Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - SLUMPING: St. Louis Cardinals Offense NEEDS Answers! Bryan Torres Getting CALLED UP?

Starting point is 00:00:00 The St. Louis Cardinals get dominated again and drop their series to Pittsburgh. This offense needs a wake up call, paronto. 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, we'll be discussing the newest member of the Cardinals. Allegedly, he's getting called up.

Starting point is 00:00:31 So we haven't seen an official transaction yet, but we'll talk about that. set to make its Major League debut at some point this weekend. We'll preview the upcoming series in Cincinnati a little bit, but we got to talk about the loss on Thursday and the series loss and the loss of our offense. It has vanished. Pirates dominate the action again to take two or three at Bush Stadium. Now, granted, the season series five to two Cardinals, all right?

Starting point is 00:00:57 It's not that bad. But last two games have really left a bad taste in the mouth, hasn't it? You know, coming into the series, the Cardinals' offense. It cooled off a bit despite winning two of three against the Royals. Their last game against them, they got shut out on Sunday. And then they popped off for nine runs on Tuesday. And we're like, hey, we're back.

Starting point is 00:01:18 Everything's cool, right? And then against the Pirates in the next two games, they scored just two, two runs. Pirates put it on them, seven nothing, six to two. Good pitching, usually beats good hitting. And it couldn't be more true than the, what we saw in this series where Pittsburgh got outstanding starts from Carmen Maginsky. And that was on Wednesday.

Starting point is 00:01:40 And then Braxton Ashcraft on Thursday, Majensky, we covered thoroughly in our last episode, gave him a glowing review of how he's been able to dominate the Cardinals. You know, they've had their troubles with him for a while now. But Ashcraft, you know,

Starting point is 00:01:54 they lit him up, lit him up for six runs in Pittsburgh during that four game sweep. When they won 11 to 7, it was the one game that wasn't really a nail biter. between the two teams in that four game series. Ashcraft has been much better, though. He's been much better than that this year. And specifically in the month of May, on Thursday, he was on full display,

Starting point is 00:02:14 which was a continuation of the dominance he's been showing. He goes seven innings, nine Ks, allows his four hits, the one run, which was a solo blast by Yvonne Herrera, which tied the game up briefly in the third inning. Third start in his last four in which he got through the seventh inning. And in four starts this month, he is two and oh. with a 1.91 ERA. So he's been getting it done. And I'm not trying to make excuses for the Cardinals or say,

Starting point is 00:02:40 well, it wasn't awful. It was, you know, you got to be able to perform even against the best pitchers. But it's not like anyone else is hitting this dude either right now. So to see them come up short offensively again on Thursday, wasn't exactly a shocker. And when we came into this series, you know, we were like, hey, we don't have to face Paul Skeen's, but you're still dealing with a Pittsburgh rotation.

Starting point is 00:03:02 and pretty darn good, man. Ollie gave Ashcraft a lot of credit after the game saying that, you know, he did a really nice job, some tough at bats. As far as just made it tough on us, he used the secondary stuff extremely well, sprinkled it in, some fastballs. But for the most part, just spun the heck out of it. That slider was good. He did a really nice job.

Starting point is 00:03:25 Credit to him, we couldn't do a whole lot against him today. And outside of those nine runs that the Cardinals were able to score in that, first game against Pittsburgh, which, don't get me wrong, is great. Nine runs is a lot. You know, that's not normal. The Cardinals have scored just twice, though, in their last three losses, not just the two against Pittsburgh. You go back to Sunday when they got shut out by Kansas City, and we're talking about

Starting point is 00:03:50 two runs in those three losses, and they're not even getting shut down by what you would consider household names, which is probably what drives a lot of fans nuts. If I was telling you, it was, you know, former Cy Young Award. winner's doing this against them, then you'd probably be like, ah, okay, but the casual fans don't really know the names of Stephen Kulloch and Carmen Maginsky and Braxton Ashcraft, but those are the guys who just shoved against the Cardinals in the last few days, which, you know, this offense, it's just fizzled a bit here in the month of May. After today's game, the Cardinals are now hitting 243 this month, which isn't that bad. That's not bad at all. Seventh highest team batting average in the month of May.

Starting point is 00:04:32 They've only scored 64 runs, which is the sixth lowest run total this month. So they're getting people on. There's not bringing them in. Their OPS is down. It's the 19th this month, slugging at 20th. They're 24th in home runs. Their RBI total, fifth lowest. And they've hit into 15 double plays, which is tied for the third most in the month.

Starting point is 00:04:52 So that's how you're seeing some of these guys wiped off the base pass and not coming around to score. When the season started, one of the concerns was the offense. It was. Would they have enough? to beat teams in games where it was going to be five to four, six to five. And early on in this year, they've been up to the challenge for the most part. But losses this month, a lot of two runs, a lot of two run games for the Cardinals or less. They lost four to one to the Dodgers, six to two to Milwaukee, four to two and three to two to San Diego, six to two to the A's, two to nothing to Kansas City.

Starting point is 00:05:26 Now you got these two losses against Pittsburgh. During the six game homestand where they went three and three, they scored just twenty, total runs and nine of those came in the one game. Over the last week, you're seeing a lot of these guys' batting averages slip a bit. Alec Burleson, he's like the only dude that's, you know, keeping up his end of the bargain right now. Alec is hitting well over 300. He's nine for his last 21. So he's doing quite well. But among the everyday players, he's like the one guy that's still doing it. Gorman's four for his last 17, 235 average, JJ Weatherholt, four for his seven. last 20 hit 200. Victor Scott continues to struggle. Three for 15, batting 200. Mason win.

Starting point is 00:06:08 Two for 16, just one 25. For mean, is one for 11. It's just been a rough like five or six games for these guys. So hopefully they're set to break out. Maybe that'll be the end of the funk, get them out on the road, which they tend to perform better on the road. Anyway, so they're 13 and 13 at home now. And I think they're 15 and 8 on the road. So maybe that's what they need. They got to get out of as much fun as it was to do the tarps off and stuff like that. You got to start focusing on what's going on in the field, too. We've got to start winning more ball games because the Sen. L. Central race, it ain't going away.

Starting point is 00:06:43 Like, everybody continues to play pretty good. And the Cincinnati Reds are one of those teams that just took two of three in Philly. So maybe going to Cincinnati will help them out, usually a very hitter-friendly ballpark, although there is supposed to be an abundance of rain in Cincinnati. So, like, throughout the whole weekend. So that could make things a bit sloppy. we might see some rain delays. It might be a little chillier because of it.

Starting point is 00:07:06 So we'll have to wait and see how it all turns out weather-wise. But they could use it. They could use a tiny ballpark like GABP to do a little damage. And so we'll see if it happens. We're going to talk more about the Reds and who the pitchers are going to be and the probabilities and stuff. We'll get to that later on. I want to talk about Dustin May start and also talking about calling up Brian Torres.

Starting point is 00:07:28 That is all on the way on this episode of lockdown. Cardinals. Hey, it's Mike and John from Lockdown Angels. We wanted to talk to you about something that's important, and that's your family. I've been married a few years now, and my wife and I have a one-year-old, and we're always thinking about his future. Who's he going to become? How can we help? In what ways can we make sure his future is secure? Yeah, I'm in a different season. I'm married. I have three young adult kids, and lately I've been thinking a lot about how to make sure my family's taken care of in the long term. This is why life insurance matters, not because it solves everything, but because it helps provide financial security for the people you love the most.

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Starting point is 00:10:07 And thank you for making Lockdown on the number one sports podcast network. Get your daily Cardinals coverage completely add free by joining the Everydayers Club. Start your seven day free trial right now. Get closer to your team without the interruptions. Click the link in the show notes or go to locked on SELCardels. com to claim your free trial. Dustin May got the ball on Thursday. Mix bag.

Starting point is 00:10:30 Mixed bag for Dustin Bay. Dustin Bay. May. Am I thinking about Jason Bay? Because he played for the Pirates? I have no idea. Anyway, so Dustin May gets the ball on Thursday mixed bag. Things got off to a rocky start when Brandon Lau hit what initially was deemed an inside the park comb run after the poke to left. And when I first saw, I was like, that clearly went over the wall, but they kind of let let it play out. And so they may, they thought maybe it hit the top of the wall and stayed in play. So it It hits the wall, ricochets, past Jose Fermin,

Starting point is 00:11:04 and it's far enough away where Brandon Loud just is circling the bases, running well. And he ends up coming around and scoring. Eventually, they change it to a normal home run after they realized that it cleared the wall altogether. But still kind of a weird momentum swing when, you know, it's cool to hit a regular home run. But when you get the more rare inside the park home run,

Starting point is 00:11:25 I mean, you should have seen the Pirates bench. It was, it was pumped after what they saw there. Either way, 10th Homer allowed by the Cardinals, by a Cardinal starter in the first inning this season. And that is tied for the second most in the National League. Only the Giants have done it more. May gave up another one in the fourth inning where it was first and third. And this is where things got a little annoying.

Starting point is 00:11:44 First and third out, May gets the chopper on the infield, but it's not hit hard enough, pretty usual to turn the devil play. Thanks to, honestly, it was smart base running by Marcel Ozuna. Like, give him credit. JJ got the ball. and if Osuna had kept running at full speed, easy tag and throw to first, they would have got it. Ozina stops and makes JJ come to him to get the tag out.

Starting point is 00:12:08 By the time he throws at the first base, Mangum, who's got good speed, beats it out. Two to one. Annoying as hell. And the pirates did this, like the last two games, they've done this over and over and over, where they hit it just crappy enough on the infield where the Cardinals can't turn to play.

Starting point is 00:12:24 Then in the sixth inning, one out walked to Spencer Horowitz. That starts the problems for Dustin. May. Connor Griffin follows with a double to make it second and third. Then it's for Mercado Marcello Zuna again with the base knocked to left field against the drawn in infield. That makes it four to one, followed by another base said. And that would end the day for May. Gordon Greasphel comes in. He escapes the jam. Great stuff by Gordo. Four to one is the final line for Justin May though. Five and a third innings, four run six hits, the one home run by Lau. Two walks, seven Ks. Pirates came up with hits and key spots going three for nine

Starting point is 00:12:55 with runners in scoring position in this game. One of Cardinals were just one for six. really kind of the story of this whole game. Justin Brule came on in the seventh inning, and he did not fare well. First pitch he sees, or throws, I should say, is cranked over the wall in left field for a dinger by Henry Davis. He then allows a double, single. So first three guys that he sees, home run, double, single, then another crappy infield chopper brings in the run. Like, seriously, it's one of the most frustrating things in the world. Like, I would rather see somebody hit a missile, like off of one of my pitchers, then to constantly tap one in front of the plate that rolls past the pitcher and there's no play to be made. Like, it's super annoying. It makes me want

Starting point is 00:13:40 to throw things. And it seems like it happens to the Cardinals a lot. And it certainly happened a bunch in the last two days. Excuse me. It's making me sneeze. I'm allergic to these crappy plays. It certainly happened a bunch in specifically the last two games with the pirates happened multiple times. Then we saw Sonson and Pushard get into the game again this time. Sonson doesn't allow a run. Yay. Goes one in the third with one hit against and gets a strikeout. Pushard. There was a clean inning as well, but the lack of offense, the Cardinals really never got back into this thing and they lost six to two. The good news is if I can put a good spend on this whole thing is that the top guys, Riley O'Brien, Georgia Romero, George Soriano, even Ryan Stannick,

Starting point is 00:14:27 all be pretty darn fresh and rested and ready to rock this weekend in the series against Cincinnati. And they're going to have a new face in the clubhouse to kind of help them. Maybe it'll pump things up a little bit. I don't know. But it was announced that Brian Torres is finally getting the call up to the big leagues. We're going to introduce you to him and why. Is he somebody that a lot of us podcasters and blog writers have been waiting for this day? Why are we excited about this? We'll talk about it coming up. on Locked on Cardinals. ED is way more common than most guys think.

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Starting point is 00:17:30 Now, you've heard me mention his name already in this podcast, this season, in the off season. And now we are finally getting to see him. According to Jeff Jones, friend of the show, the Cardinals are calling up 28-year-old utility man, Brian Torres, ahead of the series against the Reds. And they're going to put my guy, sadly, Nathan Church, going on the IL. Church was scratched from the Cardinals lineup before the game against the Pirates on Thursday. Ali said he was a little beat up. And the hope was that he would be in the lineup this weekend against the Reds. But whatever ailments he's dealing with right now, it was enough to warrant an IL stand.

Starting point is 00:18:08 They're like, all right, hold on. Let's just, and I'm sure we'll find out more information about this later on Friday, but I'm super excited to see Brian Torres. I really am to finally get his chance in the big leagues. I mean, the guy, again, 28 years old, he has played 36 games at AAA Memphis this year. His slash line is 336, 454, 477. It's got a 931 OPS, two home runs, 16 ribbies, 10 stolen bases, 10 doubles, one triple, 24 runs scored at OBP of 454, as I said.

Starting point is 00:18:41 He's also played time at, he's had playing time at different positions, second base, center field, left field. Now, if you're not familiar with him, he is a left-handed hitter. He's only listed at 5-7, 165 pounds, and again, 28 years old, which is obviously a bit late to be making a major league debut. but his stats in the minor leagues have been eye popping. Now, he has spent time in the Brewers and Giants organizations before coming to the Cardinals. He came over to St. Louis in 2024.

Starting point is 00:19:12 And all he's done is hit in his career since 2022. That sees that he hit 374. This is with the Milwaukee system. It's 374 with a 435 OBP at AA. 2023 hits 370 with a 464 OBP and 71 stolen basis. and 71 stolen bases. Again, he's at AA in 2020. 2024.

Starting point is 00:19:36 Cardinals get him in their organization. He hits 331 with 33 steals at AA. Then in 2024, he gets the call up to AAA for the first time. Ho Hum hits 328 with nine home runs, 51 RBIs, 26 steals. The OBP was at 441. And then I tell you what, you know, his numbers here, 336, 454, a 477 slash line again 10 stolen bases 10 doubles he scores a lot he's always on base and the question was like why why is he stuck at triple a why is he been stuck in the minors this whole time

Starting point is 00:20:13 if all he does is hit and i and i kind of you know when i asked around to people like earlier in the season I'm like why why is he never mentioned about getting called up like he's on the 40 man you know, they added him. Why is that? And I was just told that, you know, some of his hit tools may not carry over to major league pitching. He might be one of those four A type of guys like Luke and Baker was, where Luke and Baker at Memphis crushes, rakes,

Starting point is 00:20:46 was triple crown threat type of guy, gets to the big leagues, and he's terrible. You just saw a guy recently with the Cincinnati Reds now with the Miami Marley. just got traded to him. Reese Heinz destroys the ball at AAA, comes up to the big leagues, can't hit a lick. So maybe that's what people are saying about Brian Torres. Maybe, you know, he's a really good minor league player, but they don't think it's going to transfer it to the big leagues.

Starting point is 00:21:15 I don't know. Maybe I have no idea. I got, I got no idea because we've never seen him up here. But we don't know yet. So he's kind of a wild card. But we're about to find out, I think. You know, I love giving guys like this a chance. You know, maybe you find a diamond in the rough.

Starting point is 00:21:31 Again, the batting average is seventh best in the minor leagues. His OBP is second best in the minor leagues? He's also got more walks than strikeouts, 29 to 25. I don't know how much time Ollie's going to give him. Obviously, to J.C., for mean, they're going to get the call in left field before him. you know, maybe he gets Victor Scott off his feet a game this weekend. I don't know. I don't know what he's going to do with him.

Starting point is 00:21:59 I really don't. Maybe he wants to get JJ off his fee with him struggling offensively. Maybe he needs some more rest. I don't know. I don't know what the plan is with Brian Torres. I just hope he does well when he comes up because I'm rooting for the guy. I'm glad he's getting called up finally. Pitching matchups this weekend.

Starting point is 00:22:17 They're pretty good for the Cardinals when you go look at some of these numbers. Kyle Leahy is going to get the start. on Friday against former twins writing Chris Paddock, who was he, I think he was with the Marlins earlier this year, too, but he has not had a good season. Oh, and five, the ERA is over seven, but he did pitch very well in his Reds debut against Cleveland. And a lot of the numbers for that, that seven ERA that he's got, he had like three really bad games, but that he's had like three pretty good games.

Starting point is 00:22:44 So we'll see which Chris Paddock we have to go up against on Friday. Saturday, Andre Palante against Brady Singer. he's only two and four this year with an ERA over six. And then on Sunday, a battle of the lefties with Matthew Libertor against Nick Lodolo, who's been dealing with blister issues on his pitching hand. So he's only 0 and one this year in three starts. His ERA is over seven. So you got two guys with an ERA over seven.

Starting point is 00:23:07 You got the other guy with an ERA over six. Offense, here you go. Here you go. You're going to a small ballpark. You got some struggling pitchers. This is the time to break out. and it's against another division foe that you haven't seen yet this year. And, you know, to come in to Cincinnati and show them that you are as good as your record says

Starting point is 00:23:32 because a lot of the Cincinnati people do not believe that the Cardinals are very good and they shouldn't be very good. And they think it's all a flash in the pan and this isn't real. Prove them wrong. Prove them wrong. But we know what a House of Horror is great American ballpark can be for the Cardinals over the years, specifically the pitchers. It ain't easy. It ain't easy.

Starting point is 00:23:50 But at least you got some ground ball guys going, especially with Palante and, you know, keep the ball in the ballpark is the key. That is the key. Slowing down South Stewart, L.A. Dela Cruz, those are the keys. Like guys like Spencer Steer are going to get their hits off of you. You can't let the key Brian Hayes and the Matt McClain's beat you.

Starting point is 00:24:12 Nathaniel Lowe. You can't let him beat you. Like if somebody's going to beat you, got to make it be some of their top guys. But they've had a lot of guys struggling this year. Like J.J. Bladay has been hit and clean up for him. I'm like, come on. Come on.

Starting point is 00:24:26 They're trying to figure things out. But again, they just came off a series against Philadelphia in Philly where they won two of three and very easily could have swept that series. So Reds are, they got a little confidence building at this moment. So can't, you got to snuff that out, man. You can't let a can't let them. feel good about themselves. On paper, this is just what the doctor ordered for the offense with this pitching staff. Their bullpen hasn't been very good either. So take advantage of it.

Starting point is 00:24:55 And hopefully the forecast clears up enough to get all these games in. Thank you for making Locked on Cardinals for first listen every day. If you haven't already, give us a follow on X at L.O underscore Cardinals. Tick-Tick-Tac Instagram. We're at Locked on Cardinals. Like and subscribe on YouTube, making our push for 15,000 subscribers. If you'd ever miss an episode, every day our club is there. Get locked on Cardinals, add free plus members only Discord access and more at a locked on sdl cardinals. com to join the club. They're doing that seven day free trial right now as well.

Starting point is 00:25:23 So sign up, check it out for yourself. For those of you on video, we're going to send you to the first ever 24-7 national lockdown podcast network, YouTube channel on audio. You are going to Locked on MLB. At least you should make that your second listen. You guys are the best fans in baseball for a reason. And I will see you next time on Locked on Cardinals.

Starting point is 00:25:42 Go get them, boys.

Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - SLUMPING: St. Louis Cardinals Offense NEEDS Answers! Bryan Torres Getting CALLED UP?

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