Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - Did the St. Louis Cardinals Finally PROVE Their Start Is Real? Jordan Walker is a STAR!

Starting point is 00:00:00 A rainy weekend dampens the mood a little bit, but doesn't change the fact that the Cardinals continue to prove that their start to this season is not a fluke. 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 Jady Haffron and today's episode of Locked on Cardinals brought to you by Fandall. Right now, new customers can bet just $5 and get $150 in bonus beds if your first bed wins. Head to fandal.com to get started today.

Starting point is 00:00:39 On today's show, we're going to preview the series in Milwaukee. It's not going to be an easy one. Some pretty good pictures lined up for the brew crew. We have an update on the power rankings. But we've got to start with what happened this weekend. A lot of rain. But the way they finish things on Saturday, I believe it said more about them. than anything else despite losing the second game of that double header.

Starting point is 00:01:05 First off, what a terrible weekend. Weather-wise in Cincinnati, just disgusting, except for Saturday. You know, rain all day on Friday. We get the good day on Saturday. It was cloudy during the first game. And then the night game, beautiful out. Then it was back to a complete washout on Sunday. So they have moved Sunday's game to August when the Cardinals come back to Cincinnati,

Starting point is 00:01:26 where they were scheduled to play four games already. So now they're going to do five games in four days. awesome, awesome. That's not ideal, but Mother Nature was in a pretty bad mood this weekend. So what are you going to do? So let's take you back to Saturday and talk about what we got. And there was a lot more, in my opinion, there was a lot more good than bad, despite the doubleheader split. Game one was all Cardinals, right? You know, Andre Palante, once again, he shoves against the Cincinnati Reds. I don't know what it is about Andre Palante and the Reds, but he's all. awesome against them. He gave up two hits of the first two innings, including that solo shots and

Starting point is 00:02:06 Nathaniel Lowe, which was one of the hardest hit baseballs I've ever seen in person, gave the reds the lead for a bit, but Palante didn't allow another hit the rest of the start. That was it. He goes six innings, retired the final 13 batters he faced in Norder, picked up his fifth win of the season. If only Andre could face the Reds every start in his career, he's pitched against them 20 times. Ten of them are starts, and he's now seven and four, where they're the 2.41 ERA. Those seven wins are by far the most he has against any team in the league. I believe his other high is two against anybody else. I think so, unless I missed a digit or two there. But last year when he couldn't buy a win to save his life is when he lost three of those four

Starting point is 00:02:48 games that he's lost against the Reds. And he still had an ERA of 3.6 eight against them in four starts, which is pretty respectable. And even at Great American Ballpark, which we all know, is known for how offensive friendly it is. Palante has shine there too. Nine games, four starts. He's three and two with a two. Five ERA. I don't know why he has had so much success against him, but he owns him. But whatever it is, I hope he never loses it. Keep it up, dude. Finishes the game with six sittings, one run on two hits, only one walk, which is always half the battle for Andre. Three strikeouts, not a ton, but just constantly, just mowing them down. Since getting knocked around by Milwaukee, a

Starting point is 00:03:29 back on May the 6th. Andre has strung together three pretty good starts, allowing five run runs over 17 and two thirds, 14 strikeouts, just four walks. He's got an ERA of 2.55 against the A's, the Royals, and the red. So not too shabby for your fifth starter. The other big story in this game was Brian Torres. Like how cool was that? Extremely impressive, to say the least, in his first major league game at age 28,

Starting point is 00:03:58 an outstanding story, 11 seasons in the minor leagues, which included some time an independent ball, and clawed his way up, despite being 5-7, 165 pounds. He's like the Rudy of baseball, finally gets his break. It took full advantage, going two for four with a walk single. The two-run shot in the ninth inning was just the cherry on top. Would have had a third hit. Would have been extra bases there, if not for an incredible catch by Blake Dunn and right field, who robbed the Cardinals a couple times. And then ended up, being the bad guy at the end of game too. But a hell of a catch by Dun & Wright Field to Rob Torres of extra bases there as well.

Starting point is 00:04:37 Such a cool experience for me personally to see someone like Brian Torres have what is arguably the greatest day of his life. Arguably. I don't know what else has gone on in his personal life, but that had to be the greatest day of his life, right? Help spark the Cardinals offense, which had been sluggish at best the past four games against Kansas City and then the pirate. It's the one area that fans point out as a major weakness of this team. And we pointed out here on the show is that, you know, the 7, 8, 9 spots of the order really rough for the Cardinals. You know, it's been a tough go for them offensively. And in this game, you know, you had Torres doing his thing, a couple of hits.

Starting point is 00:05:17 He's on base three times. Prieto took an 0 for 5 and it's still without a hit in the big leagues this year. But then Victor Scott, three heads, a walk, a stolen base in that number nine hole, lower, production. It was really, really, really, really, really nice to see. And with Torres at 28 years, 325 days old, became the oldest player to reach Bay safely three times or more and Homer in his debut since Weston Wilson with the Phillies on August 9th of 2023. Elsewhere with the team, Herrera Burley joined Torres and Victor in the double digit hit club, Jordan Walker, who I enjoyed, by the way, if you're watching on YouTube, you can see all the dark blue he's wearing there.

Starting point is 00:05:57 I like that. I like the dark blue over the, over the red sleeves in our way. If you're going to wear the blue away cap, which I think is the best one. I like that Jordan Walker's kind of got that doomsday look here with all the dark blue on for everything. I thought that was awesome. It's very, very evil looking of them. We're the bad guy, right? We're the away team. But he had that big two run shot opposite field one to right center in the seventh, bustings open and made it five to one at that point. Offense needed to pick me up game after struggling against that really good Pirates pitching staff. Give credit to Pittsburgh, but the Cardless Bats had to get going.

Starting point is 00:06:33 And as I said, coming into the series, you know, they were lined up to phase three pitchers who have not been all that great, you know, had ERAs over six, all three of the starters. Unfortunately, the rain did not help causes and get them a chance to get that third game in and have a chance to win the series. So they end up splitting. But this game, eight runs, 12 hits, beat their. division opponent into submission. It was kind of nice, kind of nice one of the way, especially how they piled on late in the game. Five runs over the final three frames and you got

Starting point is 00:07:04 three shutout innings from your bullpen with Stanix Soriano and Sonson as the Cardinals cruise to that eight to one victory in game one. It was with a lot of Reds fans in the stands at that point. My wife is a Reds fan. They were not having a good time. I was having a great time. I thought it was a great game. I thought it was a lot of fun. But next game wasn't nearly as fun and nearly as smooth. You know what? I take that back because the game was fun, even though the Cardinals didn't come out on top. It was a super enjoyable ballgame to be at. I had a blast at it. But unfortunately, it didn't go the Cardinals way. But it, you know, it did show once again that the fight that this team, these baby birds possess as they come back from a pretty large deficit to make a game out

Starting point is 00:07:49 of it. So we'll get into that game coming up next on Locked on Cardinals. The NBA playoffs are here in every possession matters. Now, if you're looking to get closer to the action, which we all are trying to do, Fandle, it's got a great offer for you. Right now, new customers can bet $5 to get $150 in bonus bets if your first bet wins. That's right. You can turn five bucks into $150 in bonus bets just for getting started. I use Fandle for all my favorite sports, whether it's football, baseball, basketball, hockey. Obviously, you know, you're in the playoffs for hockey too, but basketball is a little easier to go with just because there's so many. more stats you can get when it comes to the NBA. You can check those stats. You can do the trends, the matchups before making your picks. That way you just feel more informed. It's good to have

Starting point is 00:08:40 knowledge about this stuff. Whether you're looking at the player props, just following your favorite stars, that's another level of excitement to every single game as if you need it in the NBA playoffs. On Sunday, the Spurs evened up the Western Conference finals with a 103-82 win over Oklahoma City. I continue to tell you, just roll with Victor Wimbayama. If you want to make that first bet win. Roll with something with Victor Wimbanyama because he is incredible. That series now tied to two, game five is on Tuesday in Oklahoma City. Thunder are five and a half point favorites in that one. Eastern Conference, the Knicks, one game away from sweeping the calves, game fours tonight in Cleveland with New York as two and a half point favorites. The Knicks have been very, very impressive.

Starting point is 00:09:23 But NBA playoffs have been a whole lot of fun at Fandall.com to get started and make it even more fun. Fandle, play your game. Thanks for making a lot on Cardinals. of the day. Thank you for making lockdown, the number one sports podcast network. Hope your Memorial Day is going well. Obviously, we want to use this day to remember those who have made the ultimate sacrifice, the men and women of our armed forces. So thank you so much for all you've done for us. Don't forget, you can get your Cardinals, daily Cardinals coverage, completely ad free by joining the everyday or club today. Start your seven day free trial right now. Get closer to the team without the interruptions. Click the link in the show notes or go to

Starting point is 00:10:04 locked on STL cardinals.supercast.com to claim your free trial. So the second game of our doubleheader was played in front, an absolutely packed house at Great American Ballpark. I don't know if it was just because of the Key Brian Hayes bobblehead that got all the people to come out. I highly doubt it because I feel like the Reds fans aren't so happy with Key Bryant Hayes on this team. He's hurt right now too.

Starting point is 00:10:29 But man, was it a more raucous crowd than the game one earlier, which was dominated by Cardinals? fans, including the tarps out, crew, the posse, if you will, they were by the visitors dugout in game one who got Torres to do that cool curtain call after his dinger in the ninth inning. They did the ninth inning roll call, which with the score was eight to one, made a lot of sense as well, I guess better late than never. I know Reds fans tried to get it going in the bleachers seats in left field, not quite the same, not quite the same. You try, you try, but yeah, it didn't quite work out. They were doing the roll call in extra innings with the game

Starting point is 00:11:04 tied. Come on. Come on. What the hell are you doing? Game two is much different, though. It was a pitcher's duel until the bottom of the fifth inning, really, where the Cardinals were clinging to that one to nothing lead. Reds were able to finally get to Calahey. He looked darn good up until that point. The Reds had only three hits, four base runners through the first four innings. Leah had struck out seven batters. He looked great. But in the bottom of the fifth inning, things went sideways in a major, major way. And it started with that leadoff single by backup catcher PJ Higgins. When you're giving up leadoff hits to PJ Higgins, you're just asking for trouble.

Starting point is 00:11:42 Then it was a walk. We know that's a problem. Then another single, which brought in L.A. of the Cruz, who got a fastball up in the zone, drove it over the wall in left field for a three-run shot. Bye-bye ball. Bye-bye lead. Bye-bye. Velo.

Starting point is 00:11:55 Leahy's Velo had dipped quite a bit in that inning, signaling his impending doom. It started to tail off. He was doing well. He was like hitting close to 96 early on in the game and had dipped down to like 93 at this point. So we can't throw it up in the zone when you don't have, you don't have the heat. You don't have that Velo. So Ellie takes care of that, makes it three to one, gets the crowd back into it. He then gets a strike out of J.J. Bladay, but he walks South Stewart to brings in Nathaniel Lowe, who's one of the more awkward looking ballplayers ever.

Starting point is 00:12:28 Like if you saw him just standing there, you would say, nah, he's a. tall guy, whatever, but he does not look like an athlete. He doesn't dress like an athlete where he's uniforms too tight. He doesn't have a beautiful left-handed swing. It's very just, and whatever, man, he hit two bombs off the Cardinals. So whatever he's doing, it's working because he homered earlier game one, connects here in game two, change up right down Broadway. Major league hitters aren't going to miss that. Boom, five to one. Most of us thought Ali was going to go to the pen after the LA home run, but he gave Leahy a chance to work through it because that's what you got to do sometimes. And I know it pissed a lot of fans up.

Starting point is 00:13:06 They're like, why are you leaving him in? These guys got to learn to work through some stuff. And Ollie wanted to give him a chance. He's like, all right, you've had a good game up to that point. Let's see what you can do. And it backfired. It backfired big time. But when you're in a season of learning and rebuilding, there's going to be moments that you're going to say,

Starting point is 00:13:23 look, I'm going to ride with you here. How are you feeling? Are you doing all right? Okay. Let's see what you got. And it did work. Leahy was toast. But what we have learned about this team, if anything, so far is that when you knock

Starting point is 00:13:36 them down, they're going to get back up and fight. You know, very rarely, there have been games this year where the Cardinals go down and then they don't ever even make a game out of it. Like they continue to keep fighting until that 27th out. Top of the sixth inning was awesome because after, you know, that fifth inning where things went really bad, the Cardinals answer right back, right back. Herrera gets hit by a pitch, Burley Devils to right, and with first base open, the Reds, for whatever reason, decide, let's pitch to Jordan Walker.

Starting point is 00:14:07 So not a great plan. And it's just more proof that although Jordan has opened up a lot of eyes this season, he has not yet earned the respect that managers are going to pitch around him just yet. It just isn't there yet. But he certainly made his case for it in this at bad. He fell behind quickly, 02, worked the count full, and then absolutely annihilated, a 3-2. sink or low and in for a 427 foot three run blast to cut the lead to five to four at that moment in time in the stadium. So I got up because I was like, I'm going to use the restroom real quick.

Starting point is 00:14:40 And every line, because it was packed, the lines were all full. So I started making my way behind home plate because normally you can go back there. And there's other restrooms back there that a little more sneaky and you don't have to wait in line. But as I walked, you know, the ending starts to unfold. Jordan comes to plate and I'm like, I'll just. stand here behind home plate for a moment and take it all in. And that's when he hit the bomb. And I got that picture, which you can see at L.O. underscore Cardinals on X. And God, it was beautiful. You know, so we got a 5-4 ball game right back in. And Reds would push it to 6-4 with some damage against Justin Brule where they took, they brought in all their right-handed hitters. They had all the lefties in

Starting point is 00:15:20 earlier against Leahy. They go to their bench. Francona goes to the bench and pulls off all the righties and they're able to get a run across against the lefty, Justin Brill, who continues to be underwhelming. And I just, I said it at the beginning of the season. I'm like, I don't know why there's not more attention to bringing in some left-handed help for the bullpen. Like, Jojo is Jojo. You're fine with him. But I did not understand why it was just like, hey, man, Justin Brul, he's our guy.

Starting point is 00:15:53 I didn't get it. And I still don't get it because he has not been very good this year. But so it's six four, which becomes important because they, they head into the ninth inning. And that's when Ali called on Jose for mean to pinch it. He jumps on a Tony Santion meatball right down the middle, puts it over the wall in left field, six five. Victor takes a walk.

Starting point is 00:16:11 And then with two outs, Burley walks to bring up Walker again and again, they go after him. And he yanks a single in the hole between short and third to tie the ball game up at six six. We're all going crazy. We're doing the tarps off celebrations. And we're having a great time in the. the stands. Cardinals couldn't muster anything in extra innings. That's where this game changed.

Starting point is 00:16:31 You know, they tie it up and the Cardinals have an opportunity to push a run across and they just can't do it. Yvonne Herrera came close to putting them ahead in that 11th inning, but Blake Dunn robs him in right field with that sliding grab and then ends up winning the game by putting the ball and playing the 11 to win at 7-6. Some controversy or at least chatter. Why aren't we bunny? Why aren't we moving people over to third base instead of Victor Scott swinging away in that 11th inning? But I'll explain it that, you know, it's Joel Pozo's a second base. Not exactly the fastest runner. They couldn't pinch run for him because he's their only catcher left.

Starting point is 00:17:05 So he let Vic swing away. And he had three hits in the game before, but ends up whiffing to start the ending, which kind of put him in a hole there. Then in the bottom of the 11 fans wondered why Mason win. Didn't try to turn a double play. People were texting like, why didn't he do it? Well, instead of, because they're asking like,

Starting point is 00:17:24 why did he try to turn two instead of throwing home? Here's the thing, at least from my angle the way I saw, they had the infield then. Obviously, he had the five infielders. So nobody was going to get to second base in time to turn to. He would have had to do the tag and throw to first. And the runner who was coming to second base. Stop. He just stopped in the base pass.

Starting point is 00:17:42 So Mason would not have been able to get him, get him, tag him, and then throw Dunn out at first base. Dunn runs very, very well. He's faster than, he's like 95th percentile speed. He's incredibly fast. Fastest guy on the Reds team. So they weren't going to get done at first base with the speed, hence that desperation throw at home, which almost got the runner at home plate had been just to the left. So they would have got it.

Starting point is 00:18:07 But Reds ended up walking it off and winning. And it's it was unfortunate, but it was a great game. It was a lot of fun. Sure, you can second guess certain moves. The Justin Brule move, leave and Leahy move. Sure. We can second guess those and say, yeah, in hindsight, should have made those moves. Should have done something different.

Starting point is 00:18:24 But it didn't work out this time. there's going to be moments where Ali doesn't push the right buttons, but he did push the right button late in the game with Jose Fermin. And Jordan Walker is just a guy, dude. And he is something else. It is so nice to see him blossom and finally be that superstar that the Cardinals have desperately needed. You know, after the demise of Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Aronado,

Starting point is 00:18:48 who was the star power on this team, where it was going to come from? We'd all hope that it was going to be Jordan Walker. It's just a couple of years late. But here he is. And he is, he's doing anything and everything you could ask for. And I'm just glad he's, he's wearing Cardinal Red. It's, it's awesome. It's awesome.

Starting point is 00:19:04 So love the fight that you saw from this team for them to get back into the game down five to one in, you know, a stadium where there was, you know, a lot of Reds fans. You know, there was, it was like an 80-20 split. I mean, I know we had a decent amount of Cardinals fans, but, you know, it's in a bad guy territory. So to see them get punched in the mouth and to come right back and make a game out of it, tie it up late in the ninth, I thought it was great. And it shows the fight that this team continues to show you each and every week. Like there's always games where they're like, all right, well, here we go.

Starting point is 00:19:43 We got to get back into it, you know. They were losing in the first game, one than nothing and fought back and took the lead and dominated. So disappointing they couldn't score an extra innings. Just got to do better next time around, you know? That's how you look at it. We're going to take a look at the standings in the Brewers series and the power rankings. Coming up next on Locked on Cardinals. Thank you again for making Lockton,

Starting point is 00:20:14 Cardinals. First listen of the day, thank you for making Locked on the number one sports podcast network. Now, despite the two and three week, the Cardinals are still right there in the top 10 of the power rankings. They did slide a spot. They went from number eight to number nine. They said this Jordan Walker is nothing like that Jordan Walker. Something in the Reds found out this weekend had been over his previous 28 to Bats,

Starting point is 00:20:36 against the Reds before the weekend, then went out Homer twice, seven Rebys in his first two games against them this year. He's first at OPS Plus in the National League right now at 176. He's an absolute stud. He's a superstar right now. Rest of the top 10, you got the Phillies who were back in the top 10 after being at number 11. Cubs dropped from three to eight. You've also got the Guardians going up from nine to seven. Padres go up from seven to six. Yankees, stay at five. Rewers jumped from six to four. Dodgers were two. They fall to number three. Your number two team is down the Tampa Bay raise who go up from four to two.

Starting point is 00:21:15 Insane. And then you got the Braves who were number one. They stay at number one, which makes a whole lot of sense. But despite that two and three week, you know, the Cardinals are right there in the standings, one and a half games back in the division behind Milwaukee, who swept the Cubs at Wrigley, which was great. And then they lost two of three at home against the Dodgers, which is great. They are now 30 and 20 on the season. they've been playing really, really well here in the month of May. Cubs have completely spiraled losing eight in a row. They're going, they went eight, oh and seven, oh and seven this past week against Milwaukee and Houston.

Starting point is 00:21:47 They're in Pittsburgh and start the week. Then on to St. Louis this weekend, two 10 game winning streaks and then now an eight game losing streak. You know, very streaky. They're now 29 and 24, a game behind the Cardinals in the standings. Reds go three and two after taking two of three in Philly and splitting with the Cardinals. They are in New York to face the Mets to begin their week. they're at 27 and 25. Pirates finished three and three on the week, took two of three from the Cardinals, lost two of three in Toronto.

Starting point is 00:22:12 They're 27 and 26. They get the Cubs for four straight in Chicago. And as far as the pitching rotation for the Cardinals goes, it's unfortunate that the game on Sunday got rained out because Bryson Mott's was set to make his debut. Although he did travel to Milwaukee with the team. Ryan Fernandez is another name that stayed with the team as well. So according to Derek Gould, here's how he sees this whole thing playing out as far as the

Starting point is 00:22:35 pitching. The Cardinals went through the necessary transactions to return Fernandez, who was the 27th player in the double header, to Class AAA Memphis. But remained in Cincinnati near the ballpark and the team's plan, according to sources, is to bring him back either Monday or possibly Tuesday to join the bullpen for the series in Milwaukee. Sundays ran out adjusted their pitching plans for the opener against the Brewers. To make room for Mauds, the Cardinals had options struggling relievers Matt Svanson to Memphis. That opened up a right-handed spot in the bullpen, which is set to be by Fernandez. But first, the Cardinals are considering keeping Mauts on the roster so that he can be a factor as they opened the series in Milwaukee as the Cardinals departed Cincinnati

Starting point is 00:23:14 on Sunday. The club had not yet finalized the rotation for Milwaukee in the wake of Sunday's rainout. Now Mautz is scheduled for a spot start and one day in the major, similar to what Michael McGreevy did several times a year ago and Hunter Dobbins did earlier the season. Again, this is all from Derek Gould at STL today.com. Dobbins was not on. turn for Sunday and the Cardinals opted not to wait for his availability and have Matthew Libertor start on normal rest. So pitching matchups right now, and I'm going to check the phone right now just to make sure nothing has actually changed on this. But it's put Libertore and Jacob Mizorowski, great. All Crowder College alum the Miz has done in the month of May

Starting point is 00:23:59 is throw 24 and a third shutout innings with 37Ks and nine hits against. No runs. No No runs. He's shutting out May. The Brewers are three and one at his starts, which is hilarious that they actually lost one. But he's been as dominant as anyone in the sport. So life could be really, really tough here today. Tuesday, Michael McGreeby against Kyle Harrison, the guy the brewer stole from the Boston Red Sox and that Caleb Durbin trade. What are you doing, Boston? He's now five and one with an ERA under two this year. And then Wednesday, Dustin May and TBD for Milwaukee. As far as the brewers, it's the usual. You're suspects that you've got to worry about offensively, although lately they have not been hitting all that well. Contreras has been good. Chorio's been good. Terrang has been good. But you sprinkle in Christian Yalich, who came back from being injured. He's only one for 16 with two walks and seven whiffs over his last four games. He's still got Andrew Vaughn who pops up from here and there to do damage. Sal Freelik is a pain in the butt. You know these guys. You know who they are. Like there's not a lot of superstars. Churio, Terang. Those are the main guys. Make sure Yelich doesn't

Starting point is 00:25:05 burn you as well, but you got to not let these other guys on the roster take advantage of mistakes. You know, you got to play clean baseball. You don't beat yourself. You can't walk these guys, you know, it's got, that's what the brewers do to you, man. They just, they, they're annoying. They're very annoying. Like you don't look at anybody and just go, hey, scary. No, they're just solid.

Starting point is 00:25:29 And they're, they just, they're like gnats and they just until, until they get you. and their pitching carries them, keeps them in ball games when the offense isn't doing anything, and then eventually somehow they win three to one or three to two. That's just kind of what they do. So they'll pounce on the mistakes, clean baseball, don't have to worry about weather in this series. So that's good. And yeah, just that's my best advice. You got to play solid, clean, fundamental baseball if you want to beat them.

Starting point is 00:26:00 We'll see how it goes. It ain't going to be easy because Mizorowski is just, a god amongst men right now. So be prepared for a tough one today. Thanks for making Locked on Cardinals. Your first listen every day if you haven't already. Give us follow on X at L.O. underscore Cardinals. TikTok Instagram at Lockdown Cardinals. Like, subscribe on YouTube. Help our channel and love for the Cardinals grow. We finally hit 14,500 subscribers, pushing for 15K. Excuse me. If you never miss an episode of the Everydayer Club built for you, get locked on Cardinals ad free members only Discord access and more. Headed to Locked on

Starting point is 00:26:30 STL Cardinals.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 lesson is locked on MLB. You guys are the best fans in baseball for a reason. We'll see you next time on Lockdown Cardinals.

Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - Did the St. Louis Cardinals Finally PROVE Their Start Is Real? Jordan Walker is a STAR!

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