Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - CHAOS: St. Louis Cardinals' Offense ERUPTS but Pitching IMPLODES in Wild Loss to Mariners

Starting point is 00:00:00 The offense explodes, but the pitching implodes on a wild day at the ballpark. 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 and on today's show, how did Hunter Dobbins Fair and his start on Saturday in Memphis? Another rough start for top pitching prospect of Liam Doyle. We've got the latest on the Pedro Paz injury, but let's start with the wildly entertaining day at Bush Stadium, which saw the Mariners and the Cardinals crank it up.

Starting point is 00:00:43 Like things weren't. It was bonkers at Bush Stadium. Mariners and Cardinals crank out offense like they were playing in Coorsfield or something. This is not something we normally see in St. Louis at Bush Stadium. It was like they were playing at Coorsfield instead. Combined 20 runs on 33 hits, eight home runs. It was certainly an entertaining spectacle. for the 25,000 plus in attendance, but unfortunately it ended with the Mariners coming out on top by a

Starting point is 00:01:10 score of 11 to 9. Cardle's pitching staff had no real answers for the Mariners whatsoever. Starter Matthew Livertoria got popped for five runs on eight hits, including three dingers and just three and the third innings by far his worst start of the season. The thing is, the Cardle's offense, you know, it gave him the lead before he was done. Still looking for his first win of the season, but both of these offenses just, went crazy. Like it was, it was a spectacle. After the two-run, home run by Julio Rodriguez in the top of the first inning, the boys answer right back. You get back-to-back jacks from JJ and Yvonne to tie it up at two-to-two. Mariners get another two-run shot in the second inning by Will Wilson. Cardinals answer

Starting point is 00:01:53 right back with a solo home run from Nathan Church, who had a monster day. We're going to talk more about him later. Third inning, the Cardinals' offense drops four more on an RBI single by Mason Winn, who bloops one down the line and right, and then a three-run bomb by Pedro Pahas, which was hilariously ruled foul by the umpires initially. Like, come on, guys, what are we looking at here? Like, what are we doing? How did you miss that? How would you even come close to calling that a foul ball? Thank God for replay for stuff like this. And I love the fact that Pedro goes, he just trotted around the bases anyway. He's like, y'all are idiots. That was a fair ball by a long shot.

Starting point is 00:02:35 I don't know what we're doing. So he just kept running, even though they were like foul ball. And he's like, no, no, I'm going to, I'm going to take my, my circle of fun here and round these bases, put on the trot anyways, didn't have to do it again later. So he knew it. We all knew it. The only people who didn't realize it were the umpires, which was a little bit embarrassing. They turned it over pretty quick, but still like, you got to be kidding me.

Starting point is 00:02:59 He thought that was a foul ball. offense hammer is one of the best right handers in baseball in Brian Wu. Hadn't given up a home run all season yet. Seven runs, nine hits, four taters off of Brian Wu. And with production like that, normally you feel pretty good by your chances of winning. But this Cardle's bullpen never ceases to amaze us, do they? Never could quite slow down the Mariners enough as they score three runs against the pen over the final five and two-thirds innings. And they went at 11 to 9.

Starting point is 00:03:28 And I don't know if it was me the jinxed them yesterday because we put out an episode yesterday morning. And it kind of feels like I screwed them over. And I apologize because yesterday I talked about the guys in the bullpen that I actually felt confident in and trusted. When that bullpen gate swung open and they came running out, I was like, these are the guys that I think are pretty good. And I believe that when they come into the ball game, they're going to do just fine. and I'll be damned. Did every single one of them that I named yesterday that I said I liked ended up giving up runs in the loss on Saturday? Grecepho, Soriano, Romero, O'Brien, charged with all six of the final runs that were scored,

Starting point is 00:04:12 while Brule, Stanick, Sponson, didn't give up any, didn't give up any. Unbelievable. Unbelievable, right? The shocking part was the Romero and O'Brien ineffectiveness. Because we've become so accustomed to them just coming in and nailing it down and getting the job done. Guys who have been easily the best options out of the pin for Ollie this season, give up a combined four runs on six hits and an inning in two-thirds pitched. I mean, what do you want?

Starting point is 00:04:44 I mean, people are like, oh, Ali, this and that. What you want him to do? He went to his best guys. they didn't get the job done. And unless you're Mason Miller from the Padres, who's on this unreal streak, eventually you're going to give up some runs. And Saturday just happened to be the day that neither one of them could get the job done. They kind of had a little bit of a hiccup.

Starting point is 00:05:04 I think I was in Houston recently, but this was the first one that was like, oh, this didn't go so well. And the real stinger of it all is that you've used all of these arms yesterday. I think they used seven guys. I think it was seven guys. I think Ryan Fernandez was the only one who didn't get in, and you use all of them trying to pull out that victory yesterday and you lose anyway. You still lose, which puts the team in a bit of a bind since it's game two of the 17 games and 17 days stretch. You know, Ali did everything he could to get the win.

Starting point is 00:05:39 He was like, no, we're not punting on this one. We got it. Let's get them. And it didn't work. It didn't work. Called on his most trusted guys. They didn't get the job done. after the game, Ali talked about the good and the bad of this team in this particular game and said,

Starting point is 00:05:53 you know, we had a really good approach against Wu and did exactly what we wanted against him. We turned his fastball around, anything that was in the zone hard. We did a really nice job against him. We executed our plan, but put up nine hits, seven runs against him and got into their bullpen. Unfortunately, it's one of those days where it's the worst day for the other side of the ball to look the way it did. seven relievers in total used after Libby's ineffectiveness. And they still lost basically the exact opposite of what you were hoping they would to accomplish here in the early part of this long stretch of games where you are not

Starting point is 00:06:31 getting any days off. 17 straight is no joke against some really good baseball teams. And just not great pitching. And on the same part, the Seattle Mariners getting hot offensively right when, you have to face them. You know, they were in a bit of a lull at the beginning of the season, which is why their record is where it is. But they had been heating up recently, and they come to St. Louis. And yeah, they held them to just three runs in the game one on Friday. But they go bonkers in this particular one. And it was like all kinds of dudes up and down the

Starting point is 00:07:04 lineup. It wasn't like just one or two guys just doing all the damage. It wasn't Cal Raleigh smashing two home runs in a game or something. No, it was guys like Connor Joe coming off the bench. Like, you know, you would think that you'd get the best of guys like that, but not to be entertaining game, but yeah, it sucks. They lost this one, but plenty of highlights to talk about from the offensive side, starting with my guy, Nathan Church. Do you believe in church now? We're going to talk about this offense next on Locked on Cardinals. If you've got a sweet tooth, like I do, and a lot of us do, you know how tough it can be to find the, like the perfect treat without sugar. It's not the easiest thing to do, and that's why confetti craze,

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Starting point is 00:08:33 And that's where five-hour energy comes into play. And it's so small that it doesn't make me have to run to a restroom later because you had to drink this monster can of crap. Instead, five-hour energy becomes my go-to when I want something sweet. I need a little boost of energy without going overboard. So if you haven't tried it, you should. The fun fetti flavor is back on five hour energy.com or Amazon. Just crack open confetti-cray's five-hour energy shot today. Thanks for making it locked on Cardinals, your first listen of the day. Thank you for making it locked on the number one sports podcast network.

Starting point is 00:09:09 Baseball finally back. We're celebrating by giving you a full month of the everyday air club for free. Go to lockdownsstl-cardels.com and use the code finally. F-I-N-A-L-Y, unlock every episode, get them ad-free, get access to our private listener group chat, tap the link in the show notes, use code finally and claim your free month now. So in spring training this year, you every dayers all know that I became attached to Nathan Church. I latched onto him. Every year I kind of pick a guy that I'm like, you know, this is the guy I'm looking at. And I'm really intrigued by last year it was Yvonne Herrera.

Starting point is 00:09:45 This year, I chose Nathan Church as my new favorite cardinal. I love his tools, the ability to hit with some pop, the speed, the defense, the arm, the balls out mentality he was showing when he was playing this spring. I love that he usually came out of the game with a dirty uniform, my kind of guy. So I latched onto him. I was like Nathan Church, me and you, pal, we're doing it this year. The question was, would he get enough playing time to actually show off his skills? We knew Jordan Walker needed to play and write.

Starting point is 00:10:14 Victor Scott was your center fielder, and then you had Lars, who was going to take over and left. But Lars Dupar got the injury coming off the surgery. That opened up the door for Nathan Church, and despite some early season scuffles, which I acknowledged, I was like, yeah, he's having a tough time. It ain't easy, you know. It appears, though, that Nathan Church is finally figuring things out at the big league level, starting to get a little comfortable and showed it off on Saturday when he went nuclear in the Cardinals lost to the Mariners.

Starting point is 00:10:43 he finishes the day going two for four with two home runs, his third and fourth of the season. He also robbed Mitch Garber of a home run leaping over the wall in left field to bring it back second time this season that we've seen him pull off that exact play in pretty much the exact same spot of the outfield. So he's got that one down. He clearly has been practicing that. It was funny seeing the reaction of the Mariners bullpen out there when it happened to because they all thought they were all like, yeah, it's going to be, God.

Starting point is 00:11:10 He caught it, you son of a guy. but Nathan Church now has a batting average up to 254, which is fourth on the team behind Mason and Wayne and Jordan Walker. We're now tied at 278. I told you Mason when was going to catch him. And Alec Burleson's ahead of him. He's tied for second on the team in home runs. Let me show you a picture of that catch real quick.

Starting point is 00:11:29 There it is. I was like, I know I got a picture of it somewhere. There you go. On video, you guys can check it out. So yeah, so now he is tied for second on the team in home runs with Yvonne Herrera and J.J. Weatherholt. He's driven in 12, which is 15. on the squad behind the big boppers on the squad of a burly walker gorman herrera those are the guys were supposed to be driving in all the runs and here's nathan church doing damage too and although he

Starting point is 00:11:52 didn't get a steal in this particular game he's got three of them on the season which is second on the team behind jjj over his last eight games he's been an absolute menace to opposing pitchers he's batting three ninety three he's got three dingers seven ribbies the three stolen bases an o bp a four He's slugging 750, an OPS of 1.188. Oh, and he's a rookie, by the way, which is something people tend to forget because you saw him last year, but he didn't qualify to, you know, he didn't go over the amount of bats and stuff. So he's still a rookie this year.

Starting point is 00:12:29 And these are the things he's doing. And he's also doing all of this while displaying this defense that we're talking about, the defense that we've heard so much about from his time in the minor leagues. you hear Brad Thompson saying basically every telecast. This guy's been the best defensive outfielder in their system for a couple of years now. He's probably going to say it again today because the church is back in the lineup. But he is and he's really, really good. He's now a plus four in DRS defensive run, saved combined in the outfield,

Starting point is 00:13:00 which ties him with Jordan Walker for the lead among outfielers on the Cardinals. Yes, Jordan Walker has a plus four DRS. and it also ties both of them for fourth best among outfielders in baseball. He's been one of the better surprises on the team, and it's really a bummer that his efforts on Saturday weren't enough to pick up the win. He did everything he could blasted a couple of dingers, Robin Dingers. Like he had an incredible game, probably the greatest day of his career. Like even if he plays another 15 seasons of Major League Baseball,

Starting point is 00:13:31 this might be the greatest game Nathan Church ever plays. It's quite possible. It was awesome. Didn't win, though, which sucks. So it kind of takes the shine off such a special display. But still, amazing job by Nathan Church. My guy, Nathan Church. Second start of the game, I'm going to give this one to Pedro Paias.

Starting point is 00:13:52 He was having a monster day at the plate before he had to leave with that hamstring tightness. Was three for three, including the three run blast off Wu, which gave the Cardinals their first lead of the game. It was seven to four at the time in the third inning. You're like, all right, here we go. Pedro catches a lot of heat, catches a lot of strays for his offensive limitations, but swung the lumber really, really well yesterday. And it's unfortunate that he had to leave the game because he's been a very important part of what the Cardinals have been able to accomplish so far, which is surprising a lot of people around baseball.

Starting point is 00:14:27 And this has many people wondering if Jimmy Crooks is going to get the call up. So far this morning, I have not seen anything about a call-up. I haven't seen any transactions. So it doesn't look like that's going to be the case. Zero transactions so far today. They do have the lineup out already. Pedro is not in this lineup. They've got Yvonne Herrera catching today.

Starting point is 00:14:52 But you know, you got Joelle Pozo who is on the roster as well. But many are wondering if Jimmy Crooks is going to be the guy that gets the call up, if Pedro's got to spend any time on the IL, which is fair to wonder. Lynn Worthy over at the St. Louis Post Dispatch did an article about this recently about Crooks and, you know, made a point that, you know, leaving Crooks in Memphis is the smart thing to do so that he can get every day of bats, get everyday playing time, whether he's catching or deaching. Also points out that despite the power numbers that Crooks has shown at Memphis so far, he is striking out a ton. And this is something we've all said, you know, he swings and misses a lot, 36% of the time, in fact. right now at Memphis. So against AAA pitching, he's that bad with the swing and miss. What do you think he's going to look like in the big league? So, and against left-handers,

Starting point is 00:15:44 he's all but pointless. Like he just can't hit left-handers so far at all this year at Memphis. So Lynn was saying that, you know, long-term development, if you're doing the smart thing and you're thinking about the end game down the road, that letting crooks do what he's doing at Memphis right now is probably the best idea. I agree with them. But do you try. trust Joel Pozo to be that catcher and fill in where Pedro Pahas was if Pedro's going to miss some time. So I don't know. You know, they like to use them off the bench and in pinch hit situations. They seem to enjoy the fact that they got three catchers, which is coming into play here on Sunday.

Starting point is 00:16:23 We'll see. We'll see what they decide. The Mariners did do some running against the Cardinals. I do want to bring this up because Pahas, you know, we threw out Cal Raleigh, not known for his speed, got him stealing. but the Mariners swiped four more bags off of him and the pitching staff. On the year, though, when you go looking, because I thought this was going to be worse than it was, but Pahas has thrown out 30.4% of base dealers.

Starting point is 00:16:47 Like, that's pretty good. Teams are 16 to 23 against him. And a lot of those times, it's actually on the pitchers. If you notice it, like guys are just like, Josh Naylor is just running before the pitcher's even thrown the ball. And they do nothing to slow him down. Like, they got to get their heads out of their butts when it comes to holding runners on.

Starting point is 00:17:04 I don't know why that's so difficult for people, but the card will suck at it. It's not something that they're very good at. And Pedro's like night and day better thrower than what we got from Ivan Herrera so far who's been doing the catching for the most part as well. So losing Pahas, I agree with some of the guys online. It's going to be a big blow to the team

Starting point is 00:17:26 and what they've been trying to do so far, especially now when they need all hands on deck. So hopefully it isn't some, something worse, but normally these kind of things, if you get, you have some kind of a hammy strain, just looking at Pedro's, uh, blank expression when he was on the bench, like after he came out, he looked like, I can't believe that's just happened. I'm having the game of my life at the plate. And this just happened. And it sucks. It sucks. Third start of the game, J.J. Weatherhole, come on now. Finish the day three for five, including that solo blast to

Starting point is 00:17:59 lead off the game in that first inning. Fourth dinger of the season among qualified rookies, JJ, just doing his job, man. He's now tied to church and a few others for fifth in RBIs, tied for second and runs scored among qualified rookies, tied for third and walks, third and stolen bases, fifth and OBP. I'm still waiting to see him drive the ball into the gaps a few times. I'm still shocked that he's only got a couple doubles on the season. But over his last 10 games. You know, we just recently talked about, you would like to see love the fact that JJ's getting on base, right? You love that he's taking the walks, getting hit a lot, which sucks. He's a painful way to get on base. But, you know, he's doing his job at the top of the lineup.

Starting point is 00:18:39 He's getting on base a whole lot. You just, you know, I'm just trying to get as much value out of somebody as I can. I just want to see him doing a little more offensively and driving the ball. Last 10 games, 286, three home runs, seven RBIs, OBP at 435. That's not too bad for a rookie leadoff hitters. So keep it up, JJ. Some other notable stats from the game. Rob Raines over at STL Sportspage.com does a phenomenal job with throwing out little quirky stats from time to time. Points out that the five homer loss is only the second time they have hit five or more home runs at home and lost. Last time it happened was nearly 86 years ago, September 8, 1940, when they hit five home runs and lost 16 to 14 to the Pirates.

Starting point is 00:19:23 That's a stat right there. eight combined home runs was one shy of Bush Stadium three record of nine when the Cardinals hit seven and the Dodgers two back in 2020. It also ties for the most home runs in a game in the majors this season. Cardinal sitters were hit by three more pitches on Saturday in the game twice by Herrera is now leading the league and hit by pitch with eight of them. And the team leads the league and hit by pitch with 22. Hey, as long as you're not getting hurt, more power to you.

Starting point is 00:19:52 Again, get as much of that body armor as you can to, uh, wear up to the plate. So nobody's getting broken bones or anything. The Mariners 19 hits were the most allowed by the Cardinals in a game at home since opening day of 2023 and the Blue Jays also had 19 hits. So offensive explosion on both sides of the plate for the game on Saturday. A lot of fun to watch. I'd rather watch that than a boring two to one game. If the Cardinals are going to lose, at least let's have a little action going on, right? Michael McGreevy gets the ball today against Emerson Hancock, Hunter Dobbins and Liam

Starting point is 00:20:25 Doyle. We're on the mound in the miners on Saturday. We're going to discuss those starts coming up next on lockdown cartons. Workplace chaos deadlines stacking up. The inbox overflowing in the one position you still need to fill. It's still open when the pressure's on and you need the right hire. This is a job for sponsored jobs. Indeed, sponsored jobs helps you reach the people who actually fit what you're looking for. You need the right skills. You need the right experience. You need them to be in the right location. So that way you're not just hoping that the right candidate stumbles across your post. Indeed, sponsored job is going to bring those people to you. And here's a stat that says it all. In the minute I've been talking to you, companies like yours

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Starting point is 00:21:52 Thank you for making Lockdown on the number one sports podcast network. Let's go to the farm. Hunter Dobbins coming up to the big league club. Eventually. Eventually it's going to happen. And on Saturday, he made his latest. start for Memphis and it wasn't great. A loud three runs on four hits. He walked five, struck out three and four innings of work, not the most efficient or most effective game, unfortunately. Not what you wanted to see because maybe that was the last time he starts at Memphis for a while.

Starting point is 00:22:21 Maybe he does get called up eventually. Maybe it happens on Monday. Cade Winquist, Jared Schuster. They also had to throw in this one. I know their names have been kicked around as guys that people think might get called up. So they pitched on Sunday. Chris Roycroft got in the game on Sunday, got his second save in the Memphis 8 to 7 win. Nobody at Memphis, like, it's pretty thin down there right now too.

Starting point is 00:22:45 Everybody's kind of overworked right now. So really going to need Michael McGreevy to go ahead and go nine innings today. Offensively, Joshua Baez, a blaze, a Jordan go yard in the win. Baez hitting just 217 so far at AAA, but he does have six long balls, 14 ribies and five, stolen bases. So that total package that we got to see in spring training, outside of the batting average, it's there. Thus far, Blaze, Jordan, having a great season. 329, 5 Dinger's, 13 RBIs from Memphis. Then at Springfield, Liam Doyle was coming off his best start of the season,

Starting point is 00:23:18 but this one did not go well, or I should say as well, this time around. And it started early. Overall, four runs on four hits, gave up two home runs, three walks, four strikeouts. A lot of numbers in the places you don't want numbers, but the first inning is where a lot of the damage took place. Got the first two guys to fly out them with two outs. It's back-to-back walks and then a three-run home run. Put him in a three-nothing hole right away.

Starting point is 00:23:44 Second homer of the game came off the bat of Leo DeVries, which is rated as the number four overall prospect in all of baseball by MLB pipeline. He was part of that mega deal with Mason Miller and the A's. The Padre sent him to, to the athletics for Mason Miller. So he's a stud. And it was, I think it was like a seven pitch at bat. So good at bat overall.

Starting point is 00:24:08 And DeBreeze just took him yard. So not the best start, but you can see where the walks were really the culprit here again. So Liam Doyle needs. And I don't know. I didn't see what the pitches were. I don't know if he was still working on sliders. And that's why the walks were coming. I don't know.

Starting point is 00:24:25 But I know that the stat line looked the way it is. and we want to see better, obviously, but that's why he's in Springfield. He's working on stuff. Fastball still plays, obviously. Nobody's freaking out about what happened. It's okay. He should be fine.

Starting point is 00:24:41 And he's healthy. So that's great. As far as the NL Central goes, the Cubs finally lost. 10-game winning street got snapped last night against the Dodgers. They lost 12 to 4, I think was the final on that one. Pirates beat the Brewers again, six, three, and 10 innings.

Starting point is 00:24:56 And the Reds smashed. the Tigers 9 to 2. Reds are all alone in first place at 18 and 9. Unbelievable start for Terry Francona and that group. Because you go look at some of the offensive numbers for that team and you see some really ugly numbers. I think they're last in batting average in all of baseball. Like I think that's what I saw last night. And you've got a couple of guys in L.A. Dela Cruz and Sal Stewart, who's having a godly

Starting point is 00:25:25 rookie season so far. and then their pitching has been incredible. So, but they blew up last night, winners 9 to 2. They've won eight of their last 10, so the Reds are on a heater. Cubs just, like I said, 10 game winning streak just got snapped. They're now 17 and 10. Pirates are 16 and 11. Cardinals at 14 and 12, but they've lost three in a row.

Starting point is 00:25:44 Brewers are at 500 at 13 and 13. They've lost four in a row. Cardinals could really use a win today. Losers of three straight, especially after a game like yesterday where the offense finally came to life. know, didn't hit well in that last game against Miami, didn't hit well the previous night against Seattle, you blow up and then, you know, you just have a bad day on the pitching side of things. So be nice to get back in the W column before heading to Pittsburgh and finally

Starting point is 00:26:09 playing some division games. So they'll be facing the pirates on Monday night. So you need a big game from McGreevy. You need an fishing game. You need him to eat a lot of innings. Like if he can get to six or seven, God bless him. It's all on you, kid. Good luck, Michael with a greedy. 17 games in a row. Oh, and two to start. And we've already used up most of our bullpen and have nothing to show for it. So not ideal. Thanks for making Lockedong Cardinals. Your first listen every day. If you haven't already, give us a follow on X at L.O underscore Cardinals, TikTok, Instagram at Lockdown Cardinals. Like, subscribe on YouTube if you haven't already. We appreciate all of you guys. If you never miss an episode, that every day or club,

Starting point is 00:26:46 that is your baby. That's where you belong. You're locked on Cardinals ad free. members only discord access and more full free month use the code finally that I'll get you taking care of head to locked on scel cardinals dot supercast.com to join the club video side we send you to the first ever 24-7 national lockdown podcast network YouTube channel on audio make sure your second listen is locked on MLB you're the best fans in baseball for a reason and we'll see you tomorrow on our next episode of locked on cardinals

Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - CHAOS: St. Louis Cardinals' Offense ERUPTS but Pitching IMPLODES in Wild Loss to Mariners

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