Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - ON FIRE: Jordan Walker and the St. Louis Cardinals’ Offense DEMOLISH the New York Mets! 6 In A Row!

Starting point is 00:00:00 The Jordan Walker breakout tour continues after another huge night in the Cardinals win over the New York Mets and a series win, which is why I got this ugly shirt on. 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 am J.D. Halfren and I am smiling big time today. Six in a row for the boys. on today's show. We're going to talk about an article that I came across from Will Leach,

Starting point is 00:00:38 who named five Cardinals. He says could be starting at the All-Star game, obviously if we vote as Cardinal fans, the Andre Palante turnaround. Time to give some credit to this guy. Normally, that would be the biggest turnaround for this team in 2026, just looking at the numbers. But there's another guy. There's another guy that is also enjoying, we can call it a resurgent season. And that's our right fielder, Jordan Walker, who had another big game on Wednesday night. Teams 9 to 2 win over the Mets. Just how much fun is this watching this offense right now? Just doing what they've done against the Mets and what they've done just over the last few days.

Starting point is 00:01:19 You know, Jordan got the birds on the board in that first inning, got the RBI single to center field to make it one to nothing. And I just love watching his approach right now. Pitchers continue to try to get him to chase away because that's what worked for a, many years. He couldn't stay away from it. He would chase it. He'd be an easy out or he wouldn't hit the ball all that hard or put it on the ground. And this year, he's just so much more in tune with the strike zone in general. Like he just, he's got it. He sees it. Nobody's perfect. There's going to be moments where he does go outside of the zone and chases. Every hitter does that from time to time, except maybe Juan Soto, who looks like he never does that. But he's not. But he's not.

Starting point is 00:02:02 chasing that trash as much as he was back in the day. He's just not doing it anymore. And then if you leave it in the zone, he knows it's in there. And he still got those long arms that can reach over there. And that's exactly what he does on this one. Smacks one, 107.7 miles per hour off the bat for the base set there to put the Cardinals on the board. His second at bat, he flies out to center field. But then in the fourth inning, he steps into the box with two on two out. and they got a lefty on the mound and newts on deck and I don't understand why you're challenging him here but they decided to why not why not you're the Mets go ahead challenge Jordan Walker instead of Lars Newpar with a lefty righty matchup instead of going lefty lefty go ahead big mistake though

Starting point is 00:02:54 big mistake he just missed the first pitch so he got lucky on that one but the first one but third pitch he sees fastball in. He crushes it, tattoos it, over the boards in left center, 17th finger of the season. RBI is 50, 51, and 52. He's having an absolute monster of a first half of a season for your St. Louis Cardinals. And boy, oh, boy, has it been fun to watch. 13 for 28 over his last six games. So he's batting 464.

Starting point is 00:03:23 He's got an extra base hit in five straight games. He is just the third cardinal other than Roger's horns. be in 1922 Ray Langford in 1997 in franchise history to have at least 30 extra base hits, 50 ribby's, and sent stolen bases through their first 64 games of the season. And we told you at the beginning of the year that one of the top priorities, if not the top priority of Ali Marmal and his staff, was to figure out how exactly to tap into all of the talent that Jordan Walker possesses. How do we how do we figure it out?

Starting point is 00:03:59 How do we fix him? He's got the speed, the power, the quick bat, the cannon arm. How do we put all these tools together and make a complete player out of him that will eventually become a cornerstone for this franchise? Everything about him screamed, future superstar. But for whatever reason, it just wasn't translating at the big league level over his first couple of seasons. Came up that rookie year. We know this story. I don't have to go to the back story about this. You know what the hell happened.

Starting point is 00:04:30 But after a not so impressive spring, where we were all kind of like, oh, man, still doesn't look good. Everything clicked when that regular season started with Jordan. He hits the home run against Tampa Bay, then the big grand slam against Detroit. And then it was just, boom, sky's the limit. He'd been tearing it up ever since. He's now fourth in the National League in home runs.

Starting point is 00:04:54 He's second in Ribby's, fourth and hits. fifth and runs scored, sixth and doubles, eighth and batting average, second in slugging, six than OPS. And when you look at the latest power, like the hitter power rankings, because they do them for the teams, which you're aware of, but they also do it for the hitters. He's right up there with all the best of the business. You're Don Alvarez, Shohay Otani, Nick Kurtz, James Wood, Corbin Carroll, Ben Rice, Gianni Diaz, Juan Soto. And then you've got Jordan Walker.

Starting point is 00:05:27 among the best of the best, hitting hitters, just in general, in Major League Baseball. And he actually dropped three spots since the last ranking. But this was before the big night on Wednesday. So I have a feeling he's going to scoge right back up there in there, because, you know, Lon Soto hasn't done much of anything in this series. So I'm guessing he'll scoot up there. But Cardinals have been begging, begging for a superstar to build a round and we thought it was going to be Jordan and then we didn't think it was going to be Jordan.

Starting point is 00:06:02 And now it most certainly is Jordan Walker. He's one of them, just one of them. The cat is officially out of the bag, which makes the Mets throwing to him in that situation in that fourth thing, even that much more puzzling to me concerning the guy on deck is the lefty-large's new bar. Why would you take your chances with Jordan? Well, I don't get it, but I loved it. I loved it at the same time.

Starting point is 00:06:24 Either way, glad it happened because his bomb busts this game open. wide open. And it wasn't the only one that was doing damage. He wasn't the only one swinging the lumber, man. J.J. Weatherhol, another good night. Three for five, a couple of runs scored. Yvonne Herrera, one for three with a couple of walks and two runs scored. Alec Berlison pops his 10th run of the season in the ninth. Nelson, Velasquez smoked his second dinger of the year in the third inning to push the lead to four to nothing at the time. He's hitting 364 since getting called up. And Ali is using him in the right spots. You know, when he's got a matchup that makes sense,

Starting point is 00:06:59 Nelly goes in there. Jose Fermin, two more hits than an RBI. He's been fantastic recently. This whole office has been doing it. I think there were only two people in the lineup who didn't get hits last night. I think that was it. I don't think Newt got one.

Starting point is 00:07:16 And maybe Mason win? The Mason won not going to hit? Either way, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. The offense has a whole, really good. Nine runs, 11 hits, three home runs, four walks. They're three for nine with runners in scoring position, six ribby's game with two outs, which is super demoralizing when you're the other team. Another offensive clinic put on by the Redbirds who are firing

Starting point is 00:07:39 on all cylinders right now, which includes the pitching staff, who's also been excellent. Andre Palante once again gives the team a quality start and has already surpassed one big stat from last season. We're going to talk about him. Coming up next on Lockdown Cardinals. Workplace chaos, deadline stacking up that inbox overflowing in one position. You still got to fill. It's still open. Still got to get that thing done when the pressure's on and you need the right hire. That's a job for indeed sponsored jobs. Indeed, sponsored jobs helps to reach the people who actually fit what you're looking for. Talking about Jordan Walker a little bit ago, you know, he's one of those star players. You need somebody who can do everything. So you need the right skill.

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Starting point is 00:09:07 podcast. So go ahead. Log on. Go to Indeed.com.com slash podcast right now. Support our show by telling them that you heard about Indeed on Lockedong Cardinals. Indeed.com slash podcast terms and conditions apply. Need to hire. This is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs. Ed is way more common the most guys think millions of guys are going to deal with it at some point, and that's exactly why Hems offers a straightforward way to handle it. Hems connects you with a licensed health care provider. It'll do it online. It gives you access to legitimate ED treatment options from the comfort of your own home. You know, nobody, no guy I know goes, you know what would be cool. Let's go to the doctor. I don't know anybody that thinks that way. And you don't have to do that. No awkward appointments, no pharmacy lines,

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Starting point is 00:10:57 Get your daily Cardinals coverage completely ad free by joining our every day. or club. If you haven't done it already, you start your seven day free trial. You can do it right now. Get closer to your team and do it without all those interruptions. Just click the link in the show notes or go to lock on SCL cardinals.supercast.com to claim your free trial. Andre Palante. Let's get into it. When you're wrong, you're wrong. When you're wrong, you're wrong. And a real man will step up and say, hey, I was wrong. And as painful as it might be, I think a lot of us who watched the Cardinals this season. and O Andre Palante, a big apology. Now we don't need to hug it out or anything

Starting point is 00:11:35 or get overly emotional about this. It's not like he's been sigh young worthy by any means. But got to give the guy credit. Come on. This dude has been exponentially better than the version that we saw in 2025 where he looked completely lost. No self-confidence.

Starting point is 00:11:51 When six and 15, 5.31 ERA, that ERA plus was at 77. one of the worst pitchers of baseball last year. It just was not good. And we all said it. We all said it. This guy's toast. He's not that good.

Starting point is 00:12:06 Time to move on. Maybe go back to the ball pin. We got to find something better. Can we do anything above Andre Palante level? But the Cardinals stuck to their guns. They didn't punt on him. They decided, you know what? We're going to give Andre another chance.

Starting point is 00:12:21 Let's take this off season. Get your mind right. Because I feel like that was part of it. you know, the confidence was so low on Andre. He can just read the body language last year. Like he had no confidence at all in anything he was doing out there. And when you go six and 15, it's easy to feel that way. When you don't win a game after, I think it was like July, it's easy to feel that way.

Starting point is 00:12:42 But they gave him a chance to use this offseason to get his mind right, work on his game, come back in the spring, compete for a spot on the roster. Whether it's bullpen, whether it's rotation, you know, let's see what you can earn. And we thought he might have lost that competition, to be honest, in the spring, when the Cardinals made all those trades. And then Richard Fitz comes in. We knew Hunter Dobbins was going to be rehabbing and out for a bit. Richard Fitz comes in.

Starting point is 00:13:06 He starts doing his thing. He looks kind of impressive. So us, his fans are kind of like, I kind of like this new toy we got in Richard Fitz. But the Cardinals had seen enough from Palante in the spring that they were going to give him a shot in the rotation. He's been there before. He's done it before at the major league level. We've seen him have success. It just didn't happen in 2025 very often.

Starting point is 00:13:27 And outside of a couple of games this season, which these guys aren't machines, man, this is human. It's expected for your four or five guy in the rotation to have a hiccup or two. But outside of those, this guy is absolutely delivered and he did it again on Wednesday night against the Mets. Another quality start from Palante. He goes six innings. He allows two runs on just three hits, the one home run. What do you got to do? That happens. Two run shot. It was a seven of nothing at the time. So, you know, why wouldn't you be challenging these guys? But he gives up the home run. He only walks two,

Starting point is 00:14:05 which is always a big deal with Palante. We know how the walks can be an issue for him. He punches out five, 93 pitches, 10 ground balls. It was one of his better starts of the year. And that's now back-to-back solid games in four of his last five starts. He's allowed two earned runs or less. He's up to seven wins on the season after only having six last year. So, he's already surpassed his win total on June 11th. He's already passed it what he did last year. He's got those seven wins, by the way, third best in the National League. Second best among starters, Ashby and Milwaukee's got nine out of the pen,

Starting point is 00:14:41 an absolute vulture for Millie Wauke. The ERA is now at 3.88, top 15 in the National League. He's also top 20 in batting average against among starters. The work he's put in, along with the work of this coaching, staff and pitching coach, Dusty Blake, who people wanted fired, has paid off in a major way. The trio of Dustin May, Michael McGreevy, and Andre Palante, you hear them, and that may not strike fear into the hearts of a lot of teams, but the results are what they are. They've been good. Last five starts for Palanté, the team's four and one.

Starting point is 00:15:16 He's got a 2.96 ERA. Dustin May over his last 11 games, 2.89ARA. Michael McGreevy, last eight starts, 2.80 ERA. And it's not like Kyle Leahy has just been chopped liver. He's gotten better. Last six starts, 3.34 ERA needs to work on, you know, pitching deeper into games. That's been a problem. But he's making the switch from reliever to starter. So we'll give him some leniency there.

Starting point is 00:15:44 Let's not jump all over his case in his first major league years of starter. But you're seeing progression from him. Libby is the one guy. that we thought we were going to get the most consistent stuff from. And so far, he's the guy that's been the most inconsistent because he still gets haunted by that one bad inning. And we've talked about this before where, you know, you've seen flashes of him dominate lineups,

Starting point is 00:16:06 Cubs, Padres, Houston, outstanding. Even the last game when he was in Milwaukee and he pitched really good after the Rocky start. Remember, they get three off of them in the first inning. And he's cruised in the rest of way, 10 strikeouts of that game. So you see the flashes. We just got to bring it all together. So they're working on it. They're working on it.

Starting point is 00:16:28 But no longer is Andre Palante the weakest link. And that should be recognized and applauded. Job well done to the coaching staff and Andre Palante. Excellent. Also shout out to Matt Fonson, who fired two more scoreless innings on Wednesday night. A couple of line shots that were hit pretty darn hard. But let's not get picky.

Starting point is 00:16:49 Let's stay positive. So that's three shutout innings for Sponson since getting recalled. And we know how good he was last year. It'd be nice to get him back to what he was doing last year. And that would be another nice little piece for that bullpen. And then Jojo got the call in the ninth inning, even though they were up 90 to 2 at the time. He needed some work, hadn't pitched in a while. So he goes through his inning without any issue.

Starting point is 00:17:14 So excellent all round game, once again, for the Cardinals. five Cardinals who could or should be starting in the All-Star game. New article came out and I was like, wow, come and think about it. Maybe, maybe. I didn't say that there should be two of them for sure at the All-Star game. Five are listed here. We'll talk about those names coming up next on Locked on Cardinals. It's amazing how quickly we've moved away from cash.

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Starting point is 00:19:05 Terms apply. Thanks again for making Locked on Cardinals, your first listen of the day. Thank you for making it locked on the number one sports podcast network. I'm getting used to wearing this shirt, man, six wins in a row for the Cardinals. I like it. I washed it. It's crispy. It's beautiful. And it puts everybody in a good mood. Everybody likes the old man shirt. So, McCartle's been playing so well that even though I feel like they're still under the radar, which is fine. I don't care. I don't care if they get noticed nationally by people, although now playing into York and playing as well as they have. You know, they had a couple of the guys on the MLB network. So they got some attention there. Will Leach at MLB.com put out an article. and he listed five Cardinals that could be at the All-Star game next month.

Starting point is 00:19:54 And I think the title said could be starting, which I find that very hard to believe. But I see why he's making a case where these guys should be there, at least as a member of the All-Star team. And I brought up to the other day, Jordan Walker, obvious. And then Alec, Alec Berlinson, who I mentioned was it's not going to be easy for him just because of the competition at first base, which is one of the issues that I think a lot of these guys on the, the Cardle's roster are going to be dealing with is just that there are bigger names out there that have done it for longer than are going to get the attention of the fans. And that's why they'll get overlooked. But maybe they should. You know, Alec Burleson in first base has got, you know,

Starting point is 00:20:34 three studs in front of them that have been All-Stars forever. Freddie Freeman, Bryce Harper, Matt Olson with the Braves. So that's going to be, that's going to be tough. But I could see why Burley deserves to be there and go look at the numbers. He certainly does. Willis, both of these guys in this article, says the only problem for Walker right now is how many other terrific outfielders there are. He in this, he put this out, I think on Tuesday, said he's only fifth among NL outfielders in F-4 behind the Cubs PCA, the Diamondbacks Corbyn Carroll, the Nationals, James Wood, and the Dodgers, Andy Pahas. And that group doesn't include established superstars like Juan Soto, Ronald Acuna Jr. Although he's, hurt right now. So he's like breaking into the top three at that position. It's going to be tough. But I bet we see Walker in Philly nevertheless, even if it's as a reserve. My two cents on that is we freaking better. He deserves to be starting, to be honest with you, but he's got to be there. And if he's not there, just tear the whole thing down and start from scratch because the all-star

Starting point is 00:21:41 game is crap. He's also got J.J. Weatherholt listed here. And that makes a lot of sense just because, But, you know, JJ's considered the leader in the clubhouse for the, you know, rookie of the year honors right now. We talked about that earlier this week. His two cents on this, weather hole would probably top this list, were it not for Brewer's Bryce Terrain, who was playing like an MVP candidate, but it wouldn't be much of a shock to see the rookie show up in Philly as well. I think that would be incredible.

Starting point is 00:22:08 You know, I think about JJ as a rookie and I, I haven't like delve into the, you know, the second baseman stat so far this year. You know, I think there's some guys who were on bigger market teams that might get some votes. Nico Horner was always a guy, although he's really struggled over like the last month or so, that he was a guy that I thought would be up there for sure. But that would be great if JJ got in. That'd be cool. He's got Burley at three, which we talked about.

Starting point is 00:22:37 Then if four, he's got Yvonne Herrera. And he talks about, you know, Herrera's the DH, which he's like, he's not going to top show hay or Schwerber. but obviously that's going to be difficult. But he points out like, look how good his OBP is. He's now at 392 after Wednesday's game. That's top 10 in baseball, top three in the National League. And he says you'd like to see Herrera hitting for a little more power. The slugging percentage is down from last year.

Starting point is 00:23:02 But if he starts launching the ball again, look out, look out. And I wonder if Herrera has sacrificed just being on base because he doesn't have to be the guy because he's got Burley and Walker behind him that he doesn't have to be swinging for the fences. So I feel like that's been done intentionally where he's like, I just need to be on base in front of these guys. And they're going to bring me in. And that's the most efficient way to run this offense. But it would be nice to see Yvonne, you know, get a hold of a couple of more here and there

Starting point is 00:23:30 because we know he's got it in him. Last on the list, he has Mason Wend saying thanks to his all world defense, when would be a sleeper pick at the shortstop position, maybe even a popular pick. If he had maybe offensive strides that the Cardinals had been hoping he'd make this offseason, and if he can become more than, if he can become even merely an above average hitter, that's complicated writing their will, by the way. If he can become even merely an above average hitter, he'd be a regular All-Star with his defense.

Starting point is 00:24:00 You know, Ozzie Smith made the All-Star team a lot, and 95% of that was because of his defense. And he had a cool nickname, The Wizard. So can he get on with just defensive stats only? different time, different world than it was when Ozzy was doing it. But, you know, we've seen the difference he makes for this team defensively when he's out there. I find it hard to believe, though, that they're going to give somebody who's, you know, not hitting for home runs and doesn't have a huge high batting average or on base percentage. I can't, I can't really see him getting into the end of the game.

Starting point is 00:24:36 But, hey, you step up and you get back to those offensive numbers that you've had before when Mason hit like 15 home runs. maybe you get there. But does he need to do that for his team to win ball games? Because that's what I'm picking up on this. Sure, your own individual stats, that's cool, good for you. But is it helping the team? Are you guys winning as a unit by putting those stats up? And that's not Mason wins job.

Starting point is 00:25:03 His job is not to drive in a bunch of runs. His job is not to hit a lot of home runs. He's supposed to be that steady guy between six and eight that is the right-handed bat to compliment the lefties around him. So just keep doing what you guys are doing. You've won six in a row. Don't worry about the individual accolades. Let's go for a championship bring.

Starting point is 00:25:25 That's what we want. Now, pitching-wise, he didn't list any pitchers here, which makes sense. But I think we'd all have thought that Riley O'Brien was going to be on this team after what he did early on in this season. I know he has struggled over the last month, numbers-wise. So that's, you know, the momentum for him to be on the All-Star team probably has tapered a bit. But the guy is still tied for second in the National League and saves was 17. I don't know how you can overlook that.

Starting point is 00:25:52 Mason Miller is the only guy in the NL with more saves. He's got 18. He's tied with Duran from the Phillies. I don't know how you overlooked that and not think about it. Again, this is not a game that means anything as far as World Series implications anymore. It doesn't. So this is an exhibition. So Riley O'Brien, in my opinion, with 17 saves, deserves a seat at the table.

Starting point is 00:26:13 He should be in that bullpen. So those are the ones that I think should be there. I'm going to say three of those guys make it. I would love to see JJ make it and make it for. But I think it's going to be three. I think Jordan gets there. I think Burley gets there. And I'm holding out hope that Riley gets there.

Starting point is 00:26:28 And I hope JJ gets there. That'd be awesome. Four, with the way this team is playing, they deserve it. They deserve that recognition. And you got Ollie. So technically he's fine. So he's going to be there. Thanks for making a lockdown Cardinals.

Starting point is 00:26:40 Your first list. Every day, if you haven't already, give us follow on X at L0 underscore Cardinals. TikTok, Instagram at Lockdown Cardinals. If you like the shorts and the reels, that's where that stuff goes. Like, subscribe on YouTube, help our channel and love for the Cardinals grow. We're at 14.6,000 subscribers looking to hit to 15,000. We'd love to get there before the All-Star break. Can't do it without you, though.

Starting point is 00:26:59 So please like, subscribe. If you never miss an episode, every day, or club built for you, get locked on Cardinals ad free. and that members only in Discord access and more head to LockedonScel Cardinals. That supercast.com to join the club seven day free trial going on right now. On video side, we send you to the first ever 24-7 national lockdown podcast network YouTube channel on audio. Make sure your second list and it's locked on MLB. Boys go for the sweep today.

Starting point is 00:27:23 We'd love to see it. Would love to see it. You guys are the best fans in baseball for a reason. We'll see you next time on Locked on Cardinals. Good luck today, Hunter Dobbins.

Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - ON FIRE: Jordan Walker and the St. Louis Cardinals’ Offense DEMOLISH the New York Mets! 6 In A Row!

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