Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - MUSCLE UP: St. Louis Cardinals BLAST Astros — Nolan Gorman and Masyn Winn LEAD Redbird Assault

Starting point is 00:00:00 And they said that this team doesn't have any power. Well, the Cardinals are launching baseballs just fine so far in Houston. This is Locked on Cardinals. You are Locked on Cardinals. Your daily St. Louis Cardinals podcast, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. Hey there, Cardinals fans. I'm J.D. Haffern.

Starting point is 00:00:25 And on today's show, we're going to discuss the Richard Fitz injury and how that affects things in the organization. What do we do now as far as the depth? in the starting rotation, but we're going to begin with what we've seen in games one and two so far this weekend in Houston, where the Cardinals have clearly been eating their weaties, drinking their protein shakes because the muscles, they are a flex and the baseballs are flying down south. The Cardinals who were not expected to be one of the better power hitting teams this year had relied on Jordan Walker, basically for this wild stretch that he'd been on

Starting point is 00:01:02 to supply a lot of the power that we've seen from this team thus far. But so far in this series, it's been the surrounding cast that has stepped up for the team. Game one, you had Nolan, Gorman, Annie von Herrera, each popping one over the walls at Diken Park. The Gorman show was particularly huge because not only had Gorman looked like complete cheeks to put it delicately up to that point in the game, but he also had been mired in one of his all-too-familiar slumps when it comes to hitting home runs. He did have one robbed in Washington, I know, but still. And it happens to all ball players, but we, myself included, are a lot harder on Nolan Gorman. When it comes to the times that he goes into ruts, because so much is expected out of him,

Starting point is 00:01:52 he's a former first-round pick. A lot of promise coming up at the big rookie year. and then things haven't gone so well the last couple seasons. And when they go bad for Nolan Gorman, they go really bad, right? Like it looks like the guy has never swung a baseball bat in his life at times. His first three of bats in the game on Friday night, he looked as lost as he ever has this season.

Starting point is 00:02:14 I mean, it was bad. And he was, I mean, he was just swinging it, just whatever. It was like he didn't even see the baseball. He wasn't even close on some of these swings. And he was swinging at stuff way out of the zone. and he was chasing everything. It was if it was kind of as if he was blindfolded and swatting at a pinata. You know, you've been at a party when you were a kid probably where they busted out the pinata

Starting point is 00:02:39 and you're swinging around with the broomstick trying to hit it. That's kind of what Nolan Gorman looked like in the first three of bats on Friday. No contact, certainly no candy dropping out of the pinata. It was bad. But after not picking up the ball well at all, Nolan Gorman, ends up having one of the biggest swings of the season for himself. Yeah, Houston starter Pete Lambert had him fooled, but the Astros go to Brian and Bray,

Starting point is 00:03:07 you who normally is one of their more reliable relievers, but he's had a rough start to the season, and the Cardinals didn't do him any favors. Burley had the one out double. Walker takes a walk, which put it on Gorman's shoulders in a four to three ball game, and Gorman's able to do damage. He pulls an inside fastball right down the line and right,

Starting point is 00:03:25 sneaks it over the wall, three run shot to give the boys some breathing room again at seven to three. Now, Gorman had numbered since March 30th. And the strikeouts were were piling up on Friday. I talked about how the Cardinals need other guys to step up other than Jordan Walker. Because when Jordan Walker starts to slow down a little bit, which was inevitable, somebody had to step up and take on the assignment of driving in more runs. and Nolan Gorman was the guy that I singled out.

Starting point is 00:03:56 And here he is, coming through in the clutch, which was aside for sore eyes for all of us in Cardinal Nation. And then in the eighth inning, you get Ivan Herrera, launching one to the Crawford boxes and left to make it nine to three to essentially put that particular game on ice on Friday. Shout out to Jordan Walker in that game. He extended his hitting streak to 12 games with an RBI single in the first. The homecoming king this weekend,

Starting point is 00:04:19 Mason Wend, who grew up near the Houston area. I think it was like 30 minutes away from there, had the key hit in the third inning with the basis loaded and two down, driving in two runs to make it three to nothing at the time. They had this, you know, great situation and both, you know, Walker and Gorman go down on strike. You're like, oh, boy. And here's Mason who just really has had a terrible season at the plate so far, certainly struggling, was hitting, I think, 185 maybe somewhere in that. It was, it was bad.

Starting point is 00:04:47 It's under 200. hundred. One for 16 with runners in scoring position on the season up to that point. This was a guy that Ali had batting cleanup at the beginning of the season. We all knew that wasn't going to last, but we were hoping that Mason would eventually break out of this. And he did. He did. Mason one comes through, makes it three to nothing. Cardinals go on to win this one by a score of nine to four. The long and suffering search for a lead off hitter has apparently come to an end in St. Louis. Thank God. J.J. Weatherholt has been all over the base paths. I was doing it again on Friday. Reach base three times on an infield single, got hit by a pitch and a walk, get used to that combination.

Starting point is 00:05:27 And each time in the game on Friday, he came around to score. All right. So he's on the base pass. He's creating havoc. And he's coming around and scoring in these situations as well. With the offense relying on Jordan Walker for a lot of its oomph over the last, you know, two weeks, it was really awesome to see. another full team effort offensively at the dish. In fact, every cardinal starter, except for Victor Scott the second, had at least one hit and six scored at least one run. And I realized that the Houston pitching staff, because that's what the naysayers are going to do. They're going to go, well, Houston's pitching staff sucks right now. They're all hurt. All the real guys are gone. Okay. I get that. They're not full strength right now, but you can't control that.

Starting point is 00:06:10 The Cardinals just need to go out and take advantage of lesser pitchers that are that are throwing for the Astros and that's what they've done. The subpar pitching staff of the Astros, the Cardinals have taken advantage of it turned it into a W to give them their third win in a row, but they weren't done yet. They weren't done yet. Saturday, they put on the victory blues and had a few more fireworks up their sleeves offensively. So we're going to get into that game coming up next on Locked on Cardinals. If you've ever opened up your bank account and thought, where did all my money go? Well, you're not alone. Keeping track of subscriptions, spending and bills, that can get overwhelmed. coming pretty fast. And that's where Rocket Money comes into play to help you out. They're going to

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Starting point is 00:08:24 tap the link that's located in the show notes. That's where we got it for you. Use code finally claim your free month today. All right. Moving on to game on Saturday. Three wins in a row. The offense putting up scores of six, five, and nine in those three games. Team looked to stay hot going into Saturday's game with their gorgeous victory blue uniforms that like the one I'm putting on right now. This is not the uniform though. This was one of their freebies like It's like a pullover, but super comfy. Go on eBay, get you one. They're pretty good.

Starting point is 00:08:59 Anyway, so they got the Victory Blue uniforms on. They got Andre Palante on the bump. And once again, the Cardinals jump out to a lead, thanks to some sketchy control issues coming from Houston starter, Lance McCuller's Jr. Hit the first two batters of the game, then gives up a one-out walk to Jordan Walker, loading them up for, guess who?

Starting point is 00:09:17 Nolan, once again. And here's Gorman. in another situation to do some damage. Coming off the three-run shot in Friday's game, down one and two in the count. I know what we're all thinking. We're all thinking it. It's okay.

Starting point is 00:09:32 Gorman's going to strike out, right? He's got a whiff here. There's no way he's going to put the ball in play. I-a-a-a. Not so fast. Got in front of a change-up and just kept it fair. Down the right-field line delivers with a two-run hit. So a really nice piece of hitting, actually,

Starting point is 00:09:48 by Nolan Gorman to stay back because, you know, a micro second earlier he's swinging a missing on that one for sure. But pulls it down the line, keeps it fair. Five RBIs in his last two games for Nolan Gorman. All right. Ended up having three hits in these two games. I think that's what he was at. But that's what we need.

Starting point is 00:10:07 That's what we need. If you're going to strike out, which is going to happen with Nolan Gorman, when you do put it in play, you got to do damage. And here you are the first two games of the series, knocking in five ribbies. Hell yeah. And that's going to force them to fit. to Jordan Walker more.

Starting point is 00:10:22 You know, Walker's starting to walk a little bit more, which is great. You know, I love the fact that he's not chasing and helping these pitchers. He's still striking out a bunch. It's going to happen. But other people behind him, not letting them get away with that. That's awesome. That's awesome. He got things going again in the third inning,

Starting point is 00:10:39 talking about Gorman, one-out single. That was followed by Mason Wend's first home run of the season. A line shot into the Crawford boxes. Sends the family and friends who were in attendance, a frenzy to make it four to one. I tweeted after that blast of the cardals. They even start flying his family to games more often. If these are the results, we're going to get two RBIs on Friday, two more on Saturday. Keep it coming, Mason Win. We know there's more in there offensively from Mason Win. We know we haven't seen it off of them so far this year or in the second half

Starting point is 00:11:10 last year because of that knee injury, at least that's what we're going to blame is the knee injury. But we know the first half last year, he was pretty darn good offensively. And we're expecting more of that here in 2026 and here he was delivering in back-to-back games. Sixth inning, it was another first when Jose Fermin put together an absolutely awesome at bat. The Jose for me at bat was badass. Ten pitches ended in his first dinger of the season. He fell behind in the count one, two, works the count full. Then he files off four straight pitches, almost rips a double. Instead, that one goes foul. All right, we'll just put it in the seats and instead. Lifted one into the Crawford boxes as well to make it five to one. And then in the

Starting point is 00:11:55 seventh inning, it was someone who was a little more familiar with jogging around the bases when Alec Berluson lit into one. And when I say lit into one, I absolutely mean it. He smoked it. One of six point six off the bat against a lefty nonetheless, lefty lefty match up there. That makes it six to one. It was the third Burley bomb of the season. I told you on Friday. Burley's starting to start to heat up a little bit. and he has not slowed down since he's gotten to, to Houston. He's now running a six game hitting streak.

Starting point is 00:12:27 He's gone 11 for 27 in that stretch. He's batting 407, two home runs, three doubles, five RBIs. He's now got his average up to 299. That's our silver slugger right there. Second on the club and batting average behind Jordan Walker, who was still hitting 312, despite, you know, not getting, you know, the home runs that we were used to over the last, you know, 10 games or so.

Starting point is 00:12:51 Still, Jordan Walker is in the middle of this lineup. And now you got Burley in front of him doing damage. You got Gorman behind him doing damage. That's what you like to see. Cardinals tack on another one of the eighth inning on a wild pitch to make it seven to one. And at this point, you know, we're thinking that this game is all but over.

Starting point is 00:13:11 But, hey, we got that bullpen out there. And some of the guys that we know we don't really want to see pitching, they got to throw eventually. It just has to happen. You got to get these guys right. You know, Friday night, it was Stanit coming in and making us sweat a little bit in a 9 to 3 ball game. He allows a lead off double, followed by a pair of two out walks, which drives you nuts.

Starting point is 00:13:32 Then he gives up the single. It's 9 to 4. Bases are still loaded. You're like, oh, my gosh, Stanick, why? Why do you keep doing this to us? And then he ends up getting the third strike out of the end. He strikes out three, but he's got all this crap going on at the same. time. It's just like, it's so frustrating. Saturday, who's the other guy that everybody's

Starting point is 00:13:53 kind of fed up with? Matt's Fonson, right? Matt's Fonson's turn. They got to get him in these games because people keep asking, you know, why does he keep putting these guys in? Well, when do you want him to pitch him? He's got to throw him eventually. It has to happen. They got to get these guys in games. They got to get them right. You can't do that with bolton sessions. So you think with a nine to three lead, standing coming in is not a bad idea. You got a, um, what was the lead at this point? Seven to one when Sonson came in, like you would think a six-run lead would be safe. And for a moment there, it didn't feel like it was going to be. He loads the bases on three straight walks where he could barely throw a strike. He was all over the place. And then

Starting point is 00:14:37 he gets the double play, induces the double play, which was a lifesaver, a run scores on the play. And then he gets the strikeout. So he ends on a good note, which is good. good. And credit, here's the thing. And I know it's going to upset you guys, but I'm going to give some credit to Ali, who very easily could have pulled both Stannick and Sphonson after they got into trouble. But again, he's got to see these guys figure it out and get themselves out of trouble. If they get themselves into trouble, he can't just call on everybody else to come rescue them. They've got to figure it out themselves. If you want this bullpen to be complete and you don't want, you know, Soriano and Jojo and Riley O'Brien's arms to fall off before the All-Star break.

Starting point is 00:15:20 These other guys got to get it done. They just have to. And credit to Svanson, he was able to battle through that. That's a horrible situation. That could have gone really bad, really fast. And it felt like it was going to. And yet they worked their way out of it, both Stannick and game in the game on Friday and then Svanson on Saturday. So credit to Ali for not pulling the cord on him at real.

Starting point is 00:15:41 fast and allowing them to work their way out of it. So it ended up being okay, seven to two at this point. And then you bring in George Soriano, who has been really good this year. But it happens. Sometimes you just have bad outings. He had us squirming a little bit. Struck out the first hitter. You feel like this is going to be no big deal in the ninth inning. And then he walks a couple of guys. and then gives up a three-run shot to Shea Whitcomb, his first of the season. All of a sudden, we got a 7 to 5 ballgame and you got Yordaun Alvarez looming over there in the Astros dugout. And I don't know if the ABS situation that had occurred to that first walk to the first batter that he gave up the walk to, I don't know if that mess with them because they thought they challenged.

Starting point is 00:16:33 umpires said you didn't do it fast enough i think Ali came out and talked to him. He was like, what do you mean? It wasn't fast enough. I thought you had like two seconds to get done. Um, said, no, no, no, didn't do it fast enough, I guess. So that ended up being ball three, ends up walking him on four straight. He walks the next guy as well, uncharacteristically wild for George Soriano in this game. Again, it's going to happen. Ish is going to happen from time to time.

Starting point is 00:16:57 You know, the bullpen, it just is, man. Sometimes they're not going to have great days. they're not going to be on their A game every single time. Eventually, something will happen with Jojo Romero and Riley O'Brien. So you can't just turn on them and say, what, this guy sucks now because of one bad outing. But this one was not great by Sorriano. He gets the two guys on by walks, and then he grooves one to Whitcomb right down the middle, three-run blast.

Starting point is 00:17:21 That forces Ali to get Riley O'Brien up, which is not something he wanted to do. But you have to win the ball game. You can't live and die when you got, you know, your clothes. are just waiting. So O'Brien comes in, stuffs out the comeback. It's Al-Tuvade a ground now, then strikes out Yordon Albares to end the game, which was a nice exclamation point, 100 miles an hour at the top of the zone to finish it. Romero and Riley have just been insane. Team R&R at the end of the games. They have been spectacular and they were awesome again in these first two games. So cards win at 7 to 5. Shout out to J.J. Weatherholt, who once again reaches

Starting point is 00:17:58 base three times. Guess how? Hit by pitch. Walk. and feel single. So JJ is now reach base nine times in the last three games, nine times. He's got two hits, four walks. He's been hit by a pitch three times, which tells me people are trying to bust him in. They're trying to figure out a way to get him out. And he's letting him hit him. And that's fine. J.J., which is great about JJ, is he's not chasing. He's not like, dude, I got to get a hit here. I got to get a double. I got to hit a home. No, he's just, you guys got to come to me. and he's being super patient at the top of the order, four walks, three hit by pitch. It doesn't matter how you get on when you're the lead off guy.

Starting point is 00:18:36 You just get on base and JJ is getting it done. Time to double up on the, maybe the batting body armor for JJ if they're going to keep plonking you. You know, make sure you get some of that, you know, Barry Bond stuff where he had like a whole suit of armor when he was up at the play. That way, you know, we don't worry about you getting hurt by all of these guys pitched the inside. Jordan Walker extends the heading street to 13 games with a bloop single in the fifth inning. Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good. And that one barely got in was off all two base glove. Also stole his third base of the year.

Starting point is 00:19:09 He continues to be a threat in every way, shape, and form offensively. Team, shockingly, you put up seven runs. You think you'd be pretty good with runners in scoring position. That was not the case. One for 13. So got to improve there, that's for sure. You don't want to waste all of those base runners. against the team that's got a better pitching staff than Houston does right now because of all the injuries,

Starting point is 00:19:31 that you're going to lose those games. So I've got to make sure that that gets better. How about some love for Andre Palante? Starts are absolutely exhausting. Watching Andre Palante pitch is one of the most exhausting experiences that you can think of when it comes to watching a baseball game. Like everything takes forever. There's walks all over the place. but he's been wildly effective so far this season. Eventually these walks are going to catch up to him and it's going to suck.

Starting point is 00:20:02 But it didn't get him on Saturday. Second one of the year snaps an 11-game road losing streak dating back to May of last season. This nugget from Rob Raines over at Sdl Sportspage.com, the 11-game streak without a road win was the longest by a cardinal starter since Johan Oviedo made 12 consecutive starts on the road without a win between 2020 and 2022. Also, shout out to Gordon Grecepo.

Starting point is 00:20:28 Fires two more shutout innings. The ERA for Grecepo is now down to 0.87. Opponents are batting a microscopic 65 against him. He was only allowed two hits so far this season. Sometimes he walks a little more than we really want him to. And he's not a big strikeout guy. But so far, he's getting the outs. And that's all you can ask for.

Starting point is 00:20:50 He's become a nice bridge between the starters in the back of the bullpen. We just got to figure out the little, that one inning in between to get you to Romero and to get you to Riley O'Brien. You know, it's Soriano, we thought it was the guy at batting on Saturday. We're not quitting on him. But, you know, Justin Brule is, I mean, I don't trust him. I don't trust Stannick. You don't trust Fonson right now.

Starting point is 00:21:16 That's three guys that you're very doubtful on when, when they come. into a ball game. I don't trust them at all at this point. They haven't given us a reason to do that. So I hope they get better. But until they prove me wrong, I'm going to be very, very nervous when they come into ball games. And it's a tight game. Cardinals approved at 8 and 0 when scoring first. They've now won five of their last seven series to open up the year. They'll go for the sweet ball on Sunday today with Matthew Livertore on the Hill. Cardinals did get some bad news on Friday when it was announced that Richard Fitz is done for the season. We'll discuss that situation. Coming up next on Locked on Cargels. Workplace chaos deadlines stacking up and the

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Starting point is 00:23:15 job for Indeed. Sponsored jobs. Thank you again for making locked on cardinals your first listen of the day. And thank you for making locked on the number one sports podcast. network. All right, after the trades this off season, one of the things that felt like the Cardinals had figured out and was going to be an advantage for the Cardinals in 26 compared to the last couple seasons was the amount of depth that they had in their starting rotation. Now that they had acquired people, they made the trades, they made the signings, you know, Libby, McGreevy, Palante, they were already here and part of things.

Starting point is 00:23:59 Kyle Leahy got moved up from the bullpen to the starting rotation. You were cool with that. They signed Dustin May. They trade for Hunter Dobbins and Richard Fitz. So if something were to happen, because normally that it does, whether it's production-wise, whether it's injury-wise, the Cardinals seemed to have their bases cover. Now, last year, if you remember,

Starting point is 00:24:19 they had guys in the rotation that had no business being in the starting rotation anymore. Their names were Eric Fetty and Miles Ficlos. They were terrible. Andre Palante was not good. These guys, if there had been other people behind them to move up and put them in the rotation, maybe that happens. But they didn't have those guys. So they had to live and die with them and they died more times than they lived.

Starting point is 00:24:42 So the group this year, though, unfortunately, has taken their first hit over the weekend. It was announced that Richard Fitz had a lat strain. We know how serious those things can be. You're hoping for good news that, you know, hey, it's something that they'd be able to to work on. He'll be back later this season. But unfortunately, we find out he's done for the year. It's over. Requires season-ending surgery. Fitz was already coming back from injuries last year. When we talked to Gabby from Locked on Red Sox about Richard Fitz when the trade went down, her first thing was he's got to stay healthy. He's not bad when he's out there, but he gets hurt a lot.

Starting point is 00:25:18 And here we are, flat strain, done for the year already. You know, he had pitched well at AAA. he looked good this spring but still got beat out for that final rotation spot by Andre Palante but he looked much better at Memphis he wasn't walking as many people and now he's gone it's over so this brings up a situation as far as the 40-man roster goes Derek McDonald over at MLB Trade Rumors.com he explained it pretty well so I'm just going to go off of what he said verbatim because it's hard for me to make this sound any better than he did since he was injured in the minors talking about Richard Fitz, he isn't currently collecting big league pay or service time.

Starting point is 00:25:59 The Cardinals could recall him, put him on the 60 day IEL at some point. That would allow them to open up a 40-man spot. But the trade is they would have to be willing to give Fitz major league pay and restart his service clock. He came into 2026 with 164 days of service time, eight days below the one-year mark. Now personally, I think the 40-man spot is worth it to give him the extra bump and salary. It's not my money.

Starting point is 00:26:29 It's very easy for me to spend. But I think the 40-man spot is worth it because that way you can add maybe a guy like Bruce Zimmerman, who's down in Memphis right now. He's a veteran. He's got some major league time. But he's pitched pretty well for Memphis. Four starts. He's got a 3.15 BRA, 28 strikeouts, and 20 innings.

Starting point is 00:26:46 He hasn't been very good at the major league level. Okay, don't make, I'm not trying to, you know, sneak one past you here and say that Bruce Zimmerman is some superstar pitcher that is some hidden gem that we, we have found. That's not the truth. But he's been serviceable at Memphis. He was with Milwaukee last year. Obviously, they saw something in him that made him worthy of being on the roster. So that's an option. Quinn Matthews is the name to watch as well.

Starting point is 00:27:12 He's still dealing with control issues, 10 walks and 11 in the third innings, but he's also got 19 strikeouts. So that's just a name to keep an eye on if they decide to go this route And they want to add somebody to the 40 man that they could add If something were to happen later on down the road Could they go out and sign another cheap veteran free agent That it's out there and just kind of use them as a placeholder In case someone else gets hurt. You can do that too.

Starting point is 00:27:37 But it's something Hyne Bloom is going to have to address eventually There's no pressure to do it like the second, But they'll figure it out. But it seems like just viable. being off of the way Haim has been so far. Those 40-man roster spots are pretty darn important to him. So I feel like that's where they probably will go. But we'll see.

Starting point is 00:27:58 You know, Hunter Dobbins is pitching today on Sunday. He'll be called up eventually. Matt Pushard is still on the rule, five rules. So he's going to have to come back up when he's healthy. So just some things to monitor as we move forward. Food for thought. After Saturday's win, the Carls are now 12 and 8 on the season. They're a half game back of first place Cincinnati, who has won their first two in

Starting point is 00:28:16 Minneapolis, a frigid Minnesota. The Brewers, winners of four straight, just like the card dolls and are also 12 and 8. After taking the first two over the Marlins, they beat Sandy Alcantara on Saturday. He did not look good. Six walks only struck out one. That was the weird post-surgery Alcantara that we saw last year with the Marlins. So I don't know, I don't know how the V-lowered things were, but seeing him walk six and strike out one, not normal stuff because he looked really good so far this season. Pirates were the only team in the division to lose on Saturday. They fall to Tampa Bay, 8 to 7 and 13 innings. Score was 5 to 5 before they went to extras, just in case you were wondering. Paul Skeen's got the start in this one, and he was fine,

Starting point is 00:28:58 but a rain delay ended his outing prematurely. It was his bobblehead day, too, so that's kind of a bummer for the fans. Four shutout innings, five strikeouts before the rain hit, two and a half hour rain delay occurred, and they had to pull skeins because of that, and then the pirates go on to lose. Cubs also won their fourth. in a row, they take down the Mets who have now lost 10 in a row, which is crazy. Former Cardinal catcher Carson Kelly ended up with the big blow in that one. Ripped a three-run blast in the sixth inning as the Cubs went on to win four to two. They moved to 11 and nine on the season.

Starting point is 00:29:29 So Cardinals, Brewers, Cubs are on four-game winning streaks. The Reds have won two in a row. Only the Pirates have lost a game. But the NL Central, I saw a tweet about it the other day. They're like, the NL Central is a bloodbath right now. they're all playing good. Every team in this division is playing good right now. And, you know, you hope that the other teams in the division will lose,

Starting point is 00:29:50 obviously, for the Cardinals benefit. But at the same time, you know, in El Central. It doesn't get a whole lot of love and to see everybody kind of proving people wrong. I know, it's early on 20 games end of the season. But to prove people wrong early on, it's kind of fun, kind of fun. Thanks for making a lot on cardinals. You're first list every day if you haven't already give us a follow on to X at L.O. underscore Cardinals were on TikTok and Instagram.

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