Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - Frustrating Day For The St. Louis Cardinals

Episode Date: May 22, 2025

- Cardinals lose 5 - 1 - Nolan Arenado pop out - Jordan Walker strikeout - Pitching performances - Series Recap - Not The End Of The World Follow & Subscribe on all Podcast platforms… 🎧 https://lockedonpodcasts.com/podcasts/locked-on-st-louis-cardinals/ Locked On MLB League-Wide: Every Team, Prospects & More 🎧 https://lockedonpodcasts.com/leagues/mlb/ Follow on Twitter/X: @JDSPORTSRADIO Follow the show on Twitter/X: @LO_Cardinals Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! Wonderful Pistachios Get snackin' and get crackin' with the snack that packs a protein punch. Visit WonderfulPistachios.com to learn more! Supply House Join the TradeMaster program today at SupplyHouse.com/TM and start ordering plumbing, HVAC, and electrical supplies with just a few clicks. Plus, use promo code S-H-5 for 5% off your first order. That’s SupplyHouse.com! Monarch Money Take control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. FanDuel Right now, new customers can get TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in BONUS BETS when your first FIVE DOLLAR BET WINS! Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started. Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of the NBA. 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 #stlouiscardinals Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The St. Louis Cardinals dropped their series to the Detroit Tigers, but in the grand scheme of things, should really feel good about where they are at this point in the season. You are Locked on Cardinals, your daily St. Louis Cardinals podcast, part of the Locked On Podcasts Network, your team every day. Hey there, Cardinals. I'm J.D. Haffern and I'm your host for Locktown Cardinals, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network covering your team every day. You can follow me on X at JD Sports Radio. You can follow the podcast on X at L0 underscore Cardinals.

We're also on YouTube. Make sure you like, subscribe and comment, hit that notification button so you don't miss out on anything. TikTok and Instagram and Locktown Cardinals. This right here is a show serving Cardinal Nation and giving the best fans in baseball, all of the info about the birds on the bat. Today's episode is being brought to you by Monarch Money and take control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code lockdown MLB at Monarch Money.com for 50% off your first year. So I'm not exactly here to blow sunshine and rainbows up your butt.

But at the same time, we're not here to be sad about what just happened at Bush Stadium over the last three days, specifically the last two days, Tuesday and Wednesday. But the reality is the Cardinals fall to the Tigers on Wednesday and what appeared to be set up as a very winnable game for them, which makes this loss even that much more disheartening, but I'm not angry about what went down. The Cardinal said Andre Palante on the mound while the Tigers chose to push Jack Flaherty back so that he could pitch in their upcoming series

against their AL Central rival Cleveland Guardians, which means another bullpen game for the Tigers. Now that matchup in theory would favor the Cardinals, even though it feels like over the years, and I don't know if there's a stat for this or not, but it feels like over the years, the Cardinals have kind of struggled with bullpen games. It hasn't been the case so far this year as much,

but it feels like over the years that they just don't do well against them. I don't know why, but they were good against it on Monday. They were just fine. But it didn't work out the way that the Cardinals had hoped or how us as fans had hope because the Tigers bullpen was able to silence the Cardinals' offense to a tune of just one run on five hits in this five-to-one loss. were a couple of spots, too, that really stood out to me in this particular game on Wednesday, where the Cardinals had chances to get the momentum back in their corner after the Tigers took that early lead,

which, by the way, if you noticed, whoever got the lead first in these games ended up winning these games, which was something that stood out to me. So starting early, getting ahead early, you know, seemed like something that you would want to do or at least try it to do. And the Cardinals were unable to do it. They weren't trying to score a run. I'm just saying that Detroit ended up scoring twice, scoring first in the last few games. They go on to win those games.

Tigers took an early lead in this one too. Now, these two big moments that I'm talking about that really stood out to me involved two guys, Nolan Arnado and the other one involved Jordan Walker. So I want to start with the Nolan Aronado one. Second inning, one-and-nothing Tigers at this point. The Cardinals get a lead-off walk by Yvonne Herrera. who's been incredible.

And then our boy biscuits. Alec Berlinson makes the anti-shift fans everywhere, just grin from ear to ear when he lays down a perfectly placed butt down the third baseline, base head. So now you got first and second. There's nobody out. In comes Nolan Aronado, the vet. Hit the two-run bomb off scubal on Tuesday.

maybe things are going better for Nolan Aranato. And he does one of the things, and my everydayers will know this, that I get, pardon my French, but I get so pissed off about because you've got a situation where first and second, you've got runners on base, you got a pitcher who is rattled a little bit,

or pitch walk, Tivan Herrera, one single, probably pretty a note, from a non-bunting type of guy and Alec Berlinson. If I'm a pitcher going through those situations, I'm a little upset right now. I'm like, I'm frustrated. I'm bothered by what's going on. I'm a relief pitcher making a start.

This isn't like my normal situation. Things are weird. And Nolan Aronado swings at the very first pitch that he sees. Now, if this is, This is something that is center cut. Okay, he's trying to ambush a fastball, trying to drive the ball. He's looking for something either middle end is what he's looking at. That's the Nolan Aronado sweet spot, right?

Middle end, low in the zone. That's kind of where he does a lot of damage. If that's where like a four seam fastball floated into and Nato took a crack at it, I probably wouldn't be as upset. But it wasn't. It wasn't. So I'm not going to be lenient about this. It was a sinker outside.

Was it a strike? And if it was, it just clipped the very outer portion of the strike zone just off the plate. Maybe the um calls it for a strike. But it's not, you know, it's not so far off that it's, you know, egregious to swing out. But in no universe, is this a pitch? that Nolan Aronado, the Nolan Aronado that we know and love, the notorious bullheader, should be swinging at as a first pitch swinging situation. It is nowhere near where the Nolan Aronado danger zone is. And for whatever reason, he swings at. Pops it up in the shallow

right field. Nobody can advance. Wasted at bat, wasted chance. to do any damage. Bad in every way. And I'm sure he knows this, but what are you swinging at? What did you see that said, ooh, there it is. That's the one I got to put the bat on. I would love to hear what it was,

but it just deflated the inning, right? No one Gorman comes up next and he hits the ball decently. It just, you know, goes right to the left field. There lines out. And then Jordan Walker, hits the ball hard, grounds out to the third baseman and made a nice play over there, granted. But there it is. Endings over, missed opportunity number one.

And as soon as it happened, I was like, how are you doing? Why so aggressive right there on a pitch like that? I just didn't understand it. I didn't like it. As you can tell. So that's the first one. That's the first one that stood out to me. Then there's the second situation.

We go to the pivotal seventh inning. And this is where the game is really in the balance. You know, that, that bat takes place early on with Aronado in the second inning. All right. Now we're a ways down in the game. Now we're in the seventh inning. Okay. And things are getting sweaty.

And the game is in the balance. And you've got Jordan Walker up in a huge situation. And it was a very frustrating at bat. And it's something that we just got to talk about. about. We got to talk about it next because I don't know anybody who was all that happy with what they saw there. So we're going to discuss that next coming up on Locked on Cardinals. Every check your bank account and wonder where did all my money go? That happens between dining out, online shopping and entertainment.

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You first listen every day and leave your comments on YouTube as well as on X anytime you want. Feedback is always welcome and encouraged. A lot of frustrated feedback about this next step bat. You know, you get guys up in key situations and when they don't come through, people are going to get upset. And there's a certain handful of guys that are currently the guys that are going to catch a lot more hell than others when they don't come through. And this is the bat that is going to get the most attention from other talk shows and stuff

that deal with the Cardinals in this 5 to 1 loss to the Tigers. And it should be because it's the seventh inning. Your guys are showing fight to get back into things. It's still, you know, a close game at this point. three to one ball game, you just need that one big hit and you've got a guy that, you know, that you're counting on that you have put your faith into to be a big part of your future coming to the dish in Jordan Walker. The Cardinals have repeatedly said that, you know, they're going to stick with Walker and

Gorman this season. You want them to send them down or cut them or whatever, these crazy ideas that some fans come up with. That's not going to happen. So you might as well save your breath. Stop wasting your time, typing it out. to people and saying, ah, what do we doing with Walker? This is a failure. It is May. They're not going to make rash decisions in May. Okay. It's not going to happen. They're going to

keep trying with these guys. And hopefully, eventually, they'll become better ballplayers for it. And that this team will become better for it. But they're going to stick with these guys. Okay. It is what it is. So get ready for it. You're going to have to put up with it for the rest of the year. They got to find out what these guys can do and what they can't do. And to do that, they got to play. And I'm fine with it because the Cardinals have been winning despite the struggles of Jordan Walker and Nolan Gorman at the plate thus far. But here's this moment and you want to see one of these guys in these moments right now because you want to see what they're going to do in a crucial situation. You know, it's going to be a big part of their

development. So let me recreate the scene just real fast. Three to one ball game at this point. Alex, Alex Burleson leads off the inning and he gets that bloop single, right? Aronado strikes out on three pitches, just a gross at bat, really non-competitive. Really tough day for Arnado at the plate. He looked, you know how there's those moments where we've seen Aronado where it looks like he's never swung a bat before. That's what this day looked like for him. It was just one of those, ugh, flush that one, because that is a turd of a day. But then another one of the fan favorite punching back steps to the plate, Nolan Gorman, against the lefty, no less. He laces a base hit to right field.

And now the go-ahead run is coming up to the plate. And it's Jordan Walker, facing a lefty. And like I said, this is what you want. You want to see these guys and what they can do in these situations. Gorman just came through with a base hit. You're like, all right, here's the spot for Jordan, right? young guys like Burley, Gorman, coming through and putting it on the shoulders of someone that you think will be a future three, four, five hitter in your lineup with Jordan Walker. Can he rise to the occasion? Are we going to see something special here?

You know, we've seen little glimmers of it from time to time. Home running Kansas City obviously was a big moment. Hit that big double off the wall. And was that Monday's game, which was, smoked. That's what we're looking for, right? Because they're going to continue to pitch him low and away. You know where it's going to go.

You got to hit it. You got to take it that way. That's what we're working on with Jordan Walker right now. During this at bad, the Cardinals show very good awareness. Great base running because they end up scooting up from first and second to second and third on a wild pitch that it was blocked, but it got far enough away that Burley and Gorman, they got good jumps. moved up to second and third, beautiful stuff.

Now you got the game tying a run in scoring position at second base. So now things are even better for Jordan Walker. Right? The risk of the double play is gone. Now you're just like, at the very least, you want to either get a ground ball to the right side or a fly ball to at least get one running, right? That's the call.

Two to count on Jordan and pitcher Tyler Holton is clearly relying on the change up. All right. The scouting report says, change up, change up, change up. That's his thing. has thrown it in the same spot for a strike twice in this abat already against Jordan. His other two pitches are not even close. Again, non-competitive pitches. The only two that were strikes and were anywhere near the zone where the two changes.

So if I'm Jordan Walker in this situation, change up down or down in a way is where you need to be looking. That's probably what he's going to go with, right? and if you blast a fastball or a cutter or something like that past you, hey, got me. But that's what you should be looking for. And Jordan takes a change up that clips the bottom of the zone and goes down looking. And I got kind of a photo of his reaction because he was pissed. He was not happy about this at all, visibly upset with the call.

But according to the little strike zone box, it was a strike. It was in the strike zone. And even if it was a hair low, you have got to be protecting there. You cannot leave a pitch that close up to the umpires to make the call and say that it's a ball. You have to be ready to pull the trigger. And he watched the pitch and he watched the moment go right by him. And it was very frustrating to watch. I don't know what else he was looking for.

The plate is not that big. So the last two strikes that he threw to you were in the exact same spot almost. This one actually was even closer to the middle of the play. It wasn't even like on the outer portion of the corner. It was even closer to the middle. And he just watched it. Just watched it. That was tough.

Ollie then pinch hits with Pozo for Victor Scott. I know some people in line were like, oh, my, what is he doing? I think he was just looking for a big fly from Pozo there. I think he, that was the thought process. Plus, earlier in the game, Victor Scott got hit on my arm, so I don't know how well he was feeling after getting hit. I think I got a picture of that, too. Yeah, sort of.

Check this one out on YouTube. So you can see the ball coming away from. But it got him like right there on the left wrist forearm area. So I don't know. Maybe Victor wasn't feeling all that great. But went with Pozo, who doesn't strike out a lot. And he flew out to end the threat. Boom, poof.

And he's over. Tigers end up tacking on two more than ninth inning against Chris Roycroft, who walks the leadoff guy, which is always a bad omen, right? And he inevitably comes around to score because that's the way baseball works. Roycraft has not been good in his last couple outings, three runs on three hits with a walk in his last inning in the third. The control is just not there. You know, he's starting to get the movement back because he switched that arm angle, but he doesn't know how to control it yet. And although I still see potential in him, and I know a lot of people are pissed about him and frustrated with him and you have every right to be.

So it wouldn't shock me for him to get sent back down to Memphis. It's not like he's out of options or anything. So that could happen. and someone else can be brought up to get another shot to succeed. There's other arms down in Memphis who can, you know, come be your last guy from the right side out of the bullpen that you can use, you know, it's fine. But, yeah, I mean, you can't just keep running Roycroft out there and he just can't put it together yet. You know, let him go figure it out in Memphis. It's okay.

Palante didn't pitch bad per se, but the four walks were an issue in this one. two of them right before he got pulled. Cardinals walked six as a team on the day. Three of them came around to score. You know, it's lead off walks and two out walks. For whatever reason, they just, they end up usually biting you in the butt. But the offense was very flat, very anemic today,

just one run on five hits. You know, I know they've played six games in six days, but, you know, it just wasn't a lot of juice on the field today. only one walk, one for five with runners in scoring position. Newt had the day off today, so maybe him being out of the lamp, but I mean, he's got to get a day off from time and time. I know they have the day off on Thursday, too, but there are times where a couple of back-to-back days are good for these guys.

So other guys got to step up when other people are getting a day off. It just is what it is as part of the season. You can't expect. This is not Cal Ripkin Jr. era where you play 162 every day. Like, it's just not. anymore. It's not going to be that way. So if you're an old school person and upset about new getting a day off and in front of another day off for the whole team, come on. This is a guy that's dealt with a lot of injuries and they're trying to keep them healthy, try to keep these guys

fresh so that they're not just dead by the time August, September rolls around. So you got to get them off their feet for a couple of days sometimes. Not a big deal. Like I said, other people just have to step up. I realize this game is disappointing in a lot of ways because it was. You walk away from it kind of with a, yeah, that was just, that was a bad game. It was a bad game. It happens from time to time. It's going to go down, you know.

But I was just, Padres got absolutely blasted by the Blue Jays today, 14 to nothing. You know, bad days happen. It just, it happens, okay? It doesn't matter who the manager is. It happens. okay, but there are some positive things. There's a lot of positive things, honestly, to take away from this series with the, with the Tigers.

Just none of them really happened in this particular game on Wednesday. We're going to jump out of this sadness fog from the series finale and give you some of those highlights to brighten your day a little bit. And that's coming up next on Lockdown Cardinals. Thank you for making Lockstone Cardinals first listen today for your second list. And be sure to check out the all new Lockdown MLB game night, every game, every night, all season long, get local analysis on a national scale. You can find MLB game night on locked on MLB on YouTube or wherever you listen to your

podcast. It is easy to be negative because of how gross the game was on Wednesday. I mean, I'm in all black today. I so bad. I had the ugly loud shirt ready to go before the game started because I was like, I have a good vibe about this. You know, another bullpen game. And it's just, just nothing clicked.

Nothing clicked on Wednesday. So now we're in mourning. We're in the all black today. But let's not forget real quick. Because it doesn't have to be like this. I joke about wearing all black. It's not why I just grabbed something that was warmer from the closet, to be honest with you. Let's not forget that this Cardinals team, nobody,

nobody picked them to be worth a damn this season. Everybody was very eager to pour dirt on the St. Louis Cardinals before this season. and started. I believe myself to be one of the more positive guys that talks about the Cardinals. I feel like a lot of guys and gals jump all over them. A lot of people want to see them fail for whatever reason. They don't like Mo. They don't like Olly. Whatever. That's your personal choice. But nobody thought they were going to be that good this year, right? And they just hung in a three game series with the team that has the best record of Major League Baseball. Went to the playoffs last year through their AL-Sai Young Award winner and Terik's scubal against you.

And you played well against him. Monday's game was all Cardinals, right? Until it really started raining and then things got silly in the eighth and ninth inning. But granted, it was a bullpen game for the Tigers, but they showed up on Wednesday, ballpin game again and proved that their bullpen is pretty darn good, right? So what the Cardinals did on Monday should be celebrated. That's pretty good. 11 runs in 7 in a third innings against that bullpen, you know?

The last inning in a third was thrown by a backup catcher. That doesn't count. Oddly, he shut the card. He said it anyway, so it doesn't matter. But they looked outstanding on Monday night, the team as a whole. 11 runs, 16 hits, six guys with multiple hits. This after putting up just two runs in their last two games in Kansas City against a very good Kansas City Royals pitching staff.

If the Royals go to the playoffs, it's going to be because of pitching more than anything. They don't have a lot of offensive weapons. A couple guys, you know, obviously like Witt and Perez are pretty good. But the pass-quatch, I love that name. But pitching is what drives them. And you saw that in those two games and the Cardals were able to take two of three in Kansas City. So beating up on the Tigers bullpen in game one, that's a good thing. Tuesday night, you got to face Eric Scouble. Eric Fetty did not have as good stuff early on in that one. And they were playing from behind against Arguelly, the best left-handed pitcher in majorly baseball right now. And they fought and they fought and they fought and they fought and they scratched and they clawed.

They're way back into that game. And eventually they tie things up at four in the eighth inning. Now, obviously, things didn't go great after that. You know, Kyle Leahy is human. Oh, my gosh. The people who were, like, mad that they didn't go to Halsley in that inning, is Kyle Leahy trash all of the sudden? Did I miss that where he just sucked all of a sudden? Like he's been awesome. He's been awesome. So they were going to give Leahy another inning because he didn't

pitch a whole inning before that. So I find people upset about that. I'm like, what? Why are you? Who's been a better pitcher this year? Helsley or Leahy? And if you say Halsley, you're drunk because he hasn't been. Lay he's actually been better. But he gave up a lot. He's actually been better. but he gave up a run. Oh, heaven forbid. The Nato home run. One of the few highlights for him in the series was massive. I was really hoping that would be a big confidence booster for Nato, but it hasn't worked out that way. He had a terrible game on Wednesday, but it was a huge swing for him and the team. I was really, really happy for him.

Yvonne Herrera, RBI single on that one, makes it four to three. Herrera is the real deal. Like, I'm so glad. He's healthy. We didn't lose him for the season with that knee issue. And I'm loving him in the lineup. And they've scooted him up to number five. They wore down scuba who didn't make it through six innings. Tigers manager, AJ Hinch,

talked glowingly about how the Cardinals combated what Scoobel was doing, their approach against his ace. And we heard in reports how frustrated scuba was that despite striking out eight hitters that he couldn't put the Cardinals hitters away like he wanted to or how he's used to putting other teams away. Scoobel had gone six innings or more in six of his nine starts so far coming into that game and two of the ones that he didn't were the first two starts of the season where he really didn't pitch all that well and likely wasn't fully stretched out yet anyways to probably go that long. But since then he's been the guy you saw last year who won the Cy Young.

and the Cardinals hung with him. That says something about who this team is and what they can be moving forward. The Detroit Tigers team has the best record in baseball. They've beaten big names. They've beaten the Padres. They've beaten the Royals. They've beaten the Yankees and the Mariners, Yankees, Mariners, both in first place in their divisions.

The Padres right up there with the Dodgers in the NLEST. You know, the Royals have been playing decently in the Central. You know, they're in, I think they're in second place. I think the Guardians are in third. And then it's, I think that's how it is. Guardians are first. Anyway, point is, there's not like some scrub team. This isn't like a flash in the pan team in Detroit that isn't ready to compete.

This is a team that's competing with the cream of the crop in the league. And you saw the Cardinals give them all they could handle in this series outside of Wednesday, where they were flat. Are people talking about the Cardinals as someone that should be. mentioned with those big boys. Hell no. And they aren't one of those teams. But I don't think they have anything to hang their heads about after losing this series. They get the day off on Thursday and then have another really good team coming to town in the Arizona Diamondback. So you just, you move on. That's just the way that you have to be in Major League Baseball. You know,

they hadn't lost a series since April, McArinals. So, So they've been really, really good. It was going to happen eventually, and at least it wasn't against the team that you expected them to beat. You know, the Tigers are a good team. If you're going to lose to a team, he was the best record of baseball is someone that like, all right, but you weren't embarrassed by the Detroit Tigers or anything. You're right there with them. So debacks come to town next.

Got one of my favorite players in the league in Corbyn Carroll, who was so much fun to watch. But this is a team that, you know, is hanging with the Dodgers, Padres, and Johnson. giants in that powerhouse of the NOS outside of the Colorado Rockies. So it's not going to get easier for the Cardinals, really. It's not the Tigers, but the Diamondbacks aren't, in my opinion, that much more or far off from what the Tigers can do. I think Diamondbacks are a really good team. But, you know, you want to face the best and see where you stand from my chair. I see a young, fun, exciting group of guys that is coming together as a team.

They're not perfect. There will be gross games. on Wednesday, but more times than not, they're going to give you a hell of a fight on the field. And as a fan, I admire that. And it's been fun to watch so far. So don't let this one get you down. Use it as like, all right, maybe we learned a lesson or something about how to handle these best teams. And you use that and springboard into a weekend with the Arizona Diamondbacks and see if you can get back on track and

win two of three against them. That's the goal. Thanks for making a Lockton Cardinals. Your first listen every day. If you haven't already, please give us a follow on X at L0 underscore Cardinals. That's the podcast. I'm also available personally at JD Sports Radio.

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