Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - Nine Wins In A Row For The St. Louis Cardinals!

Starting point is 00:00:00 The St. Louis Cardinals' bullpen comes up huge, and the offense just continues to find different ways to win ball games as they win their season high. Ninth game in a row. Let's go. You are Locked-on Cardinals. Your daily St. Louis Cardinals podcast, part of the Locked-on Podcasts network, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Hey there, Cardinal. I am J.D. Hafford and I am your host for Lockedown Cardinals. part of the Lockdown Podcast Network covering your team every day. You can find me on X at JD Sports Radio. You can follow the podcast at LO underscore Cardinals on X. We're on YouTube.

Starting point is 00:00:42 Make sure you like, subscribe, comment, hit the notification button so you don't miss anything. Make sure you're commenting. Talk to me, Goose. Let's talk about things because things are going well for the Cardinals. We're available on TikTok. We're on Instagram. A Locktown Cardinals, this is a show serving Cardinal Nation and giving the best fans of baseball. All of the info about the birds on the bad.

Starting point is 00:01:01 today's episode being brought to you by Monarch Money. Take control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use the code locked on MLB at Monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. Man, winning is better than losing. It is so much better to win than to lose nine times, baby. Nine times. If you remember the 80s movie, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, you know what I'm talking about. nine times. That's how many games your St. Louis Cardinals have now won in a row after beating the Philadelphia Phillies on Monday night and arguably their best pitcher by a score of three to two.

Starting point is 00:01:44 Now as a baseball fan in general, what an awesome game. What an awesome game this was. I've told you before. I like I like scoring in my games. I like them to be, you know, the five to four type of games. But this one had it all. You had great pitching. You had solid defense, timely hitting. If you could take a game like what we had on Monday and you moved it to October, you'd be talking about, oh, what a special game that was in the playoffs. And it still was, just didn't have as much writing on it as it would in the playoffs. But that's the kind of game this was. You have a Philadelphia Phillies team, one of the best in baseball. You have the Cardinals who not many people thought were going to be

Starting point is 00:02:30 all that good, but playing like one of the best teams in baseball. You had him clashing together in Philly, and it was a great game to watch. I want to start with the pitching. Matthew Libertor. Matthew Libertor. Again, shoving. This kid is just oozing confidence right now. His demeanor on the mound, it's reminiscent of the look that some of the best to ever wear the birds on the bat used to have on their faces. when they were in the zone. Guys like Chris Carpenter, Adam Wainwright, I'm not saying he is those guys. Don't twist my words.

Starting point is 00:03:08 I'm not saying he is those guys. Just saying that the demeanor that I saw from him, the confidence that I'm seeing from him, that he possesses on that mound right now, he is locked in and believes in himself and believes in whomever his battery mate is for the night. And he continues to cement himself as one of the top guys in this rotation.

Starting point is 00:03:31 And if he keeps it up, he's going to start getting whispered about his one of the top left-handers in the National League. Five and a third innings on Monday, seven hits, which seems like a lot, but only six of those were singles. He only gave up one extra base hit. Two runs, four strikeouts,

Starting point is 00:03:49 only one walk, which is always key. Don't give them free people on the base paths. And this against the Phillies lineup that has Trey Turner and Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwerber and Nick Castellanos, J.T. Realmuto, Alec Balm has been hitting much better. This group of guys has been to the playoffs three straight seasons and are probably going again this year. And Libby stood tall against them again, just like he has against every opponent he's faced in the last six outings. outside of that one game against the pirates in Pittsburgh.

Starting point is 00:04:28 He's been awesome. And remember the Phillies saw him once already. Back on April 13th, shut him out for six innings. Maybe he caught them off guard a little bit the first time around. There's no excuses this time. They know what he's all about. And he still held them in check. The move of Matthew Liberator to the rotation might go down as one of

Starting point is 00:04:56 the greatest moves in the history of the Mosaic Marmal era. It's hard to be the return of Albert Hulls. But holy crap, has this move paid off so far? Now, he didn't get the win, but he was excellent and gave his team a chance to win, and that's all you're asking for from your starters. If they go seven and dominate or they pull a fete and go all nine, that's just an added bonus. That's not the norm anymore.

Starting point is 00:05:24 And his ERA actually went up in this game. Two runs. He gave him two runs, and his ERA went up. That's how good he has been. He's now at 3.11, which has him inside the top 20 in the National League among all starters, and his top 10 among National League left-handed starters. A couple of years ago, I remember one of our co-hosts at Locked on, Lindsay Crosby, who now covers the Braves and does MLB Game Night with me. If you haven't seen us on there yet, I invite you to do that. He was covering minor league prospects at the time. That was like his role. And he told me when I asked him, tell me about Matthew Libertor. What do you think of him? And he said at the time he saw a lot of Max Fried in Matthew Libertor.

Starting point is 00:06:15 And that it's going to take some time for him to blossom, but that he's got the stuff, the breaking stuff in particular, was really, really good. and if he ever could maintain 96-97 and if they would just stay in the course with him, that he would show you why he was a first-round pick. Because this was when everybody was dumping on him because of the Rania-Rosa-Rana deal and how good Rania-Rosa-Rana had better.

Starting point is 00:06:44 Well, here we are, age 25, same age that Max Freed, just so happy to take off when he was with Braves. And Libby is showing everyone why he, he was so highly touted coming out of high school. Now he did need help from his bullpen on Monday to get him out of a sticky situation in the sixth inning, despite being at just 80 pitches. Libby had plenty left in the tank.

Starting point is 00:07:11 We know this. He can go deep into games, but Ali, Ollie's got a guy that was drafted in the 17th round that right now is one of the best relief pitchers in Major League Baseball. And when the Phillies were pushing to take the lead and they were threatening and it felt like one of those games that was teetering and it was going to fall into the Phillies favor, this guy came in and shut it down. We're going to talk about him next on Locked on Cardinals. Ever check your bank account and wonder, where did all of my money go between dining out, your online shopping, entertainment?

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Starting point is 00:09:19 Leave your comments on YouTube as well as on X anytime you want. Your feedback is always welcome and encouraged. Before the 2024 season, the name Kyle Leahy, was not a name that most Cardinal fans probably knew. And why would you? Taking in the 17th round of the 2018 draft. Does anybody know where he's from? Anybody? Anybody?

Starting point is 00:09:40 Colorado Mesa University. I did not know that off the top of my head. I had to look it up. They are the Mavericks. They're a D2 school. They play in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference. Write this down. You're going to want to know it.

Starting point is 00:09:56 Kyle Leahy in his final year at this D2 school. was 7 and 2 with a 4.81 ERA in 14 starts. Nothing to write home about. Saw something in him though. 17th round pick. They drafted him. 2019, he pitches at three levels. He goes A, he goes high A, goes double A.

Starting point is 00:10:18 2020, you got the COVID year, so no season in the minor leagues. 2021, Kyle Leahy is 0 and 8 with an 8.20 ERA at double A. In 2022, he goes 10 and 7. with a 5.29 ERA at double A. And one game at AAA. One appearance there. Has an ERA over 10 at the Arizona Fall League. 2023, they make the move to reliever mostly.

Starting point is 00:10:49 He'd been starting this whole time. And now they decide, all right, let's switch it up. Let's try and a relief roll. It goes five and four, ERA over six at Memphis. makes three appearances with the Cardinals that year in 2023. Remember how gross that year was for the Cardinals? Yeah. So gross.

Starting point is 00:11:08 They had a guy who had an ERA over six at Memphis up in the big weeks. So he makes three appearances. The ERA is over 21 with the Cardinals. Last year he's 0.4. But as a respectable, 3.86 ERA in Memphis, makes 33 appearances with the Cardinals, ERA of 4.07. Okay, maybe a depth guy, right?

Starting point is 00:11:32 Nothing really special about any of the numbers that he was putting up on YouTube. This is Kyle Leahy. There he is. I dare you to go in public and show this face and go, who is this guy? And see if anybody knows the answer, walk around the streets of St. Louis go, do you know who this person is? And I'm willing to bet most people have no idea who it is. And if I told you that in 2025, he'd be the best pitcher in the St. Louis Cardinals' bullpen,

Starting point is 00:12:14 what would you say? You would have called me a liar and probably slap me upside the head, right? But here we are. May the 13th, Cardinals are 23 and 19. They've won nine games in a row. And this man, Kyle Leahy, is 1-0. with a 1.09 ERA in 19 appearances. He's almost pitched in half the games this season so far.

Starting point is 00:12:46 And he's got a 1.09 ERA. At the time when I look this up, maybe some night games have changed, but Eberleaf pitchers who had 18 more innings pitched at the time. Kyle Leahy had the fourth lowest ERA in all of bases. fall among the leaders. Andres Munoz, closing for the Mariners.

Starting point is 00:13:09 We've been virtually unhittable this year. Johan Duran, closer for the twins. Daniel Lynch from Kansas City. And then it was Leahy, who has thrown almost 25 innings. So he's pitched much more than these guys. He's been incredible.

Starting point is 00:13:29 He's been incredible. Who saw this coming? Now this spring, we saw him pitch very, very well. But we were like, hey, how about this guy? Who knew he was going to have such a huge role in this bullpen? And on Monday, Ali went to him when it was first and second and won out. Gaten just tied it to.

Starting point is 00:13:54 He gets Bryson Stott. He was pinch hitting to fly out in center field. And then he gets Max Kepler, who was pinch hitting, to ground out sharply over to first base. Catreras made a nice play on it and the threat was over. And that was like the inning that the Phillies were like, all right, we're switching people out, we're bringing in all our lefties. This is when we think we have to go for it to win this game.

Starting point is 00:14:16 And Kyle Leahy said, not on my watch. Next inning, you take that momentum and Mason Wynn hits the go-ahead home run in the seventh. Leahy stays in. He whiffs Marsh, another lefty, gets Trey Turner to fly out, and then whiffs Bryce Harper. You've heard of him. Another lefty. That's four lefties. He gets out of the first five hitters that he faces. Mind you, Kyle Leahy's right-hand in case you didn't. Gets the first two guys in the eighth inning before back-to-back singles, gives away to Joe Romero, who gets stopped to fly out. That threat. So Romero now has five straight scoreless appearances. Starting to look more like the Jojo we saw last year, isn't he? At a rough start, had a couple of bumps in the road. Now, things look pretty good.

Starting point is 00:15:04 Helsley gets the ninth, looked as sharp as we've seen him. Mose down Kepler, mows down Marsh. They didn't even stand a chance. They weren't even close. And then he gets Trey Turner to fly out to right field, shallow fly ball. Jordan Walker comes flying in, makes the catch. For a moment there, people were like, oh gosh, is it going to fall? And you had him and Victor Scott coming in at the same time.

Starting point is 00:15:29 If they collide there, Jordan Walker probably takes Victor Scott's head off. He's huge. But that's it. Makes the catch game set match. Cardinals went at three to two. This bullpen has not been scored upon since game one of doubleheader against the Mets on May the 4th. It's May 13th now. And as I mentioned yesterday, the starters have been going deep in a lot of games during the streak.

Starting point is 00:15:53 But when the pin has been called upon by Ollie, they are getting the job done. every time. It's been amazing to watch, considering how rough the season started for the bullpen as a whole. Now they've made some changes, some guys have been shipped out that are down to Memphis now, guys who were struggling. But remember, it wasn't that long ago that this bullpen was the issue. Everything else was going well. Starting pitching was really good. Office was really good. Bullpen kept falling apart. They had six blown saves early on and were like, ugh, what the hell happened? The bullpen was good last year. What is this? But now things are balancing out. Ollie has found the mix that he likes. He's got guys in particular roles that he wants them in. They know what their roles are. And now the bullpen is working a lot like it did last year when it was so good. And it's becoming a weapon. Where if you do get past one of the Cardinal starters, and they've been so good lately, yeah, that's, hasn't been easy for teams. But when you do get past them, the bullpen shuts the door.

Starting point is 00:17:07 You go nowhere. It's a lot more fun than it was earlier in the season because earlier in the season, we're pulling our hair out going, what's wrong with everybody? Now they've figured some things out. And when you the offense, it was going to be tough to come by on Monday. We knew that. But the Cardals did just enough to pick up the win. And the fourth inning is, is what really stood out to me. I'll tell you why, coming up next, on Lockdown Cardinals. Looking for a snack that's both delicious and nutritious, crack into a good source of protein with a wonderful pistachios.

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Starting point is 00:19:17 a locked on MLB on YouTube, or wherever you listen to your podcast. So the offense didn't have a whole lot going on in this one for the Cardinals. We got a scoreless game going in the fourth inning. And this is where, like, it just, fourth inning, this stood out to me. Philly starter Christopher Sanchez, been one of the best left-handed pitchers in baseball. He's dominating with the change-up.

Starting point is 00:19:39 Cardinals are having trouble putting hits together against them. in the fourth inning, he walks the leadoff hitter, which is Nolan Aronado. And you've heard me say this if you're an everydayer a million times, making a million and one. Because it has happened to the Cardinals a bunch. It's going to happen again. But lead off hitters, if you walk the lead off guy in an inning, more times than not, usually going to come around to burn you. That runner, for whatever reason, is going to figure out a way to score.

Starting point is 00:20:12 That's what happens this inning. The next hitter is Wilson Contreras. Now, Wilson has been hitting the snod out of the ball, hits one super deep to center field. So deep that Nolan Aronado, not known for his speed. Currently 13th percentile of sprint speed in the league, so that means 87% of the league is faster than him. So he's pretty slow.

Starting point is 00:20:37 You've seen him run. Come on. He won't take offense to that. He knows he's not a fast guy. Anyway, point being, deep enough and makes the center fielder move away from second base enough that Nolan Aranaana. Mr. 13th percentile speed tags up and takes second base. Now, originally, umpire calls him out at second. He didn't have a great view of the tag.

Starting point is 00:21:02 But that's what he plays for. Cardo's challenge. Nata was very confident. As soon as they called him out, he was like, no, no, no, no. I was in there. They overturn it fairly quick. quickly, no harm, no foul. But what a heads-up move by Nato in first base coach, Stubby Clap? Seems somewhat insignificant at the time. You're like, oh, cool. But it becomes

Starting point is 00:21:25 a huge moment in this game because the next batter is Yvonne Herrera, who has a nine pitch at bat before he draws the walk. Wild pitch. Arnato gets to go to third base. All right. First and third. Now he's only 90 feet away from scoring. Pedro Pahas comes out. Doesn't do anything spectacular. He hits a soft ground ball. We're thinking, oh crap, here we go, double play ball, right? But it's soft over to third base. Phillies are unable to turn the double play clearly. Sosa's throw from a cardinal, Edmondo Sosa, secret agent for the Cardinals maybe on this play. I don't know. He's wild with his throw to first base, had Herrera bearing down on him. Not a dirty slide, nothing like that, but he's coming.

Starting point is 00:22:15 You can hear the man coming. Bering down on him, and Ardenado was able to score because they weren't able to turn two, one and nothing cartless. And it's stuff like this, the little stuff, the little details, walk, great base running to tag up with a slower runner. This is not Victor Scott out there. It's not Jordan Walker, Mason win, guys with a lot of speed. No, slower runner.

Starting point is 00:22:41 smart. Tags up. Wild pitch moves them over to third base. Everyone's hustling on the ground ball by Pahas. Sosa has to hurry his throw to get the catcher, Pedro Pahaz, hustling down the line. To try to get him at first, Sosa's throw gets altered, goes wide, scores a run without ever getting a hit in the inning. Never got a hit. This is the stuff that used to happen in the card. And now it's stuff that the Cardinals are doing to other teams and taking advantage of them.

Starting point is 00:23:20 That's what good teams do. Not striking out. Putting the ball in play made the Phillies have to make the plays. And they didn't. You put it in play and things can happen. You strike out, swing a mess, go down looking. Not much is going to happen. chances aren't good that the things are going to start going haywire for the other team.

Starting point is 00:23:46 Put it in play, though. You saw what happened? And you never saw those things. Happened for the Cardinals last season. It's just very refreshing to see them do the little things and do them right more times than not. The little team is perfect. I don't expect them to be. Heck, Nato had a couple of bobbles in the field.

Starting point is 00:24:07 You know, as great as he's been over at third base this year, had a couple of bobbles in this game today. One led to a run scoring. It happens. But more times than not, they are making the plays. Doing the right things, playing smart baseball, and it's gotten them back in the division home. They're one game back of the Cups.

Starting point is 00:24:28 Of course, the solo home runs from Ivan Herrera and the game winner for Mason win, don't hurt. Five home runs in the last two games for the Redbirds. All five are from different people. Herrera back in the lineup has been such a game changer. You know, they got another lefties scheduled for Tuesday. Jesus Lazzardo. So I imagine you'll see a similar lineup with, you know,

Starting point is 00:24:52 probably Victor Scott in their center field for Jose Barrero. We didn't have a bad game in center field, but that one blue pit that scored the second run didn't get a great read on it. It was a little dicey on a couple of fly balls and liners out to center field. But that's not, it's not his normal thing. He doesn't always play there. So it's not going to look as clean as it does as when Victor Scott's out there. But maybe Victor gets that one blue pit.

Starting point is 00:25:16 I'm not sure. It was pretty soft hit. I would imagine he'd get a better jump on it than Barrero did. But so what? It didn't hurt him in the end. They come away with the win. Herrera's home run, his fifth of the year. First, and's coming off the IL opposite field shot to make it two to one.

Starting point is 00:25:35 And then Mason wins shot to left field in the seventh off a nasty left. left-hander, Matt Strom, was his fourth of the season. This is a really good picture, by the way, if you're on YouTube of the outfielder looking up as the ball goes over the wall, all the Phillies fans looking up, ready to catch the game-winning home run. There's Mason Lynn right here coming around. But, yeah, Mason Wend was just 2.26 against lefties coming into this game. Even though he likes hitting off left-handers.

Starting point is 00:26:09 It hasn't worked out well for him so far this year, but fastball up in the zone, got it up and out and it carried. First home run that Strom has actually given up this year. I mean, a dude's nasty. He's not an easy guy to hit. These guys just keep getting the job done in different ways. They only had five hits tonight.

Starting point is 00:26:27 Only five. Nude had a couple of heads. Contreras had a double. Then you had the two home runs. That was it. So it's not like they were stinging the ball all over the yard, but they did what was needed to win the game. and that's the name of the game.

Starting point is 00:26:42 Do what needs to be done. They're going for 10 in a row on Tuesday, weather pending a lot of rain coming to the Philadelphia area. It's supposed to rain all day on Tuesday. So not looking good. So they may not get it in. They might have to do a double header or they push something back because I think both teams have,

Starting point is 00:26:59 I know the Cardinals are off on Thursday. I think the Phillies are too, but they'll get something figured out. But if they do get it in, it should be another good pitching matchup. Sunny Gray against Jesus Lizardo. First pitch scheduled for 545 St. Louis time. Nine in a row, man. We're having a good time.

Starting point is 00:27:16 Thanks for making a Lockstone Cardinals. Your first listen every day if you haven't already. Please give us a follow on X at Ella underscore Cardinals and the JD Sports Radio, TikTok, and Instagram at Locktown Cardinals. Like, subscribe on YouTube and help our channel and our love for the St. Louis Cardinals grow. You guys are the best fans in baseball for a reason. We'll see you next time on Lockdown Cardinals.

Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - Nine Wins In A Row For The St. Louis Cardinals!

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