Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - St. Louis Cardinals' Pitcher Dustin May REDEEMS Himself After Shaky Start | Boys FALL Flat In Finale

Starting point is 00:00:00 After being the butt of jokes early on, Dustin May is becoming the guy that we all hoped he'd be when the Cardinals signed him. 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. Hafer and on today's show, we're going to check in on the latest starts from prospects Quinn Matthews and Gerangelo Sanger. But we start with the Cardinals win on Tuesday. And then unfortunately we got to talk about the loss on Wednesday. So Tuesday, five to three victory, which it never really felt that tight until Ryan Stanick came out of the bullpen.

Starting point is 00:00:46 We'll get to him in a little bit. But outside of Stanick, you know, you had to be impressed with what you saw from the Cardinals pitching staff. And it all started with right-hander Dustin May. You know, we all know that this season did not start good for Dustin May. It was a struggle to say the least. bad is kind of an understatement, you know, 15.95BRA after his first two starts, not exactly good. The fan base was starting to call him Miles Michaelis.

Starting point is 00:01:12 They were making jokes about it, calling him Michaelis Part Duh, among other names that can't be repeated on this family-friendly episode of Lockedon Cardinals. But you couldn't blame anyone for being upset, really. You know, the Cardinals didn't spend a whole lot of money on free agents this year. And the one guy they did go with was getting torched. anytime he took the mound. So people were like, great. You guys have no idea what you're doing. You're wasting money.

Starting point is 00:01:37 You're wasting our time. What is this? But since that second start against the Tigers, things have been night and day better for Dustin May. And he continued his solid work on Tuesday in Miami. Going five in the third innings, he allowed just one run on six hits, one walk.

Starting point is 00:01:54 He struck out a season high five. The one run he did give up was to the first batter of the game when Jacob Marcy ripped that line shot home run to right field that just cleared the wall, but it was an absolute seed. You know, it wasn't a cheapie at 110 miles per hour. But after that, May was very much in control of this game. And one of the keys was getting ahead of hitters. And I know it sounds very simple, but that's what worked for May.

Starting point is 00:02:18 It's just throwing strikes at the beginning of each of bat. He threw a first pitch strike or at least got a foul on the opening pitch. And each of his five strikeouts, he only had the one deep count. against Norby, Connor Norby, but struck him out on the heater in the end. Derek Gould pointed out that he got 12 outs from the next 15 batters and did not allow another Marlin to reach second base safely until the fourth inning. He landed six different pitches during the game. They average anywhere from 83.9 miles per hour to 97 miles per hour.

Starting point is 00:02:50 And since those two gruesome starts, May has been, dare I say, outstanding. He's been outstanding, allowing just one earned run. in each of those next three starts. And more importantly, the Cardinals are picking up wins. He's picking up wins. They win all three of them as well. Combined ERA in the last three games, 1.56. He's only walked two.

Starting point is 00:03:12 He struck out 13. And I'm going to continue to say this as long as it's relevant. He's healthy. He looks healthy. That's been the biggest obstacle in May's career since he was with the Dodgers, as well as when he went to Boston, is that injuries crept up on him. and they would knock him out.

Starting point is 00:03:29 And right now, fingers crossed, you know, he's healthy. He looks healthy. And the fastball below is where you want it. It's a tick under 97, which is in the 84th percentile of Major League Baseball, the walk percentage, 90th percentile. You know, when he stays away from the heart of the plate, which has been his biggest enemy this year so far, is just throwing too many pitches over the heart.

Starting point is 00:03:54 He's been extremely effective. And you're seeing that in these last three hours. outings and things were going just fine in this game until Ryan Stannock got in the game. And I know they have to get him into games. I get it. You got to get him right. He's a guy that you're going to rely on. They're not cutting bait with this dude.

Starting point is 00:04:12 They're not sending them out. They're not going to DFA them. They're trying to figure out, okay, what's going on here? We got to figure this out. And they bring them in when they have a four run lead. You feel like that should be safe. but my gosh is watching him pitch one of the most stress-inducing tasks on God's Green Earth. I want to like Ryan Stanick as a pitcher.

Starting point is 00:04:37 I don't dislike him as a person by any means. He's got the look. He's a hometown guy. Seems to be a great dude. But my gosh, when he comes in, I can barely watch. It's like I'm watching a scary movie. When's something bad going to jump out and get us? because I know that it's going to make me mad.

Starting point is 00:04:59 It's not going to scare me. It's going to make me mad when he comes in. Guys got this electric fastball that averages 98 miles per hour, 93rd percentile in all of baseball. But if you don't know where it's going, it doesn't do you a whole lot of good. And batters are hitting the snod out of it. Opponents are betting 370 against his fastball,

Starting point is 00:05:18 500 against his slider. The average exit below against him is almost 95 miles per hour. in the one first percentile against. Like he's as bad as it gets. It's awful. And if they aren't hitting him, he's walking him. He's putting them on with walk after walk after walk. He's thrown 10 innings this year and he's walked 10 guys, allowed 10 earned runs.

Starting point is 00:05:42 He's given up 14 hits while striking out 14. He is Nuke La Looch from Bull Durham. And if he's not getting them to strike out, they're just getting on base. He's like the Adam Dunn of pitchers. There are three possible outcomes. You get a hit, you get a strikeout, or you're going to walk. Something's happening. And two out of those three things are bad for this Cardinals.

Starting point is 00:06:06 And he comes in the eighth inning on Tuesday. And in the blink of an eye, the bases are loaded, all on walks. And you just can't live like that. You just can't and expect to stick around. But I'm not thinking that they're ready to. give up on him yet. I don't know when that's going to come, but here's the thing. They don't have anybody that's ready to go that's going to push him out of this bullpen. Like they still got, you know, Ryan Fernandez is still in there. You've got Chris Roycroft. You're going to bring him

Starting point is 00:06:40 up. Like who you bring it up to take his place. So I'm not saying they're going to cut ties with him any time soon, even though everybody wants it to. But eventually, if he keeps putting these putting these numbers up the way they are and he keeps putting the team in these predicaments, they might have to do something. But for now, I'm guessing they're going to work with them, try to figure this whole thing out. Lucky for Stannick and the Cardinals, they got Riley O'Brien, who's been God set this year, pumping 101 on Tuesday night, got the save. He's been incredibly good this year. And it started to get some national attention because a lot of the big name closers around the league are either injured or they suck right now. Like a lot of them

Starting point is 00:07:22 are really, really struggling. You got, you know, Mason Miller, who's on another level with the Padres. And then there's Riley O'Brien right behind him, but a lot of these guys are having a tough go. Now, offensively, you did have some big nights on Tuesday from Mason Win, Alex Burleson, Evon Herrera, Nathan Church.

Starting point is 00:07:39 Mason had two more hits and is bad in 252 now, which may not sound all that great, but when you realize that he was hitting under 200 before the Houston series, it kind of shows you how hot he's really been. Alec Berlinson with two hits and two RBIs. Yvonne Herrera, two for five. I got Nathan Church.

Starting point is 00:07:57 Yes, church on Tuesdays. That worked out. Nathan Church goes yard in this one to make it four to one at the time. Did that in the fourth inning. His second home run of the season. He also stole his third base of the season as well. So all in all Tuesday was a really fun game to watch outside of the stannic panic, as we're calling it now.

Starting point is 00:08:20 So, yeah, outside of that, it was really, really fun to watch. Wednesday's game was not fun to watch. And if you nodded off in the middle of this game or knotted off multiple times, I don't blame you. Wednesday was not good. And sadly, we got to talk about it because that's what we do here. So we'll get into that next coming up on Locked on Cardinals. The NBA playoffs are here where every possession matters,

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Starting point is 00:10:48 than what we saw on Tuesday. This was so boring. So boring. Ali had Burley Walker when all of them on the bench. And in their place, you had Urius, Hermine, and Sejacy.

Starting point is 00:11:07 And when Ramon Arias is your cleanup hitter, then you realize you're in deep doo-doo, and you're probably going to struggle this day. And that's exactly what we saw. As soon as I saw the lineup, I was like, oh, it's play the backups day in Major League Baseball, huh? It just knew it wasn't going to go well. and what we saw for a little while, at least while it was on because the telecast went out

Starting point is 00:11:35 thanks to a power surge at the ballpark in Miami, or maybe it was just the game was that boring and even the equipment decided to take the rest of the day off because it sucked. You decide. It just was so dull. And here's the thing. I understand why these guys were out of the lineup. I do get it. It's a long season.

Starting point is 00:11:54 they have a 17 games and 17 days stretch, which is going to start on Friday when they come home. These guys need rest, all right? I understand it. We're talking about the long haul here. What's the end game? Not so much what's happening today, but what's the end game? And if you can give them two days off before they got to play 17 in a row, that's kind of a luxury you want to take advantage of.

Starting point is 00:12:20 So I get it. You're hoping that the guys that you plug in are going to have good guys. games, but it didn't happen. I really do understand, but man, was that rough to watch today. That was, that was brutal. And the guys seemed to be like in a really big hurry. I don't know they were overly excited because they were all playing, but they were in such a hurry to get out of there. Like they were swinging at everything, swinging early, swinging often. And they hardly made Marlon starter Jansen Junk work at all. He breezed through five innings on just 56 pitches. That's what happens in like MLB the show in our video games because

Starting point is 00:13:00 we swing it just about everything. He allowed just one hit. He struck out a couple, but hardly any deep counts. 11 of 17 plate appearances ended in three or fewer pitches. I mean, it was like the Cardinals were like on a, didn't have a chartered flight. And they were running late to catch their flight, still had to pack, go to the airport, or their flight was going to leave them, leave without them. So I was like, what are we doing here? Like, why are we swinging and everything? But I'm not in charge. I'm not in charge. I'm a more patient man than that. Cardinals, man, is just four hits in this game and have three guys hitting under 200 that were in the lineup in this game. Urius was 0 for 4. He's down to 186. So J.C. over 3 is down to 180.

Starting point is 00:13:46 Victor Scott, 0 for 3, he's down to 197. Now, Arias and Sejacy, they're part-time guys, so I'll cut them a little bit of slack, but man, oh, man, dude, Victor Scott is he down bad right now? Last 15 games for Victor Scott, three for 32. Three for 32? That's a 94 batting average. Two runs scored, one stolen base, got thrown out stealing, 10 strikeouts. Like, there's not a whole lot going right for Victor Scott.

Starting point is 00:14:16 a baseball diamond right now. The defense in center field is still pretty good. He's a plus two outs above average, but he's starting to give off the Michael Siani vibes. Remember Michael Siani? And we're like, wow, man, this guy can really play some defense, but can't hit a lick. And that's kind of how it is right now with Victor Scott. And all hitters go through slumps. You know, he was hitting pretty well at the start of the season. And now he's in this, this funk at the moment. And the thing is, you know, speed doesn't slump, but the fact that Victor can't get any offense going. It doesn't matter of you, bunting, swinging away, taking pitch, like none of it's working. It's just something to keep an eye on right now because if he's not hitting when Lars Neupark comes back,

Starting point is 00:15:00 which we're still quite a ways away from that happening. But if he's not, if he's still where he is right now, does Nathan Church start stealing starts in center field instead of Victor Scott and Victor becomes more of a punch runner defensive replacement, type of guy. I hope it doesn't get to that. I hope he turns it around because we know how electric he can be when he gets on base, but you got to get there. Can't steal first. Kyle Leahy did his best to slow down the Cardinals in this game after the hitters were going so quick, you know, it was a non-existent offense. And then you got Kyle Leahy on the other side who's struggling with his command. Last in five innings just like junk did, but it took him

Starting point is 00:15:41 89 pitches to do it. He allowed four runs on eight hits. He walked three. He only struck out two. In a nutshell, it was a pretty disappointing performance. And I know it's still early on, but the transition for Leahy to go from bullpen to starting rotation guy, it hasn't worked out as smoothly as you'd hoped. And that's not unexpected. You know, last year when Matthew Libertor did the same thing, it wasn't like he just came out and started looking like 1885 John Tudor or something. He still doesn't look like that. But, you know, Libby struggled and later had stamina issues because he got worn down real early

Starting point is 00:16:18 and had command issues and a lot of the same things that Kyle Leahy's dealing with at the moment. In the end, you see the four runs and five innings for Leahy. Things could be much worse than that. I get it. But he had very little offense in this game. So it felt like they were down 10 to nothing instead of four to nothing. You just, there was at no point.

Starting point is 00:16:38 in this game that I feel like, oh, you know, we're, we're just a bloop and a blast away from getting right back in now. It never felt like they were going to do anything. Cardinals didn't even score their lone run until the ninth inning. And that was when Ivan Herrera smacked his third home run of the season. And it was a missile. It was good. 108.2 off the bat. His stat cast page, is what, one of the reasons why I'm excited about Ivan Herrera still is that his, his stat cast page at baseball savon, it's getting more and more red by the day. Like he's already got like, like the elite walk percentage and he's not chasing and all that stuff. And now you're starting to see him hit the ball much harder.

Starting point is 00:17:15 He's more aggressive with things. So I'm excited for what Ivan Herrera is becoming. You got him, you got Burley, you got Walker. All of their baseball savant pages are just drenched in red right now. It's a beautiful thing to see. The guys that are struggling a little bit, Mason wins is getting better, obviously. but, you know, JJ's isn't all that great, although he's getting on base a lot, but you want to start seeing JJ, you know, hit the ball with authority and gets more base hits

Starting point is 00:17:45 than he has, but you just keep getting on base. He's a rookie. I'm not freaking out about that whatsoever, but like Victor's page is gross. Nathan Church's page is pretty gross. Pahas, his page is pretty gross as far as the offensive stuff. You know, there's a lot of holes in this lineup, which we knew was going to happen. We knew it. We knew this was going to be a really good offensive team.

Starting point is 00:18:09 So, but you get Burley and Yvonne, JJ on base, Walker, if he keeps doing what he's doing, Gorman's page is kind of gross, obviously. You know, you get these guys going and, you know, you can win some ballgames, which is what they've been doing. But hopefully, you know, they get the day off tomorrow and hopefully that they're re-energized by the time Friday rolls around. They're going to be hosting Seattle for three. Then they hit the road to face the pirates for four. Then they're back home and guess who comes to town.

Starting point is 00:18:38 The Dodgers for three, Brewers for three. And then you're back on the road traveling out west to San Diego for four before they get their next day off. That's quite the gauntlet that you're going to have to go through. Seattle's the only team in that group that has struggled this year. Pittsburgh's much improved. They're at Texas tonight, so we'll see how they do.

Starting point is 00:19:03 But Dodgers, best team on the plan. maybe in the universe. Brewers are still the Brewers. They're as annoying as ever to play. We know how they can drive you nuts. San Diego is right there with the Dodgers right now. Last check, they were tied at the top of the NL. West. So everyone but Seattle in this next 17 game stretch is over 500. So this is really going to be quite the test for this team that in most people's opinion has outperformed so far in 2026. Are they going to fall apart and come back to the middle of the pack or are they going to be able to at least stay at, you know, finish 500 over these next 17 games, like be able to be right there and sustain

Starting point is 00:19:46 this good start they've had to the season. We're going to find out. We're heading down to the farm next to check in on the organization's top prospects, including Gerangelo of saying you doing some switch pitching for the first time since coming to the Cardinals. We'll get into it on Locktown Cardinals. Thanks again for making Lockton Cardinals, your first list of the day. Thank you for making Lockdown on the number one sport.

Starting point is 00:20:14 Sports Podcast Network. Memphis, Redbirds kicked off a six-game road trip at Norfolk with a 73 loss on Tuesday night. Center fielder Joshua Baez, who were all super excited about and catcher. Jimmy Crooks drilled back-to-back home runs at the top of the eighth inning. Crooks is seventh of the season. Baez has got four now. Second back-to-back jacks for Memphis this season. Byez and Bleas. Jordan did it April 10th at Charlotte. So you love to see that, although did not get the win. second baseman Brian Torres, who's kind of becoming my guy, smacked a triple to lead off the game. He's only hitting 380.

Starting point is 00:20:49 He's only hitting 380 at AAA. I wonder what it's going to take for him to get a taste of the big leagues. And why is it that he hasn't gotten one yet? I don't know. I know he's older. I know he's late 20s, but still, like, if you can hit, you can hit. So we'll see. We'll see.

Starting point is 00:21:07 A guy can play infield and outfield. Seems like a pretty good utility bench guy to keep around. Anywho, so he had that triple later started the scoring on that Crook's RBI ground out. The problem with the Memphis game where they lost seven to three was what we got out of Quinn Matthews. And he's really starting to worry me. I know last year was his first year at AAA full season, getting used to a new baseball, had some injury concerns. But Quinn Matthews, oh and two right now. He allowed three runs.

Starting point is 00:21:36 Only two of them earned on two hits. That doesn't sound bad at all, right? He walks six. Six struck out four in four and a third innings. That's now 16 walks in 15 to two thirds innings from Matthews. This cannot continue. Somehow he's got to figure this out. His stuff is too nasty to be walking people all the time.

Starting point is 00:21:59 You just can't be your own worst enemy out there. You can't kill yourself. Opponents are hitting just 203 against him. But he walks so many guys that they don't even need to hit off of them. They just let him do all the work. So got to get quit, Matthews figured out. Matt Pushard allowed one run on two hits, walked one, struck out one in the two innings of work out of the bullpen.

Starting point is 00:22:20 He continues to rehab before coming back to the team as a Rule 5 pick, which he has to come back. So interesting to see what they'll do there. I'm assuming Ryan Fernandez will be the guy that gets sent away when Pushard is ready. Chris Roycroft, remember him, posted the lone scoreless appearance for Memphis with a hitless eight right handers lowered his uh triple a era to one point three five but it was ghastly when he was up on the big club so and this is what i'm telling you is like you're upset about what the cardals bullpen looks like right now you know we don't like stanick people start to call him ryan stank

Starting point is 00:22:57 uh you don't like ryan fernandez you don't like chris roycroft but who you bring it up like somebody's got to take on some innings and um they got to get they got somebody's got get it right. So Matt Pushard hopefully can be somebody that helps when he's ready to go, but we'll see. Springfield on Tuesday for the first time since joining the Cardinals organization as part of that Britain Donovan, Tray, Gerangelo, St. John, recorded an out from both sides of the mound. Number five prospect, according to the MLB pipeline for the Cardinals, number 81 overall, delivered four and two-thirds of, on Tuesday night, AA Springfield allowed one run, three hits.

Starting point is 00:23:44 He struck out four. He walked three. Stop walking people. But they won the game, five to four over Midland. And first six batters, he faced his righty, a lot of lead off Homer, followed by two hits before kind of settling in there and ended the first inning. Came back out for the second with the glove on the left hand and worked the strikeout before turning around.

Starting point is 00:24:05 hit the first batter he faced that induced what looked like a potential double play ball before there was a throwing error. Those were the only two batters. He faced lefties. Still, big moment, big moment for the unique switch pitcher who came to the Cardinals with a heavy focus on being a right-hander.

Starting point is 00:24:21 They're not saying that he's never going to throw lefty. It's something that, you know, sprinkle it in here and there. They want him to focus on the right-hand side. Whatever he's best at is really what we want. He lowered his season ERA to 5.50, 20 total strikeouts at 18 innings. It's his second stint at AA level, having made seven starts with a 2.67 ERA in 2025 while he was with the Mariner. So good things, hopefully in the future for both him and Quinn Matthews and for all of the Cardinals prospects.

Starting point is 00:24:55 So that's kind of what we're looking at. Boring game on Wednesday. It was terrible. I would have rather have done a whole lot of different thing. I would have rather pulled out my own fingernails than watch that game on Wednesday. That was rough. And it's not fun watching them play in Miami either. There was the attendance.

Starting point is 00:25:14 Listed attendance was under 8,000 people, like paid attendance. And there wasn't 8,000 people at that game today. So that was gross. And that wasn't fun. So it's really kind of dragged down the energy of the game in the first place. So glad we don't have to play there again. Let's get back home to Bush. and let's pack the house at Bush Stadium this weekend with the Mariners in town.

Starting point is 00:25:36 Sadly, no Brennan Donovan, but still, you know, the Mariners are a good squad, and we'll see how the Cardinals stack up against them this weekend. Thanks for making Lockedong Cardinals for first list. If you haven't already, give us a follow on X at L.O underscore Cardinals, TikTok and Instagram, and Locked on Cardinals. Like, subscribe on YouTube. We're at 14.3,000 subscribers right now. We're trying to make that push to 14.5, 14.5.

Starting point is 00:26:03 So if you can help us, would love your help and your participation. So if you'd ever miss an episode, everyday air club built for you, get locked on Cardinals ad free, members only Discord access and more. Full free month by using the code finally. Head to lock down SdL cardinals.com to join the club. For those of you on video, we send you to the first ever 24-7 national, Lockdown Podcast Network, YouTube channel on audio, make your second list on locked on MLB. You guys are the best fans at baseball for a reason.

Starting point is 00:26:31 We'll see you next time on Locked on Cardinals. Enjoy the day off on Thursday.

Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - St. Louis Cardinals' Pitcher Dustin May REDEEMS Himself After Shaky Start | Boys FALL Flat In Finale

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