Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - Here We Go Again With Steven Matz

Episode Date: May 1, 2024

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The St. Louis Cardinals get dominated by an old friend in game one, but when? Then they pound out double-digit hits in game two and lose. Let's try to make sense of all of it on today's episode of 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. Haffern and I'm a national radio sports anchor. You're born and raised in the Lou and a lifetime Cardinals,

and I'm your host for Locked on Cardinals, part of the Lockedon Podcast Network, covering your team every day. You can follow me on TwitterX at JD Sports Radio. You can follow the podcast at L0 underscore Cardinals. I do want to thank those of you who make Lockedon Cardinals, your first listen every day. We're free and available wherever you get your podcast.

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Google Play. All right. Let's talk baseball. After getting rained out on Monday, the Cardinals and Tigers played a doubleheader on Tuesday. And spoiler alert, they split the two games, uh, setting up a rubber match on Wednesday afternoon. Now, the funny thing is, is that it's almost like the Cardinals actually won and lost the wrong games. Let me explain. In game one, they had to face their former teammate, Jack Flaherty, right? Clearly, he was amped up to face the franchise that drafted him, that nurtured

him that stayed as patient as they could with him throughout all of his injuries before finally cutting ties with him at the trade deadline last year by sending him to the Baltimore Orioles who were going to the playoffs. You know, they're like, look, Jack, we're going to send you here. We're going to get some stuff in exchange. We know you want to be a free agent. Let's just do that. You know, clean break.

No big deal. In return, the cardinal's got left-hander Drew Rom, who you saw last year. hurt right now, still kind of up in the air. What's going to happen with him moving forward? Cesar Prieto, currently hitting 326 at Memphis, and then pitcher Zach Showalter, who as you had to give up a run this year at Singole Palm Beach over eight innings. And there was a time, and it was really not that long ago. It feels like it's a lot longer than it is, but it really wasn't that long ago that Flaherty

was the crown jewel of pitchers inside the Cardinals, organization and it was thought that he would become this young superstar pitcher in the league. Like he was on his way to becoming one of the best in the entire league, not just the National League, not just the NL Central, the entire league. 2019, he was fourth in the NL Cy Young voting in just his second full season in the big leagues. 2021. He's 9 and 2 with a 3.22 ERA. Things are looking good. And then came the injuries, right?

and they just kept coming and kept coming. And they just plagued him over a couple of seasons. And when he was finally healthy last year, the results were inconsistent. You know, you would see moments where you're like, there he is. There's that guy that we saw 2019 that looks so amazing. There he is. And then you would have other games where you're like, it looks like he has no idea what he's doing out there.

and I never said he was washed up. That wasn't something I ever felt about Jack Flaherty. I mean, he's only 28 years old, but it just felt like it was time for a change of scenery, for both Jack Flaherty and for the St. Louis Cardinals. It was time to just kind of move on and let everybody go their separate ways. After the trade to Baltimore, things really didn't go all that well for Jack either. He had like his very first game was really, really good.

And then things were not great. He ended up getting relegated. to the bullpen before becoming a free agent. He signs with the Tigers. And so far this year, the results, I mean, they've been better. They definitely have been better. But still, I would say a bit inconsistent still. It's not like it's pure domination all the time.

It's not like he's getting shelled all the time. It's just kind of up and down. You know, he's gone six innings or more in four of five starts, which is good for Jack Flaherty. You know, that means that he's displaying healthiness. You know, he's a. able to answer the bell each and every day. That's great for Jack Flaherty.

Hasn't faced the toughest of opponents, I'll be honest, had to face the White Sox, the A's, the twins twice, and the Rays. And even though he's faced those people, still no wins on the season yet. Pitched well against the White Sox, but most people do. Got blasted by the A's. It was okay against the twins in both starts and then gave up four runs and seven hits and five innings against the race. strikeouts are up. I will give him credit there. Those are up, but he's also giving up a home run in every game. This is all leading into today's game, by the way. So coming into the game, the Cardinals probably weren't, I wouldn't say they were overly concerned about what Jack Flaherty was going to offer. And if that was the case, then that was a huge mistake because Jack Flaherty went out and had arguably the best game of his career against them on Tuesday. He struck out the first seven batters that he faced,

which tied an American League record and also marked the first time in the expansion era since 1961 that the Cardinals had started a game that way by having the first seven people in their batting lineup strikeout. He ends up striking out a career high, 14 batters over six and two-thirds innings. He was absolutely dominant, often hitting 96, 97 on the gun, which is something I don't recall him doing all that much in a Cardinals uniform, especially after he came back from the injuries. But I recall him more like a 93, 94, maybe 95 type of guy. But he was amped up. 96, 97 is what he was coming with with on the mound today. His breaking stuff was crisp. It was tight. And the Cardinals really had no answers for him, hardly at all. Flaherty gave up just two

hits in this game. He had a single by Yvonne Herrera in the third. And then another by, and Arnato in the fourth, and that was it. I mean, he was just carving them up. He only walks one batter, which is very unlike Jack Flaherty, at least the one we've been used to the last couple of years. And for the first time this year, he didn't give up not only any runs, but no home runs. Because of course he did.

Of course he did. Of course he's going to have the game of his life the first time he ever faces the St. Louis Cardinals. Like, of course he did. And although part of me was hoping that we'd see that inconsistent Jack Flaherty that we unfortunately saw a lot of last year in his final year with the Cardinals, the dude was all business today. And you got to give him a lot of credit. He was locked in as locked in as I've seen him in a long, long while.

Lucky for the Cardinals, guy on the mound for them, Kyle Gibson, also had himself a pretty good day. He was pitching at almost the same level as Jack Flaherty. So we'll talk about how good Kyle Gibson was today and how good he's actually been recently. We'll get into that next here on Locked on Cardinals. It's playoff time in the NBA and NHL. Baseball's in full swing and Fandall is your place to bet on every game. Right now, new customers get $150 in bonus bets. That's guaranteed.

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Leave your comments on YouTube as well as on Twitter X. Anytime you want that feedback, always welcome and encouraged. And if you haven't started joining us during the actual games where we're all tweeting together and having good cards. Cardinal conversation, good and bad, about what's going on. You should do that.

So join us on there. Mention Jack Flaherty looking really, really good, right? Looked fantastic today. Like, as good as I've ever seen him. And when I was thinking about games like this year, the Cardinals have seen really good pitchers, it reminded me a lot of the Bobby Miller start that the Dodgers had at the beginning of the year.

Like, that's how good Jack Flaherty was on the, Tuesday. Like he looked unhittable as good as I've ever seen him. And as I mentioned, Cal Gibson looking pretty good too over there on the other side. It was really good once again on Tuesday. He's now gone six or more innings in every start this year. Every single one of of them. He goes seven in this one. He allows one run on four hits. He walks to strikes out nine. The one run, it was a home run. Go figure to Riley Green, who, you know, he's one of the best young prospects in baseball. But outside of that, what a performance by the veteran right-hanner.

Today's game, after going seven innings, allowing just one run, has got his ERA down to 3.79 on the season, which has him as the 25th best ERA in the National League and now has four quality starts, which is the second highest in the National League and third highest in the major leagues. Now, here's something that usually happens with Kyle Gibson. I'm just going to warn you. he rattles off some games like this in a row where he's really, really good, and then he's going to have a real stinker here real soon, like watch it.

I hope it doesn't happen, but when you go through the stats of what Kyle Gibson normally does in his career, a bunch of good games in a row, and then one that is just awful, like seven runs and two winnings awful, kind of like he was against the Marlins, pretty much like that. There's going to be a blow-up game, and then his ERA is going to go, and it's going to go back up. but because you're a smart Cardinals fan because you listen to Lockdown Cardinals, you realize that that ERA is going to be a bit inflated because of just one or two bad outings when he's actually been a better pitcher. All right.

Over his last three starts, Kyle Gibson has thrown 19 innings, allowed just three earned runs on 12 fits, eight walks, 18 strikeouts, but it's just one win to show for it because the Cardinals can't seem to score any runs in the games he pitches. they don't score much in any of the games that anyone pitches. So both Jack Flaherty and Kyle Gibson, they have amazing games in game one on Tuesday, but neither end up being a pitcher of record

because the Cardinals did something that not a lot of teams have been able to do so far this year. And that's actually score on the Detroit Tigers bullpen, which has been one of the best in the league so far this season. And it was another former Cardinal that they made the comeback on. And I know you were thinking it. I was thinking it. When they brought in Shelby Miller,

you're like, tigers are trying to be, trying to be jerks. All right, they're going to have Flaherty, carve us up, and then they're going to shut the door with another former Cardinal in Shelby Miller.

That's what they were trying to do. Former first round pick of the Cardinals. In fact, I've got some autographed spikes of his sitting over here in the corner, but I don't want to go get him right now. But anyway, but that's not what happens. The Cardinals don't give up.

They keep fighting. They get consecutive hits in the ninth inning from Nolan Aronado, then Paul Goldschmidt, and Alec Berlinson to tie it up. And then they get a deep sack fly from rookie catcher Pedro Pahas, gives them a two to one lead, and then it's Hells Bell's time, right? Ryan Helsley comes in. He whiffs the first two batters, gets to fly it on the last guy. And after looking completely helpless over eight innings,

where they didn't look like they could in anything, right? the Cardinals win this game. They win game one, somehow, some way. Tough luck for Jack Flaherty. Tough luck for Kyle Gibson, too, who had a great game. But you got to give credit to the Cardinals who just kept plugging away. They never rolled over. They never put up the white flag or said, uncle.

They kept trying. They kept fighting, and that's why they play nine innings. The pitching kept the Tigers at bay. Matthew Libertor, spends a scoreless eighth inning, strikes out too. his ERA now down to 2.93. Have we found the niche for Matthew Leveritor? Where he's going to be an effective part of this staff? Maybe.

Look good so far. Ryan Helsley continues to excel. ERA down to 1.690 now has 10 saves on the year, which is tops in Major League Baseball. In our last episode, I warned you that these games against the Tigers probably going to be low-scoring affairs. because neither of these teams have really shown all that much offensively yet in

2024. So game one, I nail it. I nail it. Two to one game, just like I told you was going to be. And then of course, they got to prove me completely wrong in game two, which in my defense was completely out of character for both of these teams. They combined for 17 runs, 25 hits. And unfortunately, the Cardinals, 11 of those runs actually scored by the Detroit Tigers instead of that. Stephen Matt's got the ball in game two. Now, Stephen Matt's, oh, man. Stephen Matt's, he just, he never looked quite right in this one, did he?

Couldn't make it out of the fourth inning. He allowed four runs on seven hits. One of those was a home run. He walked two, strikes out just one. Velo is down a little bit. We're like, oh, boy, what's going on here? And he does all of that in three and a third innings. So that's now three straight starts.

where Stephen Matt's has really not been all that effective. Five runs in five innings against Oakland, seven runs and four and a third against Arizona. Now you get this stinker in Detroit. So what the hell is going on? Well, we find out afterwards from Ali Marmel that Stephen Matt's is dealing with lower back soreness. It popped up in between starts.

And according to Katie Wu from the athletic, this explains the early hook from today, although he wasn't pitching very well anyway. But it also explains why there was a drop in velocity because early on in the season, Stephen Matt's, they were pretty good. Remember, they were limiting his innings in spring training, trying to keep him.

They gave him like a later start so that he could be fresher, stay injury-free, and it just seems like it doesn't matter what you do. It just, nothing works. Nothing is going to keep Stephen Matt safe from injury, except not playing the sport of baseball. And even then he might get hurt walking down the street. I have no idea how to keep this guy off the IL.

He's due for an evaluation tomorrow, such as life with Stephen Mats as a Cardinal so far. We get bursts of like strong performances like we did at the beginning of this season, like you saw during last year after he came back off the injury list. Remember he goes to the bullpen and then he looks like he's going to be okay. he goes to the injury list. He comes back and he's really, really good. Back to the injury list after that comes back this year, pretty good at the start. And now you're starting to see him tail off again. And it's just, it's just over and over and over. Good stuff. injury pops up and then he's got to start from

scratch again. And I'm not saying this lower back issue is something that is going to force him on the IL. I don't know that. Again, evaluation coming up tomorrow on Wednesday. But one thing is clear. It had a pretty significant impact on him on Tuesday. Okay? You got to admit that. And if that's what he's going to look like, put him on the I. out. Put him on the IL.

Let somebody else take that spot right now. Get him healthy. Don't screw around with it and start messing with it where it's going to linger on later into the year. And then you're really scrambling for starts. You know, don't start playing that game. On one hand, it sucks, right? that this continuously happens with Stephen Matt's.

But on the other hand, just to throw some positive energy out there, you got to appreciate that despite not feeling his very best, going into this, they knew that apparently, that Matt still was like, no, no, no, no, give me the ball. Give me the ball. He wanted to help his team. He wanted to do whatever he could do to help him out because you had the rain out on Monday and you knew,

you were going to then be forced to play three baseball games within a 24-hour period. And yeah, the Cardinals were able to add a 27th man in Kyle Leahy, but I think you'd rather have Stephen Matt starting. Matt's tried to do what he could to give his teammates a few winnings. It just didn't work out. Didn't work out at all because instead of helping them, it actually put them in kind of a big hole, which, you know, how this team is offensively right now,

not a great spot to be. But Cardinals climbed out of it. They actually made a comeback. We'll jump into that second impressive comeback of the day coming up next on Locked Cardinals. This Mother's Day gets something thoughtful for Mom on DoorDash. You can surprise her from wherever you are with fresh bouquets, the latest tech. How about some gift cards?

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or retail order now on DoorDash. That's locked on MLB. Order using DoorDash today, terms apply. Lockdown has launched the first ever national sports 24-7 streaming channel on YouTube. It's now available on Amazon Fire TV as well. And that free fire TV channels app, Locktown Sports Today is here for you 24-7. It's covering the top sports stories of the day with the local experts of Lockton,

plus our national shows, which covers every league by Lockedon Sports Today, now available on the Free Fire TV channels app. So apparently I motivated Paul Goldschmidt today. How did I do that? well after Paul Goldsmith struck out in the top of the seventh in game one against Jack Flaherty. I tweeted, Goldie missing fastballs right down the pipe is getting old. And I got a lot of feedback on that one where people are like, yeah, he's getting old. And yeah, it's embarrassing to watch him do this and, you know, just a lot of negativity.

And I know the guy's trying. We all know that the guy's trying. We don't dislike Paul Goldschmidt. But we want to see him succeed. But when I see pitchers continuously miss their. spots and throw keaters right over the heart of the plate to Paul Goldschmidt and they just

blow right past him like he is an even close to catching up to them. It makes me wonder if perhaps he's hitting that Adam Wainwright wall that we saw last year and at the end of the year before that where he just

can't do it like he did before. I started thinking that I'm like, man, is this going to be a long season? And all goals, he did after I tweeted that was served me a warm glass of shut the hell up. Five hits in a row. Five hits in its next five at bats after I tweeted that. He's got a single to ride in the ninth inning part of the comeback in game one.

Then in game two, it's a double to left field. And I want you to notice where he's hitting these balls, by the way, because this is key. So you got a single to right, you got a double to left. Then you got a single to right. Then you got a single to left. Then he gets an eight pitch at bat, ends with him. singling to right field. All right, you want to know when a hitter is starting to figure things out a little bit.

You start seeing, first off, Paul Goldsman, great powered opposite field. We know that hitting it straight away, not exactly a pull hitter. He's not like Nolan Aronado. But when you start seeing him, oh, you're going to pitch me in? I'll take you to the left. You're going to pitch me away? All right. I'll take you to right.

When you start seeing that, that means he's getting close to being locked in. And hopefully this is the beginning of Paul Goldschmidt going on its hair because that would be great. He grounds out in the ninth inning of the end of the streak, but five straight hits from the ninth inning in game one through the ninth inning of game two. And now his batting averages up to 236 on the year, which doesn't sound all that great. I know you think 236. Like that's kind of sucks, dude. But if you remember how bad things have been so far this year, that's not too. shabby, you'll take that. When he's been floating around in the 160s and 70s, most of

2024, to be a 236 is like hitting 350 for us. But he was just part of the comeback in game two because after they went down early on, they ended up fighting back, which is something this team has shown that they can do this year, which has been great. Brydonovan hits a two-run shot in the fifth inning cuts that lead to four to two. And then after getting the game tying RBI in game one. It's Alec Berlison. It's a two out opposite field three run shot to give the cardals a five to four lead. Just a beautiful piece of hitting. They brought in a new pitcher to face him. He said, screw you. Hits it over the left field wall, five to four lead. And everybody's feeling really good about themselves, right? Well, that lead is short lived in game two as the

Tigers fight back to tie things up at five against Kyle Leahy before he gives way to Ryan Fernandez, who first person he sees, hits a home run. Go figure. Wenzel Perez. It's his second home run of the day. Wenzel Perez, hits his second home run of the day. I didn't stutter. Puts the Tigers up for good at 7 to 5.

Cards would actually close the gap to 7 to 6, but then we get Giovanni Gallego sent in. Boy, oh boy, was that bad. He gets shelled after coming into the game. He comes in in the seventh inning, and right away, he looks terrible, right? Riley Green greets him with a dinger to right field. then he walks Spencer Torkelson and then it's a double to Rogers and then he walks Perez

and then it's like okay bye-bye you're done gives way to Nick Robertson who he's a rookie and comes in a situation where there's some damage on the bases gives up a single he walks in a run gives up a sack fly makes it 11 to 6 and that is how it ended guy egos is charged with four runs on two hits two walks doesn't record a single out his ERA has ballooned to nine for the year. Nine. Been a rough go for Gio, who, if you remember, barely escaped disaster in New York.

He was all set up to blow that one and somehow wiggles out of it against the Mets and has given up runs in four of his last seven appearances. And I keep saying it, isn't it wild? Is it wild to think that last year, Giovanni Gallegos was one of, your go-to high-leverage situation guys. Like, that's all they had. Halsley dealing with injuries, they had to go to Giovanni Gallegos.

And this is the guy. That's who they were stuck with last year. That's how bad things were last year. So I don't know what it's going to take to get Gio back on track. I know a lot of people are like, when is Keenan Middleton coming back? When is Riley O'Brien coming back? I do not want to see Gallegos.

anymore. They're not going to cut the guy. Like they're going to try to figure out what the hell's going on with them. Because you've seen him in situations where he can be successful when that slider's biting. But yeah, it was it was really, really bad on Tuesday. Cardle's offense, although better in game two, still, still struggling, struck out 15 times in game one. Jack Flaherty owned them 14Ks from Jack alone. And then 11 more in game two. Wilson Contreras had a brutal day on Tuesday.

0 for 9, six strikeouts by himself. Yikes. Brandon Crawford, a lot of people talking about him, got the starting game too. Not a lot of great things going for Brandon Crawford right now. 0 for 2 in that game dropped his average to 105. Clearly not the defender that we all remember from a couple of years ago when he was rattling off gold gloves.

He's a step slower, if not a couple steps slower. He doesn't have the arm of Mason win. and if he doesn't get a good jump on the ball, and especially one that he's got to charge, he ain't getting the guy at first base, and that happened in this game, and it set up a big inning for the Tigers. Jose Fermin came in later in the game for him,

and it's got people wondering whether or not this whole Brandon Crawford signing thing is a bust, and it's time to just DFA and move on with life and let Jose Fermin stick around, especially if you got Matt Carpenter coming back here soon. Like, do we need, the two old lefty lefty guys on the bench? Is that a necessity? I think we all felt that it one of them's fine. You don't need two. And the one you're going to cut probably Crawford,

probably Crawford, right? So I mean, you're not getting much from them offensively or defensively at this point. I don't know what kind of stuff he's doing behind the scenes in the clubhouse. I'm sure he's a great guy. But I don't know. We'll see. Being a veteran, you know, how the Cardinals are. They kind of give the veterans a little bit of a longer leash. So maybe it's a little bit longer than people think. But I know, I know people are restless right now when it comes to Brandon Crawford and they hate seeing them in that starting a lineup when Mason Win has been so good so far this year. But the Cardinals say they got a plan. They're trying to keep Mason fresh. You know, we dealt with a little bit of back stuff a little bit earlier this

year too. So they're just trying to be safe with everything because they want them around. I understand that. I can respect that. But just something I'm seeing a lot of talk about online right now. What is the point of Brandon Crawford? Lars Neupar won for eight today and is now batting 180. Yeah. Yeah. Remember we were like, oh, Newt's coming back. He's going to spark this offense. Yeah, 180. And I had people online today ask me, why is he in the number three hole? And I'm like, I don't know who you want up there, but they try to go righty left, you, righty left. as much as they can so that later in the game, when they have the other opposing manager has to make changes with his pitchers, it's a little more difficult to make decisions.

So that's what they try to do. Yeah, Newt, Newt on tough times right now. No one Gorman, still under 200 at 196. Michael Ciani at 128. Did have a hit today, though. And the Cardinals pitcher staff gave up four more home runs today, four more against the team that had just 23 on the season. Like, it's clear to me that it doesn't matter who the Cardinals play.

It didn't matter when it was against the Oakland days. It hasn't mattered against the Detroit Tigers. I'm guessing it won't matter against the White Sox. They're just going to give up home runs. That's just part of their DNA. That's now 37 on the year, fourth highest total in baseball. Be nice to not have that be an issue anymore. But at this point, it is what it is.

They are going to give up home runs. But to kind of end things on a good note here, I got a couple things, really. The Cardinals are currently not in last place in the NL Central. The Pirates lost again. That's their third in a row. And they're now 14 and 17 on the year, while the Cardinals are 14 and 16.

Percentage points higher, not in last place. So that's a positive. Another game on Wednesday, it's going to be a day game. Miles Michaelis against Kent and Maida, first pitch set for 1210 St. Louis time. So we'll see if we can get the good miles. in this rubber matchup and take the series.

Down at Memphis, Dylan Carlson started his first game of his rehab assignment with Memphis on Tuesday night at Charlotte, 0 for one. He did walk twice and then a four to three loss. Victor Scott, just so I can tell you what the Memphis lineup is because I thought I was like, wow, this is pretty good. Victor Scott leads off. Jordan Walker's bat in second, Dylan Carlson's bat in third, Thomas and Jacey hitting cleanup

Cesar Prieta was fifth and then Lucan Baker batting sixth. That's not a bad little windup that they got going on with the Memphis Redbirds, although they did lose tonight. And people were asking so far what's been going on with Victor and Jordan at Memphis.

Victor Scott since being sent down is hitting 179, so not great. But his last three games, he's got a stolen base in all three of them. So stolen base in three consecutive games, Walker, two for nine, so far in two games, since they put him back in the line. Remember he had a couple days that they wanted him to work on stuff

before he actually started playing in real games again. And throwing this one out there too, pitching for AA Springfield. Team Kent turns in one of the best starts of his career, if not his best start, ends up striking out 10 in seven innings, one run, two hits. He walks to 94 pitches.

ERA on the season right now is at 2.10. That's the Cardinals' top pitching prospect, and he continues. to shine at double A. So probably not going to push it. You know, they'll take their time with scoching them up to Memphis. I wouldn't plan on seeing him in the major leagues this year.

But stranger things have happened. All right. Thanks for making a lockdown cardinals for us to listen every day. If you haven't already, give us a follow on Twitter X at L. underscore Cardinals and a JD Sports Radio. Like and subscribe on YouTube. You guys are the best fans in baseball for a reason.

And I will see you next time on Lockdown Cardinals. good one.