Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - Is The Devil Magic Back In St. Louis?

Episode Date: May 30, 2024

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Andre Palante pushes against the Cincinnati Reds and the Cardinals leave the Queen City with a series victory. How did it happen and where do we go from here? This is a special crossover episode of Locked on Cardinals and Locked on Reds. You are Locked on Cardinals. Your daily St. Louis Cardinals podcast, part of the Locked on podcast network, your team every day. Well, at least one person on that diamond didn't want to win a baseball game on Wednesday. What's up? This is Jeff Carr. He's Stephen Offenbaker and he's J.D. Halfrun. We are locked on Reds and Lockdown Cardinals crossing over to recap the first series of the season between our two

fantastic franchises. And we wanted to just break this all down. We are going to look at a question that I have about the final game. And I'm going to get J.D.'s opinion on this. I'm going to get Steve's opinion on this. Did David Bell punt the series? We're also going to look at the three big things from this series, what we take away from it and how the Reds and the Cardinals look after the first big checkpoint of the season. This is, like I mentioned, a crossover of Lockdown Reds and Lockdown Cardinals. We are both part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every single day. And we are happy that you are along with us because we're all long suffering fans. One of us has suffered a lot less. I'm not going to lie, J.D. I don't want to hear no suffering. I know that you

guys came in last last year. There ain't no suffering. Ain't no suffering in St. Louis because St. Louis seems to know how to run a baseball franchise. But this final game, I want to start with this because the series was everything that I figured it would be. I feel like these two teams are very evenly matched this season. I feel like there are very similar like strengths and weakness. is in that they kind of counteract each other. So when the Reds and the Cardinals get together in 2024, it's definitely going to be some good television slash good ticket, you know, buy a ticket, go down to the game. I, David Bell punted that last game, man, the way that he've managed the game, the way that he was bringing in Buck Farmer in the ninth inning, the way that he

left Buck Farmer in whenever he was walking everybody, whenever he handed Paul Goldschmidt a base, whenever he handed the Cardinals a run. They still left him in there. And I know that there was this otherworldly performance from Andre Palante, but come on, man, like from your percent, because I know you were down at the ballpark. Like, what were you, what was going through your mind with that? I was shocked to be honest. When I, when I genuinely saw a farmer lose.

Because anything can happen in Great American ballpark. Like, you know, the runs usually come pretty easily. although when you look at how the Reds offense has been recently, you'd be surprised at how little people are scoring there. But I was a little shocked because I'm always prepared for chaos to happen in Cincinnati at that ballpark. And I couldn't believe that he was leaving him in for another hitter. Like I thought he was all right.

I even said to the people sit with me, I was like, oh, he's going to switch him out now. No, didn't happen. And then when he gave the walk to Goldie, and I was like, okay, we'll take that. Then I thought he was going to go to a lefty after that. And that didn't happen either. And I was like, I don't know what's going on with your bullpen right now. Maybe some people were just unavailable on Wednesday. I honestly had no clue what David Bell was thinking there. Steve, you're shaking your head about as hard as I was all day. You know, listen, here's here's where I'm at right now. I tweeted this out after the game. I stand by it. This is a series that the Reds absolutely had to win. They choked. They, they, they choked. They flat out choked. This team is playing with no urgency. This team is playing with no drive right now. This team has dug a hole and they have used up all of their punting. They have used up all of theirs. We're going to take this game off. They did that already. They're in a big, big hole and David Bell

needs to get his stuff together. There is absolutely no reason with an off day to day that the Cardinals didn't face Sims, Cruz, and Diaz. That's the pitching lineup. They were all available. Lucas Sims pitch yesterday. He could still got that one out today. And then Cruz and Diaz did not pitch yesterday. They were completely available. There's no reason for it. David Bell has to stop managing like this team is playing in good year and start managing like he wants to get this team out of the seller. I've had it. Did he punt? I don't know that he punted. I just don't think he knows what he's doing right now. I tell you, because leaving Farmer in, even after he walked in the run, the Cardinals all series long were hitting the ball super hard. Even in game one, they were hitting the

ball hard. They just were finding gloves and inopportunity times. And then we saw it in game two whenever the Cardinals just exploded and scored a billion runs on, um, on Andrew Abbott. But overall, I mean, this Cardinals lineup, especially guys like Mason Win, like I know he was moved down to eighth in the order on Wednesday. Like there's some dudes that are really just duding it up right now. Yeah. And he's been shuffling where win is at in the order, depending on the matchups and stuff. he's had him lead off a few times, but most of the time he's been at the bottom of the order and he's been thriving. So I know once in a while they like, you know, if Donovan's going to get the day off, he's normally the leadoff hitter, he'll bump went up there. But Mason Wend, he's becoming a superstar right before our eyes in St. Louis, somebody that is becoming very, very special.

You've probably heard about the throwing arm. Defensively, he messes up the routine grounders, but offensively he's been on fire right now. currently has an 18-game hitting streak, which is the second longest streak by a rookie in Cardinals history. Only one other person has a longer one, and that was Joe McEwing back in 1999. So he's passed Albert Pooleholds, and he passed Jordan Walker, and sky's the limit right now for Mason win. He's been impressed. Jay, you had to feel really good about that game against Andrew Abbott,

because for the first time since 1890, which coincidentally was the rookie year for most of the players on your team, You guys played an entire game without an error. You had an error-free game. I didn't even think that was legal in St. Louis. Yeah, we had a 12-game error streak going on there. And thank God we got it back going again today on Wednesday. We got another one. So that was nice.

Because what the funny part is, is early on in the season, they actually were playing fantastic defense. I got you're familiar with that Michael Ciani guy. He's been pretty good in center field for the Cardinals this year. Defensively, he still can't hit worth a lick, hardly. but defensively wise, he's been outstanding in center field. And it was nice to get some runs off of Andrew Abbott. It was nice to get some sleep because that first night coming in,

like the joke was that they kind of slept, walk their way through that game on Monday. And genuinely, some of them might have been half asleep after what they had to do travel-wise to get into Cincinnati after a late night at St. Louis against the Cubs on Sunday. But it was nice to see the bats open up a little bit on Tuesday. and then some more power at the plate on Wednesday. You got to see the old man, Carpenter, hit a home run.

It was like seven seats over from me. A guy caught it. So that was kind of cool. His first home run since coming back to the Cardinals after, you know, making stops in some other towns. And then Nolan Gorman, getting into double digits. It is 10th home run of the year today too. So it was nice.

I'm just genuinely shocked by the lack of offense going on in Cincinnati. I mean, I know that you guys have had injuries, you know, losing McLean's been, a big hit to you guys. But I thought a lot of these other guys like Steer and Alley would be a lot better than they have been so far this year. Steer just kept hitting fly ball after fly ball to the deepest part of the ballpark and it just wasn't. It was landing in Michael Ciani's glove constantly. I think that there was like some sort of game that he and Ciani were playing to see if he could catch everything that he hits him. But no, you mentioned Nolan Gorman. Nolan Gorman killed the Reds in the series. And to be honest with you, that home run from Matt Carb. whenever he hit it, I did say some things in my basement. It's just like, Matt Carpenter, really?

Oh, come on. But that's kind of how this game fell was just like my thought and the reason that I asked the question the way that I did. And it wasn't to undercut anything about the performance from the Cardinals in the series. But the idea of putting in Buck Farmer, it's like it's like Steve said. Like it's not that, you know, we're not sure if you punt it. It's like, do you know what you're doing? But Farmer through two. 27 pitches the night before. In fact, Brent Suter pitched the night before. And he also threw him on Wednesday's game. And you just look at the way that he managed this bullpen for

Nando Cruz sitting there ready to go hadn't pitched in two days. Lights out on Monday too. That was impressive. Five outs, five strikeouts. And they're like, nah, we're going to let him have three straight off days before we go to Chicago. Alexis Diaz sitting on the bench ready to go. not going to pitch him either.

You could even make the argument that Nick Martinez could pitch. I know he pitched a lot on Sunday, but, you know, it'd been a few days. He could at least go one in any, maybe two innings for you, something like that. But no, we're just going to leave Buck Farmer in to walk guys and allow hits. And then the bun single to Michael Ciani, like, I hope they watch tape on this. And if Michael Ciani comes up to the plate and the next time that the Reds and Cardinals play, they got the infield in because you throw him strikes and you don't let him bunt. And I don't think he hurts you.

But that's what happened. He hits a bun single and keeps the inning going. There was just so much about that that I'm like, there's no urgency. I agree with Steve. There was no urgency from the Reds on that part. And that is what killed me the most about this game. But you know what? There are three other things. There are three big things that we take away from this series.

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It's part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every single day. And this series has really led to three. There's a couple of things that are kind of floating around in my mind, but I do want to take it like each one of us will give the big thing from the series. Since there's three of us, three big things, kind of figured out how that rolls. So when you look back on this, and I know Steve, you kind of mentioned like this was the series that the Reds needed to win, see now that they've lost it, what? is your big thing from it? My big takeaway is that this, you know, we did our worry ometer Wednesday and there wasn't a

whole lot I was ready to be worried about. I wish we had recorded that after this series because I'm worried about some things. I'm worried about David Bell's inability to put players in the best position possible to be successful. I'm worried about the Red's inability to be consistent. I'm worried about the Red's inability to win series. that they should win. And, and J.D., I feel like the Reds should have won this series, although I will give, you know, a tip to you, I've been making fun of these Cardinals for being aged

and all the way back into when we did our offseason shows. You know this. But you guys have been playing some pretty good baseball coming into this series. You know, you win five straight games coming in. You're now have won seven out of your last eight. So I'm worried that if the rest of the division is going to reel off streaks like this, and the Reds are the gang that can't shoot straight, they may be running out of time. to make a move. You know, you can equate it to racing. You know, you got a guy who's kind of sitting back, he's kind of waiting for a spot, waiting to make his move. And then when the opening presents itself, they go. I'm afraid the Reds may have missed their spot. They need to go. So my big

takeaway, they have to get better at being consistent. Moving forward, they have to play consistent baseball. It can't just be starting pitching one night bullpen the next night offense once every three or four days. They have to play consistent good all around baseball or this season's done before it really ever had a chance to get started. Yeah, I think that that was kind of the thing that surprised me a little bit is that, you know, all the all the trash we were talking in the offseason about, you know, the retirement home that is started at Bush Stadium. Kyle Gibson about through no hitter on him. I mean, he was dominating him, weak contact all around. Andre Palante, about through a no hitter on, although I wouldn't have included him in the, in the retirement home, but

Andre Palant, there were a lot of, you know, Reds. Someone's got to drive the handy van, Jeff. Someone has to be available to load the wheelchairs and drive the handy van. Our young guy, Sunny Gray, is that guy, okay? He's youthful. He's the DD, yeah. He's our spring chicken. He's the young guy. exactly but it was things like that that it's just like gosh on paper it feels like the red should be so much better than than this is is that i don't know like your your kind of perspective on this is how much different is it because i know that whenever the cardinals showed up as the favorites to win the division which by the way that's changed and we'll get to that in a little bit but um when they showed up as the favorites to win the division your your kind of thoughts were yeah

Of course they are. Yeah, I mean, you put on paper, the roster, it sounds good. But a lot of these guys aren't still doing what they had done previously. You know, the big guys, obviously Goldschmidt and Aeronado. My big thing about this series, you kind of brought it up was that was the pitching, the starting pitching for the Cardinals, despite losing that first game. Lance Lynn was really, really good. I mean, he was done in by a couple of errors by those two guys.

at first and third. And that's what screwed him up. It wasn't that he pitched all that bad, had a few walks, but six innings, three runs, only one earned. Then you had Kyle Gibson, who you mentioned, he goes six innings. Another quality start is, I think it's a sixth of the season so far, which is pretty darn good for an old guy, right? One run, two hits. And then Palante coming out of nowhere, which is something that was the most of us, when we heard he was going to be the started, we're like, oh, boy, because genuinely has not had much success at all at the major league level since 2022. This was actually his first start since July of 2022. He'd been mostly out of the bullpen. And for him to just come out and, you know, he looked nervous,

a couple of walks in that first inning. And you're like, oh, boy, here we go. Because he had walk issues at AAA. He had like 13 walks in 16 innings. So you're wondering like, oh, boy, now he's facing big league hitters and they're going to even be more patient. And then something happens and he just shoves against the Reds. And I'm genuinely shocked at the lack of offense. Like it blows my mind to see empty at bats from Spencer Steer who after last year like I was like this guy's a perennial all star. And he looked like he was at the beginning of the year too.

Like I was, I'm genuinely like scratching my head about it. And it's kind of something that the Cardinals were going through to for the longest time. up until like the last two and a half weeks, no offense. I mean, they had a worse offense than the Reds who have now passed them in futility, but they were way down there with the White Sox and the A's just hovering. And then you saw the guys on the, you know, on the roster and you're looking at how do they suck this bad? Like, what is this? And finally, it's starting to click a little bit.

And I'm seeing it like the Cubs are going through it right now. The Reds are going through it right now. And the Cardinals timely wise are coming out of it. at the right time while y'all are just sunk into it. And it's paying off that we're finally all getting to play each other because the Cardinals took advantage of both the offensive issues for Chicago and Cincinnati in this series. Yeah, how many division games have the Cardinals played up into this series?

They had played the Brewers and that was it. And then it was, then they had Chicago some 10, maybe. I think that might be where they're at. The Reds had played like one division series up into this point. it was Milwaukee because that was something that I had thought about. I'm just like, geez, we have not played any NL Central teams. And now for the next month and a half, it's going to be all NL Central. So it's like, yeah, yeah, like the Brewers just kick the hell out of them for in seven

games. Like it was bad. And the Cardinals, they were on that seven game losing streak. And then they finally won the final game in Milwaukee. And that kind of pushed them into what, where they're at now, where they're playing a lot of more consistent baseball, winning a lot more games. And we're playing against teams who aren't. And that's the Reds, the Cubs.

That's just how it's worked out now. So again, it's working out timewise for the Cardinals, the way they're playing compared to where everybody else is, because we were just where you guys were. And finally got out of it over the last like two weeks, two and a half weeks. Well, if I could do something and at least for the Reds part of this, flip to the script just a bit and be slightly positive.

My big takeaway from this is that T.J. Friedel has an, adamantium skeleton. I think I'm going to call him Wolverine. I have no idea how he's healthy. I have no idea how he's on the field right now, but he is. And, and, and albeit, I mean, he didn't get a hit, but he got two walks and he made a couple of good running catches in center field. He looks fine. Like, it looks like he is 100% go. I know he had, um, some sort of brace on his thumb whenever he was up to bat that kept it in position while he was swinging. So he's probably happened to adjust a little bit with that. But, He is able to be out there.

And they said that it's mostly just a pain tolerance thing. So if I can take anything away from the series that is at least somewhat positive is that we've got Captain Chaos, which I am now renaming to Wolverine, back for this lineup. He's in the lead off spot. He's playing center field. He's going to be playing every day. And we don't have to worry about two outfield platoon spots. We can play at least, you know, two thirds of our outfield every single day. And that's going to be big moving forward.

Could that be the kind of catalyst that writes the ship? The Reds are going to Chicago. The Reds have pitched well recently. The Cubs have not hit well recently. So can they take advantage of that win a series in Chicago and get right back on track? T.J. Friedel, I think, is going to be a huge part of that. Yeah, I had a good view.

I had the first row in center field today. So he looked healthy the two times he was running towards me when the ball went over the wall when it was Carpenter and Gorman. He looked great. I can tell you that much. He went up against the wall. Oh, boy.

His neck is definitely healthy, the way he had to turn for a couple of those. Well, I can give him that. So welcome back. She said to be stronger than cherry. Well played. Well,

played. Oh, well, I tell you this, this series, definitely disappointing for the Reds and pretty happy for the Cardinals. But this is also

kind of like the first big check. I know that Memorial Day is the big checkpoint, but this is the first series that ends after Memorial Day. So we're going to take a look at how our teams are and how our teams look moving forward coming up next. You should head on over to fanduil.com slash locked on new users with any winning $5 bet can get $150 in bonus bets back. And I'll tell you this, you ought to check out the NL Central because things have changed. Jady. I know that the season starts. and the Cardinals were favored. But now, I mean, the Brewers are in first. So they're going to make them the favorites now, of course, but they're even money, even money for the Brewers right now to

win the NL Central. I don't know about you, but I think this, this division is going to flip flop. So there's some value down in the rest of the division. Like, I mean, the Reds are 13 to 1. I love those odds. The pirates are 24 to 1. Don't tell Ethan. might be kind of a value. Shouted to Ethan Smith or host over at lockdown pirates. But Fandle is the place to take advantage of all of this. And quite frankly, I mean, two to one for the Cubs plus 450 for the Cardinals. I mean, before the season started, the odds were not that. I mean, they were, they were much higher than that, weren't they? Yeah. So, you know, they moved over at Fandwell. You got to go check them out. That's fandwell.com

slash locked on again new users with any winning $5 a bet can get $150 in bonus bets back. Fandul is America's number one sports book. You can catch every pitch of the Reds and Cardinals hometown broadcasts with Sirius XM. Just download the SXM app and search the word Reds or Cardinals. And thanks for joining us here on this Lockdown Reds, Lockdown Cardinals crossover. We want to finish up this crossover episode. by kind of taking a look at where the teams have been. We've talked a little bit about this.

What has led the Reds and the Cardinals to this point in the season? And then how everything is kind of moving forward with both teams. I know that, you know, for the Cardinals, you know, we talk a lot about the injuries for the Reds and things like that. For the Cardinals, there was the play where Lars Neutbar ran out the ground ball to L.A. Dela Cruz. And he kind of was like holding his side a little bit whenever he got. got to first base. I know that he's kind of dealt with some injury issues. That's,

that's been a thing for St. Louis this year, hasn't it? Yeah, the, the major injuries have been in the outfield. They came in thinking that they were going to have Lars Newpar, Tommy Edmund and Jordan Walker were going to be your top three outfielders. Jordan Walker struggled immensely. Had to go back to Memphis where he's hitting better, but he still is not hitting for power at all. And this is a guy who most people don't realize is as big as, John Carlos Stanton. He's massive. He's 6,6, 250 pounds, and he's not hitting home runs. It's weird. So they're working on him down at Memphis, but Newpar had the injury. Tommy Edmund, we're still waiting for him to come back from wrist surgery in the offseason. He was supposed to be the everyday center fielder.

So instead, you're getting Brendan Donovan, who's a great utility player. You're getting Michael Ciani, not much offensively, but defensively. He's been fantastic in center. And then in right field, Newt bars come back. Dylan Carlson was hurt in spring training. So it's been kind of a carousel out there. And Newt was just starting to kind of get where he needed to be because his batting average had dipped down to 200. And it didn't look so great. And he's just starting to come back and feel good about himself.

And here we are again. He dealt with a little hammy issue before coming into Cincinnati. And then on a check swing, kind of tweak that side a little bit. So he's going to get that check down. out with both of those injuries happening, it wouldn't shock me if he goes back on the I'll just be like, look, let's just stop for a second. Don't push it where we're going to lose you for six to eight weeks. So that is something I'm certainly concerned about is whether or not nude's going to be okay. And if he isn't, is it Dylan Carlson? Is that what we got to watch in the outfield every day? Because they're not going to, I don't think they'll bring Jordan Walker back yet. I don't think he's ready.

And Dylan Carlson is just not good. I like, I, like, I, I, I try to give him the benefit of the doubt as much as I can, and he just does not do anything. I made the joke the other day. I go, do you think he even hits the ball hard in batting practice? Or is he just hit lazy fly balls and weak grounders? And like, it's just nothing. There's just nothing there.

And it's just tough to watch. So hopefully that's not the case. But if it is, I might see a lot more Dylan Carlson in the near future for the Cardinals. already kind of stole the injury thunder with t j friedel there steve but the reds are hopeful that c s is on the mend here soon and then we're probably about about four weeks away from getting noelvi marty back from suspension yeah there there's hope is on the way offensively we hope um you know we haven't seen noel v marty this year we kind of have an idea of who he can be we

hope that that's who he can be come in with the 16 game hitting street his his his poor choices have have delayed us finding out who he is, but, you know, that day is coming. CES struggled a bit, uh, heading into his injury and, and if one thing you can guarantee from the Reds medical team is that

guys are going to be hurt and we're not going to know it and we're going to find out about it later. And that's what happened with CES. He was hurt. He played. Um, then we found out about it. Then he went on the injured list and it was a whole thing.

So we're going to get those two guys back. I don't know what their impacts are going to be. I think the T.J. Friedel thing is the biggest, the biggest part to look at right now. Jeff. He's got to get comfortable hitting with that brace on. If he can be anything close to what he was last season, then, you know, that's a move in the right direction for this offense. This team at the checkpoint, at the first checkpoint, if I'm giving them a grade, they're failing.

They're failing because they haven't put together consistent baseball. They're failing because they haven't taken advantage of opportunities. And it's easy to fall back on the injuries, right? It's easy to fall back and say, well, they were out their first baseman, their second baseman, their third baseman, their center fielder. The fact remains that they were in a ton of ballgames that the bullpen, the most upgraded area of this team, let get away. So they haven't done the things that they need to do when they need to do them. That goes on the coaching staff as well.

I need to hear something about what the hitting coaches are doing to try to get the team collectively out of this funk. I need to hear something about why David Bell is making the choices that he is making. I need for the media that has access to David Bell to ask him some hard questions. Ask him why we didn't see Fernando Cruz and Alexis Diaz. Ask him why he felt comfortable running guys out there on back-to-back days in a game that was by no means out of hand.

Still very winnable. The Reds have to start being better in those situations. So at the first checkpoint, they have failed and adjustments need to be made. When we check at the second checkpoint, Jeff, they're either going to have made the adjustments or they're not. I know this is probably the most down that I have. have been on a podcast in two or three years, Jeff. I am wearing bingles gear in protest of the way things went in this series.

I'm just mad. Changes have to be made. They cannot continue to live out the definition of insanity, doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. That's what David Bell is doing. That's what this team is doing. And something's got to give. Yeah.

And I think the biggest reason that there's such consternation in Cincinnati is because we entered this season with expectations. because rightfully so, I don't think that we conjured up these expectations out of nothing. We know that this team has the talent when healthy. And we know honestly that there are some guys even behind the starters that can at least give them something. I mean, Nick Martini had a multi-hit game in that series finale. And while I'm not saying that I think, no, Nick Martini can be the guy that they can lean on,

he is a bat that they could bring in in a situational, you know, strategy type environment and take advantage of it. So I would love to see more of that, more of these guys stepping up. There's, there's not been a whole lot of consistency with how that has gone. That's going to be the key, because the pitching staff has shown that they can hold the opponent on most days. I mean, there's just going to be some days where the Cardinals, uh, have an expected batting average of like 4.10. which is what I'm pretty sure it was on Tuesday, because they were just hitting the ball super hard everywhere. And some days like that are going to happen.

But for the most part, it feels like this pitching staff is going to hold the opponent to four, maybe five runs, maybe even three runs in some games. So can you score four or five runs? And that's just what this lineup needs to figure out and do. I want to ask JD something real quick, Jeff, because the Cardinals have played well.

And obviously they're not going to continue to win seven out of every eight games. God help us if they start winning every seven out of eight games. But, you know, we say in Cincinnati, JDA, you may or may not have heard this, but we talk about the Cardinals and their devil magic. You guys seemingly get the most unrealistic winning streaks and the most, like, things happen for you guys that just don't happen anywhere else in baseball. And I don't know if someone's got a voodoo doll or what's going on there. But what's realistic for this team moving forward?

We're at the first checkpoint. What's realistic? Are you guys win six out of every 10 for the next two months in division? What do you think of this team? I think at their best, when we talked about them in the preseason, that I thought they were like an 84 win type of team, which isn't great, just a little bit over 500. And they're just at 500 right now.

So they've done a lot of catching up over the last two weeks. And that's been great. But as you mentioned, that's probably not sustainable. They've also been relatively healthy in the starting pitching portion. The one guy that has gone down has been Stephen Mats. And that's where people are kind of questioning, like, who's this fifth guy going to be? Because there's generally no depth in the organization right now for somebody to come up from Memphis to take over that fifth spot. You know, they wanted Zach Thompson to do it.

they wanted Matthew Libertor to do it, and it hasn't worked out for them, kind of how it didn't work out last year when they were, because eventually Stephen Mats gets hurt. That's just what happens. You should know that. So to have Palante come in and be able to do what he did on Wednesday, at least that's a positive thing, but that fits spot in the rotation could be something that, you know,

is a problem through the rest of this season. If Matt's doesn't come back. And even when he does, I mean, who are you going to get? Which Stephen Mats is it going to be? Is it the guy that for like a month looks, amazing and then just get shelled for another couple of weeks after that. So that's a big question, Mark, which if they do consider to float around 500, it can stay within reach of the wild card.

I don't think being 500 is going to be good enough to get the NL Central. I think somebody else will pass them if that becomes the case. But, you know, that'll put them in at least a situation to go out and try to grab a fifth starter from somebody. And I just, what you're seeing now is, all of the things coming together finally. You're seeing good offense. You're seeing good defense where it's a situation where it's similar to way that the Reds were right now where we had

pitching early on, no hitting whatsoever. And then it kind of flipped a little bit. We started getting offense and then the pitching kind of went down a little bit. They're finding that balance right now. How long can they hang on to that? That's the real question. And the way that they've played over the last year and two months, it's hard to trust it. It's hard to trust. I know you guys think about the devil magic that they've had over the years, but this is a different group. It's not like that. You know, the, the legendary, you know, Albert Pujols and Yadier Molina and Adam Wainwright, these guys that have tormented the Reds for years and years and years, they're not around.

And Paul Goldsmith's in, you know, the twilight of his career. Nolan Aronado seems to be getting older, like in dog years every week. Like, it's weird. Like, it's weird. All of a sudden. he's just not Nolan Aronado anymore and you're seeing it defensively too which is even worse because at least you know you're hoping you got your platinum gold you know platinum glove winner over there and he hasn't been there he's like minus five over there and it's it's just it's tough to watch and if those are the guys you're supposed to be depending on and they're going to not be those guys they were before I find it hard to believe that the cardinals can sustain all of this success they're going to have to have other people who jump up you lose Wilson control.

to the broken arm and he was like your best hitter at the time. So it's kind of amazing that they've been able to, maybe there is some devil magic still in that bag or something. Thank you. This is what I'm saying. Without Wilson Contreras is shot. We got him to admit it. Yvonne Herrera coming up and being able to do what he's doing as a rookie has been huge.

To see Kyle Gibson doing what he's been doing, uh, considering how much crap we got for signing him and, uh, Sunny Gray's been outstanding. ball pin's been really good, which has been the, I think the brightest spot for the Cardinal so far this year has been the way they've been able to close out games, although Housley's starting to come down a little bit.

I feel like the Cubs of the Reds figured something out where swing at that first pitch fastball, and he can get hurt. So he's going to have to work on that because it looks like that's something that people are starting to figure out about it. But I don't know, maybe there is some magic, Steve.

I'm sorry. I'll check in with my sources to see if they found an extra bag in the back because two and a half weeks ago, everybody wanted everybody fired. They should all be traded. They should all be DFA'd. And the season was already over. And lo and behold, we come to the end of May. And now we're at the 500 point.

And you're like, whoa, how did that happen? And with that omission of guilt, it's time to end. We're so glad that we finally got them to admit it. It's a thrill thing that it's saying. We got voodoo. The hashtag voodoo cardinal devil magic. Anyway, no, there's going to be. a lot more to come this season.

It's only the first series between the Reds and the Cardinals. We'll definitely be checking back in again with some more crossovers coming along. And heck, the Reds are off to Chicago to face the Cubs. Cardinals are heading where? Philadelphia to face the top team in the NL. So it was fun to play the Chicago Cubs who weren't hitting. It was fun to play the Reds who weren't hitting. Now we go to Philadelphia where now you're stepping up against the big boys.

So this is a real test for you. Let's let's find out if that magic is real or not. So that Nick Castiano's at a home run there in San Francisco today to win the game. So he likes to murder the Cardinals. So that's great. Yeah. So he's he's getting back. And that is where we will end today's crossover.

Thank you so much for checking out today's Lockdown Reds, lockdown Cardinals crossover. Make sure that you follow along with Lockdown Reds and Locktown Cardinals all throughout the season. Because we will be with you every single day because we are part of the on podcast network your team every day