Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - SILENCED: St. Louis Cardinals' Bats STAGGER as Offense STALLS vs. The Pittsburgh Pirates

Episode Date: May 21, 2026

St. Louis Cardinals blanked as Pittsburgh Pirates unleash offensive barrage. Can the Redbirds regain momentum for the finale? JD breaks down the Cardinals’ frustrating 7-0 shutout, spotlighting the ...team’s ongoing struggles against Carmen Mlodzinski and a missed grand slam opportunity by César Prieto. Key topics include Michael McGreevy’s challenges with command, Matt Swanson’s bullpen woes, and injury scares to Jordan Walker and Alec Burleson. The conversation also covers the Brewers’ sweep of the Cubs, NL Central standings, and the Cardinals’ exciting new “tarps off” fan section at Busch Stadium, designed to boost energy from the bleachers. 00:00 Cardinals Shut Out, Pirates Win 08:09 Cardinals Pitching Analysis 20:45 Injury Updates & Tarps Off Section Follow & Subscribe on all Podcast platforms… 🎧 https://lockedonpodcasts.com/podcasts/locked-on-st-louis-cardinals/ Locked On MLB League-Wide: Every Team, Prospects & More 🎧 https://lockedonpodcasts.com/leagues/mlb/ Everydayer Club If you never miss an episode, it’s time to make it official. Join the Locked On Everydayer Club and get ad-free audio, access to our members-only Discord, and more — all built for our most loyal fans. Click here to learn more and join your team’s community: https://lockedonstlcardinals.supercast.com/ Follow the show on Twitter/X: @LO_Cardinals Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! 5-Hour ENERGY Get candy-flavored chaos with Fruity Rainbow 5-hour ENERGY®️ Shots - available online at https://5hourENERGY.com or Amazon. Nutrafol Find out why Nutrafol is the only hair growth supplement brand trusted by MLB. For a limited time, Nutrafol is offering our listeners $10 off your first month’s subscription and free shipping when you visit https://Nutrafol.com and enter promo code LOCKEDONMLB. Indeed Listeners of this show get a $75 Sponsored Job Credit to help give your job the premium placement it deserves at https://Indeed.com/podcast HIMS To get simple, online access to personalized, affordable care for ED, hair loss, weight loss, and more, visit https://Hims.comLOCKEDONMLB KALSHI For a limited time, download the Kalshi app and use code LOCKEDON to get ten dollars when you trade ten. Kalshi. Trade on anything. Gametime Today's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply. FanDuel Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now new customers can bet just five dollars and get one-hundred and fifty dollars in bonus bets if your first bet wins. Visit https://FANDUEL.COM to get started — Play Your Game. FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) #ForTheLou #stlcards #mlb #lockedoncardinals #stlouiscardinals Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 The St. Louis Cardinals' offense has shut out for the second time in their last three games as the Pirates even things up with a blowout win. 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. Hafford and on today's show, the Cardinals announced a cool little move to keep the tarps off phenomenon going strong at Bush Stadium. We've got injury updates on Jordan Walker and Alec Burleson after they had to leave the game on Wednesday after getting hit by pitches. But we're going to start with Wednesday's game as a whole, which wasn't very good.
Starting point is 00:00:46 Now, it wasn't quite as lopsided as the score would say. But at the same time, the Cardinals rarely put up a fight offensively in this game. And in the end, they get shut out by a score of seven to nothing by the pirates. score was three to nothing through the first seven innings. So it was a pretty well-played game up to that point. Things got out of hand in the eighth inning. But those first seven innings, they were tight, well-pitched on both sides, played well defensively on both sides.
Starting point is 00:01:21 Pirates just ended up getting the hits when they needed it, while the Cardinals' offense got flattened by the new Bud Norris in Carmen Magensky. and Cardinals fans remember Bud Norris with the Houston Astros, who for whatever reason, his first couple years in the big leagues, when he
Starting point is 00:01:41 would face the Cardinals, he would become a Cy Young Award winning style pitcher. He just dominated the Cardinals whenever he pitched against them. You know, Bud Norris actually his last year in the Big League, he was actually on the St. Louis Cardinals. But
Starting point is 00:01:56 before that, he was a real pain in the butt, real pain in the cheeks, if you will, for, uh, for our boys in St. Louis. And those are kind of the vibes that I'm getting from Carmen Magensky so far in his pirate's career, who granted is a former first round pick. This is not some rando dude who just comes out of nowhere and is pitching really well and just happens to do it against the Cardinals. No, he pitches pretty well against a lot of teams, but he really seems to be at his best. when he's facing the St. Louis Cardinals who just can't seem to figure this dude out. He throws five more shutout innings on Wednesday night, lowering his career ERA against the Cardinals to 1.79 in 11 appearances.
Starting point is 00:02:45 That's pretty good. The Cardinals' offense outside of JJ Weatherholt was asleep basically the entire game. And they had one really good opportunity to, do some damage in this game. Sixth inning. Bucks are up three to nothing at this point. Burling gets a one-out single. Jordan Walker gets hit by a pitch. More on that later. Nolan Gorman takes a walk after a really good eight pitch at bat. Hell of a battle from Nolan Gorman. That was cool. And that brings up Mason win with the bases loaded. Mason went back in the lineup after missing the first game of the series. He's got
Starting point is 00:03:29 a chance to get the cardinals right back in this thing. Basis loaded, one out, gets ahead in the count. 3-0 is in the proverbial driver seat in this at bat. And then the next three pitches are strikes and he's done. Three straight sinkers. He goes down swinging on the third one, out number two in the inning. So that was very deflating. That brings in Cesar Pireto.
Starting point is 00:03:56 now Prieto has yet to get a hit this year. Now he hasn't had a lot of abats. So, you know, it's tough. It's tough being a bench guy. And he's a young guy. He's 26 years old. Did have a hit with the Cardinals last year when he came up for a cup of coffee, but has only got one hit in his brief major league career so far.
Starting point is 00:04:19 Pirates, shockingly, do not go to a left-hander to face him. I thought for certain they were going to. And instead they stick with their righty Ramirez, who was having some issues throwing strikes. He was able to get the big strike out of Mason Wend. But Prieto goes up to 1 in the count. And on pitch number four, he drives a high fastball to deep right center field. And Jake Mangum, who was busy as hell in right field on Wednesday night, tracks it down and makes a sliding catch with his back to the infield. on the warning track to end the inning,
Starting point is 00:04:59 makes the catch, holds it up, let everybody know that he hung on to it. And what a letdown. What a letdown. Now here's the thing. Off the bat, I did not expect it to clear the wall. There was a chance. There was a chance,
Starting point is 00:05:13 but I was expecting it to bounce off the wall, split the gap, do something. But I did not think he was going to make that freaking catch. That was awesome. it would have probably cleared the bases because with two outs, Cardinals are running, you know, right on contact. So even Gorman with, let's say, his not so good speed, probably makes it all the way around and scores and ties this game up.
Starting point is 00:05:40 And how things have been going for the Cardinals with, you know, the way that they've been winning games and coming from behind, you know, you almost expect good things like that to happen for them, for that to be a special at bat, as Ali called. He goes, if that had got down, man, or hit the, going over the wall, what a special event that would have been, but it just didn't happen. Just wasn't meant to be this time around. Analytics on Prieto's out.
Starting point is 00:06:04 Going to make you feel even worse about it because it traveled 380 feet, had an expected batting average of 800 and would have been a go-ahead grand slam in 10 other major league ballparks. But at Bush, it's a tough luck, fly out to the warning track in right center field. What are you going to do? What are you going to do? Put a good swing on it, drove it. Just couldn't get it out. Cardinals' offense mustered just five hits in this game. They only got one walk. They were 0 for five with runners in scoring position. They left eight dudes on. Is there any reason to panic? Of course not. Of course not.
Starting point is 00:06:43 Again, we're talking about a game. There was a three-run ball game until the eighth inning. This was not the final score was not what this game. really was because the pirates were able to beat up on Matt Sonson in the eighth inning to blow the game open. But offensively, they just cannot seem to hit Carmen Magensky for whatever reason. He's got their number. Had one of the best starts of his career. Five scoreless innings, only four hits. Only had the one strikeout. I've seen him strike out more than that before. But similar to the game on Sunday against Coling from the Royals, when the Royals shut out, Cardinals. The Cardinals just, they just weren't squaring the ball up much. Lots of weak contact,
Starting point is 00:07:28 off balance. So you got to give credit to the pitcher, man. He was good. Only walked one batter, didn't hurt himself. So, yeah, 95 pitches thrown. Second highest single game total of his career. He was really, really good. And it's frustrating because he doesn't look like he's that good. Like, there's not kind of like McGreevy where you watch McGreevy pitch and you're like, well, I mean, he doesn't have all that much, but I mean, Majinsky's got. more strikeout potential than McGreevy. But at the same time, you know, someday maybe they'll figure out how to meet this guy. But it wasn't meant to be.
Starting point is 00:08:03 It was the Bucks night on Wednesday night. We're going to talk about the pitching side of things for the Cardinals. We'll talk about Michael McGreevy, what to do with Matt Sonson. We got all that coming your way next on Locked on Cardinals. Baseball is full of routines and superstitions. You got rally caps. You got lucky jerseys, lucky socks, all that stuff. And honestly, it can be the same when it comes to products for hair thinning, too.
Starting point is 00:08:34 You know, a lot of hype, not always a lot of confidence behind it. And that's why there's NutraFull. But everyone's dermatologist recommended hair growth supplement brand and the official hair growth partner of Major League Baseball. So here's what stands out to me when we're talking about NutraFull. Take some more personalized approach with formulas designed for different stages, for different needs. It's not just like, well, this is the one thing we offer. So take it or leave it.
Starting point is 00:09:00 That's not how it is. It's physician formulated, clinically tested, and NSF certified for sport. Just four capsules daily with a meal makes Nutraful. One of those small routines that is really going to help build your confidence in the long run. So find out why Nutrafol is the only hair growth supplement brand trusted by Major League Baseball. For a limited time, Nutrafol is offering our listeners $10 off your first month subscription and free shipping. when you visit neutraful.com, enter the promo code, locked on MLB. Once again, listeners of this podcast, $10 off your first month subscription,
Starting point is 00:09:36 free shipping when you visit neutraful.com, N-U-T-R-A-F-O-L dot com, in a promo code, locked on MLB. Today's show also brought to you by Game Time, Major League Baseball season. Of course, full swing right now. You can feel the change of the energy at Bush Stadium, now that the Cardinals are winning and having a lot of fun doing it on most nights. And there's nothing like being in the ballpark for all of the excitement that we're getting to enjoy so far this season.
Starting point is 00:10:04 The only problem is getting tickets can feel like a grind. You've got to deal with the long queues. Surprise fees. Price is jumping up at checkout. Who wants it? Not me. Not you. That's why there's Game Time.
Starting point is 00:10:14 The Game Time app gives fans the advantage with constant innovation. It's how you unlock amazing tickets and experiences and do it in just a few taps. Very simple to use. Game Time guarantee is there. It means you're going to get 100% authentic tickets to live. delivered on time at the best price. Fees are included in the price you see. What you see is what you pay, period. They got the seat views for you. They got zone deals for you. You can follow your favorite teams on any sport with just a few clicks. No stress, no hidden fees, just great seats
Starting point is 00:10:42 in minutes. And that's what makes it so easy to decide, you know, last minute, whether or not you want to hit the ballgame. So take the guesswork out of buying M will be tickets with Game Time, download the Game Time app, create an account use code locked on for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, create an account. Redeem the code L-O-C-K-E-D-O-N for $20 off. Download the Game Time app today. Thanks for making Locked on Cardinals. Your first listen every day. Thank you for making Locked-on, the number one sports podcast network. Get your daily Cardinals coverage completely add-free by joining the everydayer club today. You can start your seven-day free trial right now, right now, and get closer to your team without the interruptions. Click the link in the show notes or go to Lockedon S-S-Cardels.com
Starting point is 00:11:31 to claim your free trial. So let's talk pitching. Michael McGreevy has been one of the Cardinals, most consistent, most trustworthy starters so far this season. Everybody else has kind of had their warts, haven't they? At one point or another, Libby continues to be really, really good for like four innings, and then it all falls apart in one inning. Thursday starter, Dustin May had the rough start to the season since then.
Starting point is 00:11:58 It's been pretty darn good, pretty dependable. Kyle Leahy switching from reliever to starter, inconsistent from time to time. Andre Palante, he's Andre Palante, you know, he's back of the rotation guy. He's going to have his ups and downs. That's who he is. But McGreevy has been the one guy that when you're out there, you kind of know, hey, we got a really good chance to win today. You know, he's done more with less the whole season.
Starting point is 00:12:23 And one thing that he has to do because he doesn't possess the, you know, firepower, if you will. He doesn't possess those power pitches, the power sinkers, power fastballs to strike a lot of hitters out, is that he has to be pinpoint accurate with his command. And most games, that really hasn't been an issue. But Wednesday night, just a little bit off. He was just a little bit off with his pitches.
Starting point is 00:12:49 And it allowed the pirates to kind of dink and dunk their way through the defense. and they just, you know, and we use the phrase. It was funny because I tweeted it out and then Chip Carey used it like not even five minutes later where death by a thousand cuts perfectly describes what was going on there where it was just singles after single after single. First one he gave up. Now that was a legit line drive home run off the bat of Spencer Horowitz. No joke there. Hanging breaking ball. You hang them.
Starting point is 00:13:21 We bang them. You know how that is. Makes it one to nothing there in the second inning. and it was the Pirates first of many hits on the night against McGrady. First three innings, though, McGreevy had only given up three hits. It's not like they were shelling him by any means, but then with two outs in the fourth,
Starting point is 00:13:36 it was the bottom of the Pirates order that got things going and they were a nuisance all night long. Connor Griffin, young, superstar potential. He taps an infield single to get on. He's got tremendous speed. Then a wild pitch moves him over to second base. McGreevy walks the number seven hitter, Andy Rodriguez. as we know he doesn't walk a lot of people.
Starting point is 00:13:56 So that was weird. Then Joe Stenson Garcia singles up the middle to make it two to nothing. Then your number nine hitter, Jake Mangum taps an infield single. Annoying. Only one ball gets out of the infield, but three hits, a run scored. You fast forward to the sixth inning counter Griffin with a leadoff single to right field. Rodriguez singles up the medal. Then it's Nixon, singling the left, loads them up for Mangum.
Starting point is 00:14:20 That's when Ali came out and Yank McGreevy, who had given up a rear high 10 hits by that point on the night. Eight of them were singles. And after the game, you know, McGreevy, he, he wasn't all that upset with the things that had gone down. You know, he really wasn't all that worked up about his, his,
Starting point is 00:14:40 his outing at all. But the one thing that he did mention, which you're going to hear in a second, is him talking about falling behind hitters as one of the things that, you know, normally he doesn't do that and he needs to improve on. McGrady after the game. Put a good swing on it.
Starting point is 00:14:57 I thought at the bottom of their line, I've had a good approach tonight. I was like, when you got saw it on the ground, I'm like sweet and then beat the shift is like, oh well, like dang it. You know, blue pit from Rodriguez there. I'm not upset with that pitch at all. It was 82 off the bat.
Starting point is 00:15:13 You know, if it's warmer out, the ball might hang up a little bit more. Same with Cesar's. It might go out. And then I thought I made a good pitch to Garcia. It was down and under. You know, pulled it for a single. It's just kind of how it goes. But I made good pitches throughout the day when I needed to.
Starting point is 00:15:30 Just kind of shoot myself in the foot, just getting behind the guys. I thought I'd bear down when I needed to and not upset with a couple of the blooper infield singles that happened today. Don't think 10 hits tells the whole story, but still, I can't be falling behind and beat 58% strikes all day. And that's something that McGreevy's been really good at. getting ahead of hitters, throwing strikes right away. And tonight, it just wasn't his night. Just wasn't his night. He also mentioned that maybe he became a little too predictable.
Starting point is 00:16:02 That was something that maybe he should have worked on as well. But, you know, still give credit to the pirates. Like, it's not like this is some scrub team. They found the holes. They, they put wood on ball more often than not when they needed to. And that's just the way it was. You know, sometimes when you're a pitch to contact guy, they're going to find more holes than they fine gloves and that's kind of what happened on Wednesday night. Justin Brule came on limited the damage to just a sack fly after McGreevy got pulled with the bases loaded. So props to Brule on escaping that mess with a very limited damage. He would throw another zero up in the seventh inning. And now it's got a 1.59 ERA and six appearances in the month of May. So Brule quietly,
Starting point is 00:16:42 just getting the job done, which is nice. Again, it's a three to nothing ball game when you get to this eighth inning. Very much winnable. But I, uh, Holly ends up calling on Matt Fonson because you got to throw him at some point. You just can't keep throwing the same guys over and over and over. And that's when things went south real quick. Another infield single for Connor Griffin who had four hits on the night and scored three times. Big night for him. But that's what got it going in the eighth inning against Fonson.
Starting point is 00:17:09 Then it's another base hit. And then it's a strikeout. Then a single off of a pitch that was off of like Mangum's shoe tops. Like you're not supposed to be able to hit that for a base hit. but that's what happened. That made it four to nothing. A single on a sinker down the middle makes it five to nothing. Then there's a flyout.
Starting point is 00:17:26 Brandon Lau hit that one where Sponson, lucky that one didn't land in the seats. And then gives up a double on a sweeper over the heart of the plate to Reynolds, makes it seven to nothing and this game is toast. And, you know, the first three hits that Sponson gave up, they weren't really bad pitches, to be honest with you. They found holes, but the last two were, that blew the game open, they were absolute meatballs.
Starting point is 00:17:51 The sweeper was hanging over the heart of the plate. It wasn't good. The one sinker was not good. I mean, you just can't throw it there and expect to survive in the show. Guys in the show are not going to miss those pitches very often, and the pirates didn't. And it sucks, too, because just when you thought that maybe Svanson was starting to turn the corner a little bit, three consecutive appearances where he hadn't
Starting point is 00:18:14 a lot of run, he gets blasted. He gives up four runs on five hits and two thirds of an inning. As the RA goes from what was still ugly at 8.34, but it was down from where it was. But it shoots back up to 9.6.4. And a lot of fans were on the social media feeds afterwards wondering, why is this still happening? Why is his leash so long? Why is he being allowed to continue to pitch for this team at the major league level?
Starting point is 00:18:40 Should he be sent down to work on stuff at this point? You know, you got Matt Pushard. back healthy with the team so he can fill that right-handed role. I would say if this team was like eight games under 500, it would make more sense for Sonson to keep working on things at the major league level. I think I'd understand it more, but not when you're very much competing for the division and a playoff spot so far this season.
Starting point is 00:19:07 I just, I don't know, you want somebody a little more competitive. And again, three consecutive appearances were you didn't give up a run before what happened on Wednesday night. So we'll see how they handle it. But last time when he was struggling, they decided to keep him around. They said they'd rather him work on things against major league hitters that go down to AAA, work on these things against AAA guys, and come back up to the major leagues.
Starting point is 00:19:31 And, you know, the competition be much more difficult yet again and him to fall right back into whatever problems he's got right now. So I don't know. I don't know what they're going to do, you know? I don't know if setting him down is really the. answer because who are you bringing up? Chris Roycroft, Ryan Fernandez. Like, is that who you want to see to? Like, are they going to do any better than what Matt's Fonson is doing? I don't know. I don't know. But those are kind of what you have available, you know, it's just, you know, it's a tough spot to be in.
Starting point is 00:20:03 And you hate to have a guy in that bullpen that is only useful when either you're down big or you're up big. Other than that, you can't really trust them to get people out. So that, that's right? You know, it's like a waste of space out there. So we'll see what they do. We'll see what they do. There were a couple of injury scares in this game involving Jordan Walker and Alec Berlison. So we're going to update you on those. And we'll discuss what else happened in the division plus the decision the Cardinals made as far as this tarps off phenomenon and how they want to keep it going. So they made it. They made a really cool move. And I thought it was good. So we'll talk about all of these things coming up next on Locked on Cardinals. workplace chaos deadline stacking up inbox overflowing in the one position you've still got to fill it's open still haven't been able to find that person yet and when the pressure is on and you need
Starting point is 00:20:58 the right hire this is a job for sponsored jobs indeed sponsored jobs helps you reach to people who actually fit what you're looking for the right skills the right experience the right location all the things you need that way you're not just hoping that the right candidate's going to stumble across your job you're actually going to find these people you're going to seek them out and connect. And here's a stat that says it all. In the minute I've been talking to companies like yours made 27 hires on Indeed, according to Indeed data worldwide. Spend last time searching, more time actually interviewing candidates who check all of the boxes you need. Less stress. Less time. More results. When you need the right person to cut through the chaos,
Starting point is 00:21:37 this is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs. And listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit to help get your job the premium status it deserves at Indeed. com slash podcast. So go to Indeed.com slash podcast right now. Support our show by saying that you heard about Indeed on Locked on Cardinals. Indeed.com slash podcast terms and conditions apply. Need to hire. This is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs.
Starting point is 00:22:07 Thanks again for making Locktown Carlos for first listen of the day. And thank you for making Locktown on the number one sports podcast network. So both Jordan Walker and Alex Burlinson got hit by pitch. in this game on Wednesday. Eventually they both had to come out of the game. They got replaced. And your first concern when you see them getting yanked from games is that they might legitimately be hurt.
Starting point is 00:22:28 It was a risk for Jordan. It was the like knee shin area for Burleson. But according to Ollie, after the game, when he was asked about them, he said that both of them were removed for precautionary reasons. And if the game had been closer, both of them would have stayed in the game. So that's good news. They pulled them just because, hey, game's kind of kind of out. We're going to move on.
Starting point is 00:22:51 We're going to move on to Thursday. Let's get you back in, get you off your feet and just relax a little bit. So that's good news because the last thing you want to do is lose your number three and number four headers to injuries because of errant pitches by the stupid pirates. As far as the rest of the NL Central went on Wednesday, the Brewers complete the sweep of the Cubs at Wrigley, a five to nothing shutout win. Cubs had more errors, three, than they had hit, which was two. Kyle Harrison goes seven innings, 11 strikeouts.
Starting point is 00:23:23 Milwaukee is laughing their butts off. Once again, they take a guy from Boston and turn him into a start. They did it with Quinn Priester last year. They're doing it with Kyle Harrison this year. He's now five and one with a 1.77 ERA, while the big name that Milwaukee sent to Boston in that trade, which had a bunch of people involved in it, but the two big names were Harrison and Caleb Durbin.
Starting point is 00:23:49 Caleb Durbin is hitting 168 for Boston. Boston has just given Milwaukee two pitchers. Last year it was Quim Priester. He's still working his way back. And then now it's Harrison. So they trade guys like Freddie Peralta and Corbyn Burns and Boston's like, here, take these guys.
Starting point is 00:24:08 So they're laughing. They're hilariously laughing at Boston for this. Since May 9th, the Cubs down bad. Two and nine. They also lost their starter. Edward Cabrera in this game had to leave due to a blister on his pitching hand. So things are not going well in Chicago. And hopefully they stay that way for the Cardinals as the Cubs will be coming to town to Bush Stadium when they return from their road trip to Cincinnati and to Milwaukee.
Starting point is 00:24:34 Speaking of the Reds, they pound the Phillies nine to four. South Stewart had a big game four for five, two RBIs, including his 12th home run of the year. They take two of three in Philly, and Philly was red hot when the Reds came into town. Reds had been in that horrendous funk in the month of May, had the worst record at Major League Baseball for the month of May. And I was really hoping that the Cardinals would be able to catch them while they were still struggling when they go to Cincinnati this weekend. But it didn't look bad in Philly. Like, they could have swept Philly. They were up in that first game.
Starting point is 00:25:09 And Philly came from behind. beat him late. So they could have swept Billy. So sucks because you're really hoping that these teams, when they're struggling, and the Cardinal, they'll struggle when they're facing the Cardinals. And that doesn't look like it's, that's what the case is going to be as far as the Reds. Still don't know about the Cubs, but it's been a rough time for the Cubby so far. And I know we all feel real bad about that.
Starting point is 00:25:34 Your standings right now have the Red Hot Brewers in first at 29 and 18. They're a game and a half up on the Cardinals and the Cubs. Then the Reds are four and a half back at 26 and 24, followed by the Pirates, who were five back at 25 and 24. For Thursday's finale in this series against the Pirates, Dustin May goes up against Braxton, Ashcraft. Ashcraft is two and two and nine starts so far this year. He's got a solid 3.09 ERA. The Carls did beat up on him pretty good when they saw him in Pittsburgh back on April 28,
Starting point is 00:26:03 six runs, four and a third innings, including two home runs by the lefties, Nolan, and Victor Scott the second, if you remember those. Gorman hit one that looked like it was going into the water, then they couldn't find the ball. Victor Scott ended up crushing one as well in that game. So, you know, that was a big victory. Burley Walker, Gorman all had three RBIs. They won that game 11 to 7.
Starting point is 00:26:25 It was like the one easy win that the Cardinals had in Pittsburgh and that four games set. Hopefully they'll have his number again on Thursday. First pitch at 1215 St. Louis time from Bush Stadium. Also, quick shout out to the Cardinals organization, who made the decision to create the official high energy fan section in the upper right field bleachers just beyond the Cardinals bullpen. The rule is that any ticketed fan,
Starting point is 00:26:52 regardless of where your seat location is in the stadium, you can be all the way up in the upper deck 500 sections. And you can come down to this spot behind the Cardinals bullpen. You'll be allowed to go there and participate. Shirts are optional, they say. It is not mandatory for you to take. your shirt off. It's up to you. A lot of people had their shirts off in that section on Wednesday night. There were some women in there who were in their sports bras but had their t-shirts off,
Starting point is 00:27:20 you know, twirling them around their head. But it's going to be a general admission type of situation, similar to like the standing room only sections that are out there. As the cartels try to capitalize on this tarps off phenomenon that is spreading around Major League Baseball, you're seeing a bunch of other cities doing it as well, copying off the Cardinals. It originated in St. Louis. Don't let anybody tell you different with the Stephen F. Austin College team last Friday. That's where this is all coming from. And that team, by the way, they put out the t-shirts. They've released their official shirts that are for sale. So if you want to support their team, you can find that link on the Lockton Cardinals X account. I've retweeted out there. I think they're
Starting point is 00:28:05 like, they're like $22, I think, for the, for the, for the, for the, for the, for the, for the, for the, for the, for the, for the, for the, for the, for the, place if you can, uh, they were handing out the, the, the bucket hats to that section on Wednesday night, even though they're like for a giveaway meant for later in June. They were like, no, yeah, you guys have this. So, um, maybe more rally towels. I don't know, but they're going to treat you pretty special in that section. And, uh, it's just a cool thing that the, the, the cardals fans are doing right now. And, uh, they're going to do their darndness to get the team motivated. Didn't work on Wednesday night, but we'll try it again coming up on Thursday.
Starting point is 00:28:40 Thanks for making Locked on Cardinals your first list every day. If you haven't already, give us a follow on X at L.O underscore Cardinals, TikTok, Instagram, and Lockdown Cardinals, like subscribe on YouTube. We're making that push for 15,000 subscribers, need your help to get there. If you never miss an episode that every day or club is built for you, we're doing that free seven day of trial right now. Check it out for yourself by going to lockdownsdon-sdial cardinals. dot supercast.com to join the club. For those of you on video, we've sent you to the first ever 24-7 national
Starting point is 00:29:06 Locked-on Podcast Network YouTube channel on audio. Make sure your second listen is Locked-on MLB. You guys are the best fans in baseball for a reason. Let's finish off this finale with Pittsburgh with a W, shall we? I'll see you next time on Locked on Cardinals.

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.