Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - Matz Shines But The Bullpen Implodes As The Cardinals Fall In LA

Episode Date: April 1, 2024

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The St. Louis Cardinals lose three of four in L.A. after a fantastic start by Stephen Matt's gets erased by a Dodgers comeback victory against the bullpen on Sunday night baseball. This is Locked on Cardinals. You are Locked on Cardinals. Your daily St. Louis Cardinals podcast, part of the Locked on podcast network. Your team every day. Hey, they're Cardinals fans. I'm J.D. Haffern and I'm a national radio sports anchor.

Born and raised in the Lou and a lifetime Cardinals fan. And I'm your host for Locked on Cardinals. part of the Locktown Podcast Network covering your team every day. You can follow me on Twitter, X at JD Sports Radio. You can follow the podcast at L-O-Wen-Dscore Cardinals. I want to thank those of you who make Locked-on Cardinals your first listen every day. We're free to available wherever you get your podcast. And on YouTube, come on by, like, subscribe, and comment and interact with us.

Hit the notification button so you know when new episodes are posted, this is a show serving Cardinal Nation and giving the best fans in baseball, all of the info about the birds on the bat. Five outs, five outs away from, I know it's not the sexiest thing in the world, but a series split against the Dodgers would have been nice. That would have been good. I mean, the Cardinals came into Sunday night's game against the Dodgers feeling much better about themselves after getting the extra innings win on Saturday,

which was a hell of a lot of fun to watch. That was an entertaining baseball game. So many weird things go on in that one. odd things, catchers interferences, we got box, we got all kinds of weird stuff going on. But there was just kind of an energy going into Sunday night's game as if a huge weight was lifted off of the Cardinal's shoulders after all the hoopla, basically surrounding the Dodgers coming into the series.

I mean, all offseason, all week leading up to the series, all you've heard was how unbeatable the Dodgers are. And for good reason, I'm not knocking them. I mean, they are a fantastic team. They got an elite top of the order. Mookie Betts hardly ever gets out. I don't know what he's hitting now, but he was just destroying everything. Even his outs were hit pretty hard.

He's just locked in. Shohei Otani, who didn't do all that much in this series, but still quite an imposing person right there batting second behind Mookie who's on base all the time. Then you got Freddie Freeman, then you got Will Smith. And then in the lower half of the order, no slouch is there either with guys like Teaska Hernandez and, Max Muncie, who kicked the Cardinals in the proverbial beanbag over and over and get in this series, man. They were tough.

And as good as their lineup is, the starting pitchers were even better. You know, the trio of Tyler Glass now, Bobby Miller, who was crazy impressive on Friday night. And then Yoshidobu Yamamoto just dominated the Cardinals in the first three games. Those three combined over those first three games through 16 innings, allowed just six hits, one run struck out 21 hitters. The one run, if you're wondering, was the solo homer by Goldie against Glassdown. I mean, watching them, you're just like, how does this team lose? If you're going to get starting pitching like that, pretty much every time you go out there,

how is this team going to lose very many ball games? It's not going to happen very often. Even tonight's starter, Gavin Stone was pretty darn good, five innings, three runs, struck out six. the whole striking out the first three hitters of the game. All right, can we put a stop to that? All right, Cardinals, just bunt or do something. Put the ball and play.

But to have the first three hitters go down in order via strikeout, three games in a row, like, can we not do that? That's that fun. I didn't have fun watching that portion of the game. The Cardinals were underdogs in this series. I mean, let's be honest. I mean, I know we want our teams to win each and every time they go out there, but the Cardinals are not expected to beat the Dodgers.

They're just not. On paper, they're a better team in person. They're just a better team. You know, they're going to be favorites against pretty much every team in the league, except maybe the Atlanta Braves. I mean, Baltimore Orioles are really good, but when are you going to pick somebody over the Dodgers? Like, when's that going to happen? Not very often.

And the Cardinals were just five outs away from splitting. the series with them. And unfortunately, a familiar issue pops up again tonight, an issue that they fell victim to a lot last year. And that was a depleted bullpen, blowing a lead, and ultimately the game. The Cardo's got some crap news today. Very disheartening to hear about Riley O'Brien. This sucks, man. One of the bright spots and additions to the bullpen this offseason announced he will be out with a right forearm flexor tendon strain. Not great. Bob. He'll be eligible to return on April 13th, but I haven't seen an update on the severity of the strain yet. There's, I think, normally like three different severities. One is mild. Two is like,

well, we'll see how he is. Three is like, pop, you're going into, you know, surgery and you're done. I'd be lying if I told you I wasn't a little bit nervous and a little concerned. Hearing the news, you also have Keenan Middleton, who's out with an injury right now, which has kept him out since March 7th, but we did get some good news about him. So we'll share that with you here a little bit later. But we hope Riley O'Brien is not gone for a considerable amount of time. You just never know how these things are going to work out. But that's two very important pieces to your reconstructed bullpen already out of the picture.

And then on top of that, you had the extra inning scheme on Saturday night, which because of the rain saw the Cardinals have to burn through more pitchers than they wanted to. Lance Lynn was throwing good. But they had to burn through Matthew Libertore and Jojo Ramirez. two best pictures from the left side. Plus Ryan Helsley, Angie Yovani Gallegos, Andrew Kittridge, threw an inning on Saturday as well, but he was able to toss one on Sunday, too.

But, you know, here we are again. Here we are again. Bolpin is a bit thin because of use and injury, which means the Cardinals had to dip into AAA already and bring up John King, who, let's be honest, did not have a good spring. He wasn't very good. There's a reason why he failed to make,

the initial 26-man roster. He got beat out by other people. So that's right. In game four of the season of 160 games, your bullpen is already relying on a minor league arm to get you to the finish line against the frigging Los Angeles Dodgers. Not a great spot for Ali in the club, but what else was he going to do?

And people were commenting and getting all upset, you know, Ali, what are you doing, bringing this guy in? If Libby and Romero are both unavailable, you know, Libby threw two winnings. Romero's been used twice already. And Palante, who is your right-hander, who can get lefties out, is the guy that you're pulling from the game because he's done, then King is all you have left in the cupboard. And it ended up being the big play of the game as Max Muncie blasts a hanging slider from John King on the inner half of the plate over the wall and right for a two-run shot in the

eighth inning to give the Dodgers the lead and ultimately they go on to win the game five to four. What I'm betting on is that Ali was hoping for Palante to be able to get through those two winning. He was really open. He'd make it through both innings. And, you know, because he had a really strong seventh inning where he just kind of breezed through on just 12 pitches, got through Moogie Betts, got through Show Hey, looked great. But to Oscar Hernandez, who was a thorn in the cardinal side in the series, takes him deep. Then he walks Chris Taylor. So Ollie's ready to pull him and with the only lefty-lefty matchup left in the bullpen for him, here comes John King, and it didn't work.

It did work. Definitely a frustrating law, considering you were up four to nothing. At one point, Matt's was cruising until the sixth inning when he gave up doubles to Otani and guess who to Oscar Hernandez. According to Ali after the game, because people were wondering why Matt, why is he pulling mats already? After the game, Ali told reporters that he, that Matt's was on an 80 pitch cap. So that's why he got pulled.

They had taken him as far as they could. They're trying to ease him into the season to avoid any injury so they can have him on the field more than they have had him in the past couple of seasons. So they're being a little bit cautious with him. I can respect that. That's why he got pulled. And I'm sure it sucked knowing that at 80 pitches he was done after knowing that your bullpen is a little bit depleted. And I'm sure there will be discussion on the use of certain pitchers in this series. He's like, where was Ryan Fernandez?

Never saw the field. Why? What is that? Why is he not available? Why are we throwing this guy? You know, but the rain out plus the blown save on Saturday cost the cardinals a lot of extra arms, which led to the situation they fell into tonight. I'm not trying to give you excuses.

I'm just relaying the information of why things went down the way they did tonight. And when you got Max Muncie against John King, you're going to take the Max Muncie. side of things, 99 out of 100 times, probably 100 out of 100 times. You would bet that Max Muncie's probably going to do something good there. I mean, the guy's, he's good. He's got a lot of power. And he's swinging a hot bet here at the beginning of the season. So I want to talk more about the series as a whole.

We'll talk about the offense. We'll talk more about the pitching and stuff. Plus, we've got the injury updates on a lot of the other key players that the Cardinals have started the season without. We'll do that next on Lockdown Cardinals. Say goodbye to Busted Brackets because Fandu will let you bet on every game of the tournament whether you're betting on a big upset or a number one seed,

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Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. again, thank you guys for making Locked on Cardinals your first list of every day. Leave your comments on YouTube in the comments section. I'm sure we'll get plenty of them. I can't wait to see how many Fire Mo, Fire Ali, where's Trevor Bauer? I'm sure we're going to get all of the normal guys to do that over and over. But I really want your insight on your thoughts of what you thought about this series and things you would change, how you would have used the bullpen maybe differently, what you thought about the lineups and stuff that Ali was putting out there,

Not a lot of change in those three of the four games. I think it was the same starting lineups, same batting order, didn't make any moves whatsoever. So let me know your thoughts on those things. I love to hear from you. The Cardle's offense, we know it wasn't very good in the spring. Struggled a lot, just never really found that sweet spot. You know, you had a game here or there where things were all right, I guess.

But for the most part, it was not great. And so far this season, the struggles have continued. for pretty much everybody, but a number of guys really, really struggled in this one. Now, granted, the Dodgers threw some absolute studs at the Cardinals in the first three games, and they've got an incredible pitching staff. Like, they're really, really good. Cardinals were able to do some damage against the bullpen every time they got in there.

But for the most part, the Dodgers had their number. But, you know, you can't just go into a series and go, hey, you guys are really good. And, oh, well, I guess we're going to live. lose, you know, these are major league hitters. And we can't just, you know, hand them milk and cookies and give them hugs and tell them it's going to be all right. You did your best. No, they're paid to hit. They're paid to perform no matter who is on the mound. So you got to go out there and do what you can do. And some of the offensive numbers, through these first four games, just, uh, the hideous. Let's go with that word. Hidious is a good word. Nolan are in Ottawa hitting 63

to start the season. He's one for 16. And he, again, he looks lost at the plate, just like he did to start the season last year. I don't know what the hell is going on with them when these seasons start and he is just looks clueless up there. He's only struck out once, but his swings look so awkward. It's just like he's not picking up the ball. I don't know if he needs glasses or cond. I don't know.

But it sucks considering he began the spring like red hat out of the gate, like with was smashing the ball. And then he slowly deteriorated and went into another one of these funks. And he's still in it as we start 2024. Now, Nolan normally breaks out of these things after a couple of weeks. But it's just, you know, you're already facing really good competition here to start the season. And you don't need Nolan Aronado looking terrible at the plate when you go up against these guys, you know. You want to have your best guys, you know, firing on all cylinders to start the year.

No one ain't doing it. Jordan Walker hitting 100, one for 10 in the series. Eduardo Perez, so on the ESPN broadcast tonight, did a nice breakdown of Walker during one of his ambassadors. He was talking about Jordan Walker's hips. Now, Jordan Walker has an open stance already. If you've ever watched him hit, he's already got the open stance there. And Eduardo Perez was talking about how he's pointing out how he's pulling his hips and trying to pull everything, which is leaving him vulnerable on the outside portion of the plate. Even as huge is Jordan Walker in as long as his arms are,

if you're out in front on the outside pitch and you're trying to pull everything, it's not going to go anywhere. It's just not. So instead, they were pointing out the obvious that he needs to be looking to drive that ball to the opposite field. Somebody who does that very, very well is Wilson Contreras. And until he does that, he's going to just see. a steady diet of pitches away, away, away.

They're just going to eat them alive out there. So Jordan's going to have to make the adjustment. I'm sure he will. I'm sure he'll come around to it and get to it. He's been a great hitter his entire life. I don't know why all of a sudden things would change. So he's going to work on that. Speaking of Will Scintreras, not a great start.

One for 10, hitting 100. Outside of the three hit game on opening day, Paul Goldschmidt, had just one hit the rest of the series. Nolan Gorman has already struck out nine times. That's right, nine times with four times in Sunday's game. And, you know, we say the tradeoff, it's okay. You'll put up with the strikeouts when the ball's flying over the wall in other at-bats.

Well, it didn't. And it wasn't flying out of the Dodger Stadium at all for the Cardinals in this series. So which when you're not hitting home runs and you're striking out a lot, those strikeouts stand out a whole lot more, don't they? because you're not even putting the ball in play at this point. And yeah, I know it's only four games into the season. I understand that. But the Cardinals leave L.A.

with the worst team batting average in the major leagues right now at 173. They've got just one home run, that Goldie one, tied for worst with the Minnesota Twins. They've struck out 43 times, which is the fourth highest amount. But it looks even worse when you remember that the Dodgers, who were in first with the most strikeouts, have played two more games than the Cardinals already. So they'd be third behind the pirates and the Mariners overall.

They're third to last in OBP. They're last in slugging. They're last at OPS. And when the season started, we all knew that the Cardinals were going to have to rely on this offense, which last year was really, really good until the injury started happening. And the season went in the toilet. And then they had a bunch of people you've never heard of starting. And that's when the offense really went downhill.

Hill. But when everybody was, you know, still in contention and performing, like, leading up to, like, June, the Cardals had a very good offense. And they're going to need that offense to win ball games here in 2024. They're not likely going to win many games like, you know, 2 to 1, 3 to 2, pitching dual type wins. It ain't going to happen very often with the pitching staff that they have or the pitching rotation, starting rotation, I should say. So when their offense gets shut down, they're in trouble. And it's going to be real tough for them to pick up wins when that happens. I mean, and the thing is, yeah, they won a game on Saturday. And they put a few runs up on the board on Friday night and in Sunday's game. But, I mean, a couple of catchers interference calls and some box and just weird things were happening. And that was keeping the line going during those rallies. Like, you can't rely on that stuff throughout the season.

So if he took those calls away, the weird catchers interference calls, it makes things even worse for the Cardinals. Like they just, they look terrible at the play for the most part against the Dodgers, which again, I know they're really good, but they look like they were in a completely different league when it came to facing those starters. Back to the Cardinals pitching for a moment. One thing that certainly stood out in the series was the home run discrepancy, which I just pointed out between the two teams.

You know, the Cardinals had one home run. Paul Goldschman hit the one home run against Tyler Glass now. The Dodgers hit nine home runs. That's right. They went yard nine times. Say it with me against Cardinals pitching, which already leads the league in home runs giving up. We're only four games in the season, guys.

And the crazy bar, none of them were given up by Lance Lynn, who led the league in Taders giving up last year. Kyle Gibson hasn't started yet. So it wasn't him. Zach Thompson got popped for three on Friday. Michaelis, two on Thursday, one for Gio, one for Helsley, a painful one last night for Hellsley, and then King and Palante gave up one each tonight. So they say, the saying is that solo shots won't kill you.

I'll tell you what, you give up enough of them and they will, all right? So they got to work on keeping the ball in the yard. One of the things that makes the Dodgers line up so good is that they've got power throughout. and when you make mistakes, they make you pay for them. They crush you. And almost every time a Cardinals pitcher hung a pitch or just missed their spot, the Dodgers weren't fouling it back and going, ooh, so close. No, they're putting them over the wall.

They weren't missing, and they would do damage. On the flip side, the Cardinals did strike out 39 hitters in 34 innings. You know, and I don't want to just point out bad stuff. There was a little bit of good in there, too. I want to give him credit there. Giovanni Gallegos, who was huge in the victory on Saturday. Very exciting stuff at the end of that game. Leads the team with six strikeouts in two and two-thirds innings. Lance Lynn, who after loading the bases in the first inning, oh, my gosh, how nervous was everybody watching that?

Nobody out first inning bases loaded against the Dodgers. And somehow, some way, magic happens. And he strikes out the next three, ends up punching out five total in his range short and start. Michael is surprised me. struck out five in the opening day game. But I don't want this to all be doom and gloom. You know, it's early in the season because Cardinals, again, realistically, five outs away from earning a series split against the Dodgers,

which would have made everyone feel a whole lot better about things moving forward. But we're going to get into my final thoughts on this series. Positive thoughts. We'll get into it next. And those injury updates. Got those coming for you next as well on Locked on Cardinals. Locked on has launched the first ever national sports 24-7 streaming channel on YouTube, and now it's also available on Amazon Fire TV.

And the Free Fire TV channels app. Locked on Sports Today is here for you 24-7 covering the top sports stories of the day with the local experts of Locked-on, plus our national shows covering every league. By Lockedon Sports Today, now available on the Free Fire TV channels app. Final thoughts on this series, some positive thoughts, things that just kind of stood out to me. A lot of stuff from Sunday's game since it's, you know, pretty fresh in my head. But Victor Scott's second. I know he struggled early on in the series, looked kind of overmatched and a few of bats there,

but starting to look a little more comfortable in the box there. And, you know, he looks the part. He looks the part as the team's top center fielder. If Tommy Edmund is gone until, let's say, the All-Star break, I got no problems with Scott and Centerfield the entire time. Now, when Newbar and Carlson get back, it's definitely going to be a tough decision for the team on what they want to do with Victor if he's producing. You know, he had a good night tonight, a couple of hits. And obviously the speed is, you know, it's a difference maker in every aspect of the game, you know, defensively.

These look great. Speed on the base pass, obviously, that's a problem, you know, scoring on a ground ball in the hold of the shortstop with the infield pulled in. like they didn't even have a shot. Like he makes a difference out there with that stuff. And if the Cardinals, you know, the offense isn't clicking so well, I don't know how you take him out of the lineup and think that you're going to be better offensively. So, you know, he was a big part of why the Cardinals had a lead in the first place on Sunday.

And interview with his parents on ESPN, that was pretty entertaining. I love hearing T-ball stories about, you know, these. guys when they were little wee kids. You know, I love that. I'm happy for all of them. That was really, really cool. Mason win. I think he's going to be just fine. I do.

Defensively, the Cardinals Enfield, pretty strong in this series, a lot of double plays. I felt they looked good. And Mason was the standout performer of everybody on the infield, in my opinion. I know people were wondering where he was on Saturday in the situations where a couple of balls that were in Brandon Crawford's area, you know, with Mason's arm. Would he have made the playing guy? got me out. According to Ali, it just was a plan day off for him. They've got this stuff mapped out already. And it was a plan day off for him, Walker and Contrera. So he was doing his best to not have

to use them whatsoever. What I mean, it's game three, man. Don't kill the messenger. All right, that's just, that's what he said. All right. I mean, I feel like you should have all hands on deck here at this time of the year. Is that like we're way into it? But I know what they're doing. They're planning things out to keep them fresh throughout. I understand it, but, you know, in the moment, it's probably really tough for him not to put him in for Brandon Crawford in those situations. Offensively, I mean, I think he's going to come around. He had a few good at bats.

The abet tonight, though, the one in the sixth inning, when he came up with the bases loaded and won out, and he's facing a pitcher who's all over the place, who had just walked, Jordan Walker, had just walked Victor Scott, he's struggling clearly to throw strikes. I mean, Mason's got to be more patient there. That was a frustrating bat to watch. I know he was trying to jump on a guy who he thought, you know,

might just lay a cookie in there on that first pitch, swings and misses on that one. But the next two pitches aren't even close. I mean, way high, way out of the zone, and Mason misses him by a foot, strikes out, swings at the first three pitches, and he's gone. I mean, I know he wants to be the hero there. I know he's excited to come through with a big situation and do some damage,

but that just was not the right spot to be that aggressive at the plate. I understand his thinking on that first pitch, but after that, you've got to bear it down. Like, you can't be swinging it stuff over your head. That's crazy stuff. I love Andrew Kittredge. I'm a huge fan of Kit, man. His demeanor on the mound, and they're going to need this dude even more.

so now that O'Brien and Middleton are out. But I love the way he looks on the mound, and I love that he just looks like he doesn't care. He doesn't look like he's trying. And yet, there he is, popping 96 and throwing wicked sliders. And I don't know, I'm a big fan of Kit so far. Speaking of Middleton,

let's get into these entry updates. He's scheduled to throw off a mound on Wednesday for the first time since he got shut down with that flexor tendon strain in his right forearm. Once he passes that test at the, Cardinals complex in Florida, they'll likely face hitters in a controlled situation before going on a rehab assignment at AAA or double A,

which is great because, again, you hear the flexor tendon strains and I know our minds, at least mind does, goes, all right, Tommy John, he's done. And so far, I guess that's not going to be the case. They're hoping that he continues to progress. We're hoping for the same from Riley O'Brien, who's dealing with a similar problem. A day after hitting eight times in a simulated,

a game at the Cardinals complex in Florida. Newbar, Lars Noobah. Played five innings, bad at four times on Saturday. Best part about it, no lingering effects from the ribs that he fractured on his left side on March 2. Most likely next step for Newt is for rehab assignment to AAA Memphis on Tuesday and Wednesday. He is eligible to come off the 10-day injured list on Thursday when the Cardinals face the Marlins and their home opener at Bush Stadium. But they remind Ali made points. There's no certainty that that's going to happen.

So don't just assume that Newbar is going to be in the lineup and ready to rock in that first game. But it looks like he's coming back when the Marlins are in town. Dylan Carlson received a pain-killing injection into his shoulder on Friday. The club is hopeful that after 48 to 72 hours of rest, he'll be able to resume baseball activities, placed on the 10-day I-L on March 26th, which makes him eligible to return by 8.000. April 5th, the Cardinals are hopeful that the grade one designation of the sprain means will be ready to return during the home opening series against the Marlins. Again, Victor looks fine and there's really no rush there.

So I would just make sure Carlson's ready to rock and he's in a good spot with not only physically, but mentally, to come back and be ready to contribute. But again, it's going to be a tough decision. I don't know what they're going to do because you saw how. Well, Michael Siani can help this team. You know, he comes in as that defensive replacement, made some really nice catches this week against the, this weekend against the Dodgers.

Like, that's his role. He's got the speed. He's got the glove and that's who that guy is. And you're not going to keep Victor around to be that guy that just comes off the bench here and there. So it's going to be interesting to see what they decide. Sunny Gray, 36 pitches and three innings in a simulated game in Florida on Friday. His next start will come on a Wednesday in a game

for AAA Memphis. Ali said if the right-hander comes through his next start with no hiccups, he should be able to make his Cardinals debut against the Phillies on April 9th, at Bush Stadium. This has been great news the entire time that it wasn't as severe as we all thought it was going to be when he got hurt in spring training. The Cubs, Justin Steele, is, I think he's dealing with a hammy issue now too, so they can be tricky. And it's good that Sunny caught it, stopped what he was doing. And it looks like he's on the path to get back here pretty soon. So it's a more positive news than negative,

which is nice to hear for once considering the amount of injuries the team has already endured here in 2024. As for the rest of the division, in case you guys weren't keeping an eye on the enemies, Reds were down to their last strike on Sunday before getting a game-tying home run from Wilf Benson and then a game-winning home run from Christian incarnation Strand to beat the nationals. two and one to start the year.

The Pirates sweep the Marlins in their four-game series. I'll score the fish 31 to 17. Remember Marlins must have all this pitching and, you know, be able to shut people down and lo and behold, 31 to 17. So the pirates, I'm telling you, and they stay healthy, they're going to be better than a lot of people thought they were. They really will. Brewers, shock everybody, sweep the Mets in their three-game series,

holding them to just eight runs. All right, I thought they tried. traded Burns and I thought Woodruff was out. What is this? How are they holding the bets that just eight runs at a three game series? Meanwhile, the Cubs lost two of three in Texas, two the defending champion. Rangers mentioned big injury news for the Cubs was that their ace Justin Steele hamstring issue. So he's on the IL. Your current standings have the Pirates in first, then the Brewers, Reds Cubs, and then the Cardinals and the all too familiar. Last place spot after blowing tonight's game against the Dodgers. They'll head to San Diego next to

face the Padres who have started off the year at three and three. It's supposed to have a crossover with locked on Padres on Monday. So be on the lookout for that. We'll preview what it looks like between our two teams. The Friars wallop the Giants on Sunday, 13 to 4. Kyle Gibson set to make his Cardinals regular season debut against Matt Waldron, who, by the way, in case you didn't know, is a knuckleballer. Yeah, great.

Cardinals get to face a knuckleballer on April Fool's Day. after facing like 10 dudes who threw 99 with the Dodgers. Great. I'm sure this will go fine. First pitch is going to be at 840 St. Louis time on Monday night. Thanks for making a lockdown Cardinals your first listen every day. If you haven't already, please give us a follow on Twitter at L.O. underscore Cardinals and the J.D. Sports Radio.

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