for his tenure in St. Louis, his last 11 games, he's now batting 298, three home runs, eight RBIs, the OPS up to 906. He's taking better at bats.

He's getting better swings. The strikeouts, still a concern, but we'll take it if you're going to have that production, right? You know, same thing with like Nolan Gorman. Still, strikeouts are always going to be a problem for him. but over his last like 10 games or something, he's hitting like 3.45 or something like that. So you'll take it. It's a give and take thing there with the strikeouts, you know.

John King followed Sunny into the game. Once again, he tosses a solid shutout inning. John King, man. John King. ERA is now under 2.1.98. Props to the King. It was the Trinity. They got dinged up in this series against Chicago.

Kit gives up a two-run shot to Cardinal Killer Ian Hap to cut the lead in half, Romero had to work out of a basis loaded jam in the eighth inning. And then Hap would pop another dinger, this time off Helsley in the top of the ninth inning, makes it four to three and we're all sweating again. Ian Hap, what is it about Ian Hap in the Cardinals? How have we not figured out how to get this dude out? He's now hit 24 home runs against the Cardinals in 100 games in his career. Like, oh, what is it with this guy?

Can he go pick on somebody else? Like, leave the Cardinals alone. Cubs end up getting a couple more singles off Halsley, which makes things even more stressful before he finally ends the game to get his 17th save of the year. Halsley coming into the series against Chicago had not allowed an earned run since April 8th. That's 16 innings, no runs. In that stretch, opponents have gone 7 to 53 against them, 132 batting average, 19Ks before the weekend. So hopefully, whatever was going on with Chicago, whatever they were picking up on, the Cardinals could figure out how to not let. that happen again. Hopefully it's just a hiccup with Housley because obviously he's a big

important piece at the at the back of that bullpen. But the Cubs had something going on there. They kind of knew what was either either what was coming or they just had an idea that he was going to go fastball early because you saw in Sunday night's game, he quit throwing the four scene fastball and was going just straight sliders and curveballs and he got away with it because the Cubs were jumping all over it. So hopefully they'll figure it out and get that all squared away. But Cardinals win. They get two from the Cubs, both games. So kind of a sweep, you know, not a full on sweep. Maybe like one of those little brush sweeps. You can go with that instead. But needless to say, a monster homestand for the St. Louis Cardinals. So we've got more

about that and the series. And the team has made a move. Brought back a familiar name to the roster. We'll talk about all of this coming up next on Locked on Cardinals. Get supplies from the site that's made for the skilled trades. Supplyhouse.com. Supplyhouse.com is the reliable way to order plumbing, HVAC, and electrical products online. They're easy to use. Website is packed with helpful resources and the latest product info to help you get the job done right. You can shop a complete inventory of over 200,000 parts from over 400, top brands, and get your order delivered right to your door with fast shipping from coast to coast. I'm actually having some work done on a jacuzzi tub that I owned in one of my condos.

And one of the buttons just went out. So I got an electrician who's got to look at it. And we're going to need a new button. It's going to happen. Whatever he figures out is wrong with it other than the button. We're going to have to order that. Guess where we're going for this? That's right.

Supplyhouse.com. That's what we're doing. So if you need help with an order, get expert support and industry leading service from the friendliest folks in the business. And you can talk to a real person every time, which is always very, very nice. and the skilled trades can get a competitive edge by joining Supplyhouse.com's free trademaster program. Every trade master gets access to a dedicated phone line, free shipping, and discounts on every order.

So join the thousands of trade pros already benefiting from their free membership at supplyhouse.com slash TM. And order plumbing, HVAC, and electrical supplies from anywhere with just a few clicks at supplyhouse.com. Locked on us launched the first ever national sports 24-7 streaming channel on YouTube. It's now also available on Amazon Fire TV. And in the Free Fire TV channels app, Locked on Sports Today, is here for you 24-7 covering the top sports stories of the day with the local experts of Locked-on, plus our national shows which cover every league.

You can find Locked-on Sports Today, now available on the Free Fire TV channels app. Again, when it comes to stats about stuff with the Cardinals, there's a lot of great places to go. For me, specifically, I like Rob Raines at SELSportspage.com. always has a ton of cool stats that he throws out there after each game. So I always encourage you to check out his work. And he put up some things about this Cubs series and about this homestand, going 7 and 1 on the homestead against the Red Sox Orioles and Cubs.

With one game rained out, we know that. The Cardinals ended up scoring offensively 45 runs, which was an average of 5.62 runs a game. In winning 10 of their last 12 games, They have scored an average of 5.67 runs a game over that stretch. When the Cardals were losing this year, remember, they were sitting around the three runs a game spot, and it wasn't enough. We knew it wasn't enough. They knew it wasn't enough, and they just had to get the bats going.

That's why they're winning. You know, the pitching has been good enough, but then you've got the offense making up for the lack of dominant pitching that the Cardals possess. And we knew that's what the plan was coming into the season. now you're starting to see that plan come to fruition and play out the way that they wanted it to. Mason Wend mentioned how he's becoming a star. His single in the fourth inning on Sunday extended his hitting streak to 15 games. That is the longest by a Cardinals hitter this season. He also extended his streak to 28 consecutive plate appearances without striking out,

dating back to May 15th. What do we say coming into the season? Mason Wend usually struggles no matter what level he gets promoted to, whether it's from A to AA, double A to AAA, takes him a little bit to kind of get used to what's going on at that level, and then he starts to turn it around and become the offensive weapon that he has been throughout his career. It happened at every single level, came up last year,

didn't look great, struggled a little bit earlier on this season, and now you're starting to see the guy that the Cardinals thought they had offensively. Defensively, the routine errors are becoming a little bit annoying, but he's also made some phenomenal, plays. And obviously the arm makes up for a lot of stuff. So work in progress, still a young guy. This is not some 27-year-old dude that we're talking about. We're talking about, what is he, 21? All right. So let's not crush the kid just for every error that he makes. But the errors are becoming an issue, not only for Mason Win, but for the Cardinals in general, man, we've got to stop that.

An error by win extended the Cardinal Street to 11 consecutive games with at least one error. their longest since they made at least one error in the first 14 games of the 1976 season. So far, it hasn't burned the Cardinals in a way where they're losing games because of it, but it's making these games a little more interesting than they need to be, right? It's putting the pitchers in bad situations that they don't need to be in. So got to clean that up. Lars Dupar, in the original lineup on Sunday, was scratched as a precautionary move after he was said to be suffering from a tight hamstring, which is something we don't want.

And then you saw during the second Paul Goldschmidt home run, Lars Neupar, he's up on the top of the dugout. And he almost falls over the players that he catch him and stuff. Like, no, you're a very fragile guy. All right, let's not be screwing around too much and getting hurt celebrating home runs. All right. Do me that solid. The Cardinals also made a roster move before the game on Sunday, putting reliever Nick Robertson on the IL, right elbow inflammation, which is never good. But they're bringing back Andre Palante, who has been down at me.

Memphis for about a month, I think now. We know he struggled in the major leagues. He had a tough year last year. Coming off that 20-22 season where Palante looked outstanding, last year was rough. He had a rough go at the WBC. Then it was a rough season in St. Louis. Had a rough start to this year as well. A period of nine games, 6.30 ERA, 1.90 whip across 10 frames. Not good. But down in Memphis, whatever they've been working on, he's gotten better. Four games, three starts, 2.20 ERA, nine strikeouts, 13 walks, not great. 16 and a third innings, kept righties to a 143 batting average. The lefties, who he's been good at getting out at the major league level,

we're hitting 333 against him. So we'll see what they use him for because of the rainout on Friday. The Cardinals were able to avoid that fifth spot in the rotation, which is up in the air right now because Matt's is hurt. Matthew Libertor has not been very good. in that spot. So they want to keep him in the bullpen where he has been good. So the dilemma right now is who's going to throw in that fifth game or that fifth spot, I should say. And that spot is going to come around in the rotation on Wednesday. It's a day game in Cincinnati against the Reds. Palante could be that guy.

He's been stretched out. I think I saw something like 85 pitches. So they might give him the start in that game. Just prepare yourself for that if that's the decision they decide to make. Like I mentioned, Cardinals are going to be in Cincinnati afternoon game today on Monday, got in at 3.15 in the morning on Monday. So not sure how rested the Cardinals are going to be going into. MLB just did them kind of dirty in this one because you had the Sunday game against the Cubs. So a night game, you're not anticipating a rain delay of two and a half hours, but rain delay nonetheless.

And then you ship them in the middle of the night to Cincinnati, to play a day game in the afternoon against the team that's been at home this whole time because they just had the Dodgers in town, who they swept, by the way, played some really good baseball. Whatever reason, the Dodgers offense just went silent in Cincinnati this past weekend. So, Lance Lynn will get the ball for the Cardinals. Nicky, Nick Lidolo will get the ball. He's coming off the IL for the Red.

So who knows what you're going to get out of him. Sometimes he's really good. Sometimes he struggles. So we'll see. But Reds, they got a lot of momentum going right now despite having an ugly. It was like they lost like 15 of 18, something like that. Well, they just swept Dodgers. So they're not thinking about the losing at all, feeling pretty good about themselves.

And Big Brother Cardinals coming to Great American Small Park for the next three days. The Reds always seem to give McCartle's fits when they're in Cincinnati. At least Adam Wainwright's not pitching in Cincinnati, right? He's the one that usually gets murdered at Great American Ballpark. So you can avoid that. But it'll be Lance Lynn on the mound on Monday. Hopefully the boys can avoid the letdown from the lack of sleep. And after what was a wonderful 7-1 homestand at Bush.

So it's the opener of a nine-game 10-day trip that also includes stops at Philadelphia and in Houston. So it isn't going to be easy. So whatever momentum they grabbed in this homestand, I keep it going. Got to keep it going. Let's see if they can get to the 500 mark on Monday. Thank you for making Locktunk Cardinals. Your first listen every day. If you haven't already, please give us a follow on Twitter,

at L.O underscore Cardinals and the JD Sports Radio. Like, subscribe on YouTube, help our channel and our love for the Cardinals grow. You guys are the best fans in baseball for a reason, and I will see you next time. By the way, I'll be at all three games in Cincinnati against the Reds, so keep an eye out for me. I'll be putting up pictures and videos and whatnot

during and after the game. So it should be fun. Looking forward to it. You guys are the best fans of baseball for a reason. We'll see you next time on Locked on Cardinals.