Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - St. Louis Cardinals SNATCH Win After Wild 9th to STUN The Reds And WIN Their 5th Straight Series!
Episode Date: August 21, 2026St. Louis Cardinals survive a wild ninth-inning comeback and then meltdown to clinch their fifth straight series win as chaos unfolds in Cincinnati. Can this resilient squad keep defying the odds in t...he NL Wild Card chase? JD Hafron breaks down the Cardinals’ rollercoaster victories, spotlighting key performances from Jordan Walker and rookie Joshua Baez, while questioning the bullpen’s reliability in high-pressure moments. The episode explores top prospects Rainiel Rodriguez and Liam Doyle’s dominance at Double-A Springfield, debates possible roster moves at catcher, and previews a challenging road trip against the surging Philadelphia Phillies. With updates on the wild card race, recent roster shuffles, and Phillies’ pitching matchups, the Cardinals’ postseason hopes hang in the balance. 00:00 Cardinals vs. Reds Chaos 12:52 Top Prospects Update 22:32 NL Wild Card Race 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! Amazon This Back To School Season, spend less on your kids, with Amazon. With Amazon’s low Back To School Prices, just spend less on your kids. Because every dollar you don’t spend on them, is a dollar you haven’t spent on them. Clutch Parlays Go to https://ClutchParlays.com today and use code LOCKEDON for your first month free on a monthly plan. Pick Smarter. Parlay Sharper. Stance Check out the ICON collection from Stance—premium comfort, performance, and durability designed for whatever your day brings. Use promo Code LOCKEDON at checkout for 20% off your purchase. Learn more at https://Stance.com. Stance. The Official Sock Partner of Major League Baseball. Dose Daily Ready to give your liver the support it deserves? Head to https://DoseDaily.co/LOCKEDONMLB or enter LOCKEDONMLB to get 35% off your first subscription. 5-Hour ENERGY Get candy-flavored chaos with Fruity Rainbow 5-hour ENERGY®️ Shots - available online at https://5hourENERGY.com or Amazon Clutch Parlays Go to https://ClutchParlays.com today and use code LOCKEDON for your first month free on a monthly plan. Pick Smarter. Parlay Sharper. KALSHI For a limited time, Download the Kalshi app and use code [LOCKEDON] to get $10 when you trade $10. 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. Join all the action at https://FANDUEL.COM to play Daily Dingers and make your free pick on who’s hitting a homer this MLB season. 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)
One of the most insane and improbable ninth innings you will ever witness ends with the Cardinals
Escaping Town with a fifth straight series 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. It's Shady Haffron and on today's show,
I'm going to recap things from around the league, obviously, because the Cardinals continue to hang around in this, in a wild card. I say that every time because that's what they keep doing, how things happened in the league and how that affects what the Cardinals are doing.
Moving forward, the organization's top two prospects continue to impress at Springfield. So I want to shine some light on what's going on with Rainiel Rodriguez and Liam Doyle. But let's reminisce, shall we?
one of the most insane, frustrating, yet satisfying into a ballgame that we've seen all season long.
Chaos is a great way to describe it.
And let me put this out there first and foremost.
This series, very easily, could have been a five-game sweep for the St. Louis Cardinals.
very easily. In fact, I feel like it should have been. Like I'm disappointed that they only took
three of two. But at the same time, at the same time, they almost lost three of five. They are a better
team than the Cincinnati Reds in almost every way. Line up depth, starting rotation, bullpen,
somehow, some way, they figured out ways to let the Reds take two games in the series,
which is extremely frustrating when you are defying the odds already
and are still very much in the in a wild card chase.
Losing the teams that are beneath you
and the reds are beneath the St. Louis Cardinals this year.
Losing to those kind of teams
is something you had the luxury of doing at this point
if you want to keep competing for a wild card spot.
And the Cardinals not only lost two games in which they were up a decent amount
and seemed to have in the bag,
but they should have lost a third game.
They should have.
They should not have won yesterday.
That shouldn't have happened.
But it did.
Game two of the double header.
Let's go back to that.
Game two of the double header,
you blow a four to one lead and give up the game tying home run
with two outs in the ninth inning.
Red shouldn't have been in that one.
You end up losing that game in 10 innings.
Bad Wednesday.
You're up two to nothing.
Matthew Libert-Tor looks fantastic.
you're in complete control.
You blow that lead.
You fall apart in the eighth inning.
And despite your heroic comeback attempt,
you lose five to four.
And then on Thursday,
you are dominating yet again.
You're up four to nothing.
You blow that lead.
And the baseball gods,
either really like the Cardinals
or they hate the Cincinnati Reds,
they got to step in and rescue you,
only to watch your bullpen almost cost you this gift that they gave you with two outs in the ninth inning.
J.J. Weatherholt, skies won to deep left center.
Nine hundred and ninety-nine times out of a thousand.
That ball is a can of corn in this club.
And Dane Myers, who's playing in center field, one of the biggest pests throughout this entire series against the Reds,
pretty good outfielder doesn't screw up a lot had made an air all season i don't think
miraculously drops the fly ball that would have ended the game right off his glove
him and t j fredel out there in left field i don't know what happened instead of the game
ending and the reds with a third come from behind victory over the cardinals instead the cardinals
take a six to five lead.
J.J. Weatherhold has no explanation.
He's at second base with his palms of the sky like,
what happened?
What?
And this leads to, again, with two outs, all of us.
This would lead to the Cardinals tacking on four more runs
thanks to an RBI single by Burley,
which probably is a play that a capable first baseman makes,
but they got Michael Tolia over there playing first base.
It was decent a couple of years.
ago for the for the Rockies, but like, I mean, this is the team you're playing.
Like this, it shouldn't be like this. But anyway, he doesn't make the play.
Base is load to walk to Joshua Baez, good at bat by the brook, two runs single by Jose
for me and his second in the inning after coming in as a pinch hitter for Nathan Church.
10 to 5 Cardinals out of nowhere. The sparse crowd that did show up to watch this game at GABP,
incomplete shock. They can't believe what has happened. I'm in shock.
like looking at my phone, I'm like, what, what is going on here?
I thought the game was over.
Locked on Reds host, Jeff Carr, he's in shock.
He's throwing his he fits in his car right now.
I saw like looking up on Twitter analysts, sports analysts around Cincinnati,
they're freaking out.
They're laughing.
They're making fun of the Reds for having their sunglasses on their hat.
Instead of on their faces covering their eyes when the ball was misper,
played. Now all you got to do, you got a five-run lead in the ninth inning. All you got to do
is get three outs, get on a plane and go to Philadelphia. Right? But no, nothing is ever easy
with this team. A George Soriano with a five-run lead can't throw strikes. Of course you can't.
Situation's so easy that we got to make it difficult. He walks three hitters, gives up a hit,
10-6 ball game.
Now, Ollie's got to go get Riley O'Brien up.
Dude was probably in his sandals, chilling,
mentally checked out of this game already,
but he gets rushed into action.
And after looking as dominant as we've ever seen him
over his last 11 games,
he immediately gives up a two-run hit to South Stewart
decides to just hang a slider or a sweeper or whatever it was,
breaking ball, right over the heart of the plate.
I don't know why they keep throwing.
Pitches over the heart of the plate
to the best hitter in the Reds lineup.
Stewart was a pain in the butt
the whole series as well, but he should be
when you're just throwing meatballs to him.
Now you've got a 10 to 8 ball game
and to make matters worse.
Now Riley O'Brien can't find the strike zone.
He walks JJ Bladay, loads him up.
He walks Stevenson to bring in another run.
We got a 10-9 ball game.
and now Matt McLean standing at the plate.
Been a terrible hitter all season,
but he's the guy that hit the Grand Slam
earlier in the game off Ryan Stannick
that flipped this game
from a comfortable four to one Cardinals lead
to a 5-4 Reds lead.
So now we're all freaking out, right?
Everybody on both sides.
Everybody's tense.
Everybody's got anxiety.
I got my cameras going out
in the middle of me freaking out about this.
This is how messed up this series was.
Like, that was perfect, I mean.
that the camera just dies.
Anyway,
O'Brien falls behind Matt McLean 2-0,
and then on a 2-1 pitch,
or a 2-1 pitch,
he grooves a sinker,
and it is ripped to right field,
and Jordan Walker has got to track it down
right in front of the wall to secure the wind.
To call the inning emotional is an understatement.
to go from accepting your fate, which I think a lot of us Cardo's fans did,
that you had just lost 3 of 5 to a bad Reds team that consistently features multiple hitters in their lineup hitting 200 or worse,
to dropping to your knees and thanking the baseball gods for their gift,
to chewing off all of your fingernails and hyperventilating into paper bags to keep from
passing out as you watch the bullpen meltdown to in the end cracking open whatever your
favorite adult beverage is wiping the sweat from the brow putting on your ugly shirt like
I got on right now and realizing that the Cardinals somehow some way just won their fifth
straight series to remain in the NL wildcard chase manager Ali Marmal after the game had the same
reaction as I did where he says I'm going to go shower I'm going to have an adult beverage
and I'm going to get on this plane and now think about that one because you can't.
There are so many things that put us in a position to win, so many things that allowed us to almost give it away.
And let's be honest, playing five and four days is not easy for any ball club.
I don't care if you're the Dodgers.
It ain't easy to play eight and seven on the road in the division.
That's not easy either.
Ali continued saying the reality is you got a bullpen that's answered the bell.
There's going to be days where they're tired.
they were tired. We just played a five game series without flipping any guys. That's very difficult to do.
They want this real bad and they're going to want to take the ball, which I appreciate,
but today was their first day where it showed, where there was some real fatigue, Stanick.
I take him on McLean like that to match up we take, but he gives it up, which is unfortunate.
But then Sory and Riley, man, that was just, they were, they were tired today.
But I appreciate them taking the ball more than anything. And there ain't no rest for the
Wicked. So we can sit here and feel sorry for ourselves as Cardles fans like,
oh, this is crazy. There's no downtime because now the team's in Philly this weekend,
game ones tonight, and Philly is playing as good as they've played in a while.
So we're going to talk more about that, the N-O wild card chase and everything here in
just a little bit, but that was something. And I hope I never have to go through that every
kid that that was rough. Something that hasn't been rough is the careers of two of the Cardinals
top prospects at least this year. And most recently, the last month here in August. So Renio Rodriguez,
Liam Doyle, they continue to impress at Springfield. Let's talk about them. Let's get the focus
off the major league team for a few moments. And let's talk about these top prospects who are doing
so well in the minor leagues. That's coming up next on Locked on Cardinals. I was juggling a couple
different apps the other day. And then I realized to myself, why don't I just use our friends at Clutch Parley's? Because that is their expertise. Instead of going to multiple different apps to check different injuries and betting lines, I can see it all in one with our friends at Clutch Parles. And a little bit of bonus there is they give you data to back their bets. Maybe you want to do a double for a star player that night. They can give you the percentage of what they hit on for that exact bet. And that's why I love our friends at Clutch Parles. But here's the offer for you. Find the best line.
and build smarter parleyes, track every bet, and make more informed betting decisions,
all with Clutchparlays.com.
Right now, Clutch Parles is offering a great deal for locked on listeners.
Your first month free on a monthly plan, they want to make sure that you get a real chance
to try it out and see what it can do for you.
Go to Clutchparlays.com today and use code locked on to claim it.
Clutchparlays.com bring together live odds, line shopping,
predictions, bet tracking, analytics in one place so you can bet.
with more confidence. Can we talk about one of the most underrated organs in your body?
Your liver. It's your body's filter, processing everything you consume and performing more than
500 functions every day. It's involved in things like energy production, digestion, fat metabolism,
and vitamin storage. So it's doing a lot of work behind the scenes. And that's why giving your liver
daily support can be important part of building healthy habits. Dose for your liver is a clinically
backed liver health supplement designed to support daily liver function, unlike other
capsules or powders.
Dose comes as a liquid two-ounce daily shot that tastes like fresh squeezed orange juice.
It's got zero sugar, zero junk, zero calories, and it makes it an easy addition to your daily
routine.
Even with a busy schedule, you can find time in the morning to take it and this move on
with your day and something like this with as many benefits as it's got, it's worth it.
It's worth taking that time to do it.
So if you're ready to give your liver the support it deserves,
that's you daily, go to dosdaily.co slash locked on MLB or enter locked on MLB to get
35% off your first subscription.
Once again, your body does so much for you.
Let's do something for it.
That's dose daily, D-O-S-E-D-A-I-L-Y dot co.
So C-O-S-L-L-B for 35% off your first month,
subscription. Thanks for making a locked on Cardinals your first listen of the day.
Thank you for making locked on the number one sports podcast network. Now,
the Cardinals Farm System was recently ranked number two overall by baseball America,
which is awesome. The Tampa Bay Rays ended up grabbing the number one spot.
I know most people thought it would be the Brewers, but it wasn't. It was the raise.
Brewers were number three, I believe. And the top three prospects, according to them for the
Cardinals, is catcher, Renio Rodriguez, out dealer Joshua Baez, and starting pitcher
Liam Doyle. Similarly,
MLB pipeline has it as Rodriguez number one, Doyle number two, and then Bayez number three.
Now, Baez, as we know, already up on the big league club, already made history with his three home runs in his first three at bats,
although he's only had one hit since that last home run.
He's continued to hit the ball hard.
Stole a couple of bags in this series against the Reds, took a big bases loaded walk in the comeback when yesterday and has locked in a regular spot in the outfield for Ollie's
club. The other two guys haven't even reached AAA yet, but they continue to impress everybody
who watches him play, or them play, I should say, not just him, but them, who watches them
play over there at AA Springfield. So let's start with Rodriguez, who's the 19-year-old,
number one rated catcher according to MLB pipeline in the minor leagues, not just for the Cardals,
the whole minor leagues, number one rated catcher. They got them ranked number 18 over
all began the year in high A, but after 28 games where he hit 311 with four home runs and 21
ribbies, he gets promoted, as he should. And after a brief adjustment period where things
weren't that easy for him, all he has done is rake for Springfield. And June, he hit 338
with five home runs and 14 ribbies. July goes to 305 slumps to 305 with five home runs and
13 RBI. Now in August, which we still got a week to go here, he's hitting four,
07 with four home runs and 13 RBIs.
Pretty consistent.
And over his last 40 games, he's batting 3.46 with 11 bombs and 33 rivies,
hit another dinger on Thursday to give him 15 at AA and 19 overall on the season.
And that's a pretty big accomplishment.
Dating back to 2006, just six players have hit 15 of more home runs at double A before turning 20 years old.
And it's a pretty good list here.
You've heard of a few of these guys for sure, like Giancarlo Stanton, who used to be Mike Stanton back in the day,
but Giancarlo Stanton now with the Yankees.
Fernando Tatis Jr. with the Padres, Jackson Churrio of the Milwaukee Brewers.
And now you've got newer names like Samuel Bessio of the Orioles and the guy that made Adley Rushman expendable,
former number one overall pick, made him expendable.
They shipped them to Boston because this kid's so good.
or Leo DeVries, who was traded to the A's as part of that Mason Miller deal with the Padres
and is the number two rated prospect of baseball.
So not bad company.
Now, how long before they move him to AAA Memphis is the real question at this point.
MLB recently did a list of guys who potentially could get called up for teams down the stretch here.
And they had catcher Leonardo Bernal listed for the Cardinals.
and this is what they said about Bernal.
22-year-old switch hitter has already set a career high with 15 home runs at AAA Memphis,
and he's been impressive with a 321, 384, 598 slash line in 29 games since the start of July.
With pop times, they can hover right around 1.8 seconds.
He also has an arm that would play in the majors immediately upon arrival.
And Bernal's solid mix of contact, swing decisions, and exit veloes would ease the transition to,
if given the chance.
Now, they do point out that the Cardinals do have quite a stable of catchers,
already up at the major league level.
Ivan Herrera, Pedro Pahez, Jimmy Crooks.
They're already there. They're on the roster.
And it seems like they got a nice little rotation going.
You know, Cardo's been winning more than they've been losing recently.
So would they rock the boat there just to make some room for Bernal?
My thing is, is that, you know, you're in this wildcard chase where you didn't expect to be.
But you're in this chase and you're catching position on the season is hitting 2.20.
All right.
There hasn't been a whole lot of production from there.
We were hoping Jimmy Crooks would be that guy.
It hasn't happened so far.
And again, you don't want to punt on this guy.
You want to give him more opportunities to see if he can finally put it all together
at the major league level.
But he's hit 174 on the year.
And in his last nine games, he's got no home runs in one RBI and nine strikeouts in 33
plate appearances.
He's not playing every day.
So it's hard to like say, okay, he sucks.
It's hard to say that.
You got to play Von Herrera.
You're going to keep him in the rotation.
Pahas has to come in from time to time as well because he's, you know,
he's a good defensive guy.
But would you, I mean, you're not going to cut bait with Pius.
So would you, can you send Jimmy Crooks back to?
I don't, I find it hard to believe that there's going to be room for Bernal,
like, which sucks because you would love to see his kind of production and his bathe ball skills
in the major leagues to see if that helps.
pump up that bottom of the lineup where the catching position's kind of in a hole.
So I don't know.
I don't know.
It doesn't feel like a very cardinal thing to do to rush him up there when you got three guys right now.
So I don't know.
I wouldn't expect it, but we'll see.
And as far as the Cardinal's top pitching prospect, which is Liam Doyle,
things continue to trend in the right direction for the leftie who was taken number five overall
in the 2025 draft.
Kate Anderson, who was taking number three overall, just got called up by the Mariners.
And Doyle isn't close to being called up to the major leagues, but maybe a promotion of Memphis is on the horizon for him because Doyle has been very, very good recently.
He took them out on, what, on Wednesday night, five innings, one run one hit, struck out nine.
And they're five to one, one over Arkansas.
In his last eight starts, he's throwing 39 to two thirds innings, which is about five innings to start.
has allowed just eight earn runs.
That's an ERA of 1.82.
Batters have a batting average of 169 against him over that stretch.
He struck out 51 hitters.
His walk 22.
And yeah, the walks are a little high.
But so are those strikeouts.
And his last four starts,
he's got strikeout totals of 10, 8, 6, and 9 on the season.
He's now got 115 of them in 87 innings pitch with an ERA of 4.14.
But like I said, his last eight starts.
he's at 1.82.
So something's clicking.
Something's working for him.
And depending on what the Cardinals decide to do with their roster spots at,
you know, here at the tail end of August into September,
it's going to affect whether or not these two guys get called up to the next level
and that much closer to the big leagues, you know.
I mean, yeah, we'd love to see Rodriguez and Doyle go to AAA just to see what it's like,
get a little tasty.
of it at the end of this season.
But we'll see.
We're not in a rush.
It's okay.
But which prospect, I'm curious which prospect you're more excited about.
Because you got one who's the hitter.
You got one who's the pitcher?
Who are you more excited about?
Who do you think gets up to the big glove quicker?
Because the Cardinals need for starting pitching?
They got a lot of catchers.
Rodriguez is starting to play more first base and stuff.
So they're trying to find other places to put them,
maybe even a third base.
We'll see. Let me know in the comments section below, which one of you most excited about who do you think reaches the big leagues first?
Up next, we're going to do some news and notes from around the league, including a former Cardinal who was already designated for assignment by his new team.
This is locked on Cardinals.
It's time for the everyday icon presented by stance.
The official sock partner of Major League Baseball stance knows greatness isn't built around a single moment.
It's earned over time through consistency, preparation, showing up every day.
That's why each week we recognize one player whose performance embodies those same qualities.
This week, the everyday icon is going back to my guy, Jordan Walker.
Look at my bobblehead of him right there.
Jordan Skywalker, my guy with the lightsaber, massive series in Cincinnati, hit 381,
two home run, six RBI, six runs scored, tossed in a stolen base as well.
pretty complete series for Jordan.
It did all that in 23 play appearances, by the way.
And for the month of August,
he's now up to 333 with four home runs of 15 ribbies.
All that home run derby broke Jordan nonsense.
You can put it to rest.
It's over.
It's over.
Stop saying it.
The everyday icon is presented by Stance.
Check out the icon collection from Stance,
premium comfort performance and durability designed for whatever your day brings.
Use promo code locked on at checkout for 20% off your purchase.
Stance.
social sock partner of Major League Baseball. Learn more at stance.com. If you got a sweet tooth like I do,
you know how tough it is to find that perfect treat without all the sugar, which is bad for you.
That's why the fruity rainbow five-hour energy shot brings that nostalgic flavor back in a whole new way.
Fruty rainbow, five-hour energy shots, treat your taste buds to an explosion of fruity flavor with a tasty caffeine kick.
It's a quick and easy way to satisfy that sweet craving while keeping things simple and on the go.
First and foremost, zero sugar treat.
It's also small.
It's portable.
It's not going to fill you up.
I can grab it whenever I need to pick me up, super quick and easy.
Crack it open, throw it down the hatch.
It's perfect.
It's become my go-to when I want something sweet without going overboard because it's so easy and so simple.
Get candy-flavored chaos with fruity rainbow five-hour energy shots.
It's available right now online at five-hour energy.
energy.com or on Amazon. Once again, go check it out for yourself.
Fruity Rainbow five hour energy shots at five hour energy.com or on Amazon.
Thanks for making Lockdown Cardinals for first list another day. Thank you for making
locked on the number one sports podcast network. So that Nelson Velasquez, Aaron Houston,
did not last long. The Astros announced that they had recalled infielder Ray
El-Dagado from AAA Sugarland and that Nelly has been DFAed as the corresponding move.
Now, they're saying that it's not really because he's doing anything wrong.
It's because they just got a numbers crunch and some injury issues.
Houston just claimed him off flavors from the Cardinals 10 days ago.
Since that claim, hasn't done a whole lot either.
He's gone hitless and five plate appearances.
But from all the reports, it's really not because of anything that he's done wrong.
So it's not like, oh, my gosh, he's so bad.
That's not why.
It's just they got to move some things around.
And they got to sacrifice an outfielder and do that.
So, Nellie, back on the, uh,
free agent market. I don't know if he's going to stay with Houston's organization or go somewhere else.
We'll see. We'll see. After this wacky series, let's talk about the standings and stuff,
the wacky series in Sensi. Cardinals sit at 66 and 63 on the season,
two and a half back in the wild card behind the Padres, who kind of got a bit of a layup this
weekend when they host the Minnesota Twins. The Cardinals are now a game and a half back of the
Diamondbacks who this could tell Marte stuff continues to unfold. They're transferring
him to the 10-day IL now after being on the restricted list. Apparently he's not only dealing with
a personal issue, which hasn't been brought to light exactly what it is, but he's also hurt.
inflammation in his upper hamstring and medial joint in his left knee. So that's not good
for what the Diamondbacks are trying to do. The Diamondbacks are now headed to Cincinnati
to face the Reds this weekend. And Reds, I'm going to tell you this once. If you don't come out
playing like it's the World Series, the way you do against the Cardinals, then shame on you.
Because for whatever reason, they tend to step up when the Cardinals are in town.
They love to see if they can take down Big Brother.
And then they lay an egg when everybody else shows up.
So you better come out.
If you're going to try to play spoiler against the Cardinals, you better come out and try
to play spoiler against the Arizona Diamondbacks as well.
Okay?
Just saying.
Just saying.
since dropping two of three to the Cardinals.
Let's talk about the Phillies now for a second.
Since dropping two of three, the Phillies have not lost the game.
And I got that wrong.
The Reds are in Arizona.
I apologize.
The Reds are in Arizona.
I was just thinking to myself, hold on a second.
That can't be right because they just played Arizona at home.
So they're in Arizona to take on the direbacks.
But the Cardinals are for sure in Philadelphia this.
weekend. And since dropping two of three, the Phillies have rattled off six straight wins,
including the Field of Dreams game, which was, I guess the ratings weren't so great on Netflix.
They took two or three in a row from Minnesota. They take three in a row from the Marlins,
which helped out the Cardinals because the Marlins are right there on the heels of Cardinals in the race.
Tonight is Kyle Schwabber Bobblehead Night in Philly. So that adds another layer of energy to
this series. Plus the Phillies have had, and this is where it sucks for the Cardinals. The
Thales have had two days off in their last seven days.
They had the day off yesterday and the day off after their Field of Dreams game.
Now, they went from the Cardinals straight to Tennessee to do the Field of Dreams game,
and then they got the day off after that.
So it wasn't easy, but they still, they got two days off in their last seven days.
The Cardinals, meanwhile, have played eight games.
in their last seven days.
They played five in the last four,
while the Phillies have played five in their last seven.
So keep that in mind when we go into this series.
Philly should be well rested.
They're at home, relaxing.
They're rolling.
They've won six in a row while the Cardinals,
who have won five straight series,
but are coming in on fumes.
They are gassed at this point.
Schedule has not done them a lot of favors here at the end.
And the Phillies are a really good team.
We already know that.
And they're set to go with two lefties
in the series, which isn't always the best thing for the Cardinals.
They got Jesus Lazzardo going tonight, the right-hander, Andrew Painter on Saturday,
and then it's Christopher Sanchez again on Sunday.
Cardinals have proved that they can be resilient.
They've done it all season, but man, oh, are the chips certainly stacked against them
this weekend in Philadelphia.
So best of luck, but it's another reminder that maybe if things don't go quite as well this weekend,
you should, at least I'm not going to freak out about it.
about it. But we'll see. That's why they play the games, right? We're going to keep saying that.
Thanks for making Locktown Cardinals. First listen every day. If you haven't already give us a follow
on X at LO underscore Cardinals, we're on TikTok and Instagram at Locktown Cardinals. You can like
and subscribe on YouTube for over 15,000 subscribers now. So thank you so much. For your second
listen, check out MLB game night. Every game, every night until World Series champion is crowned.
You get local analysis, but it's on a national scale. You can find it on the Lockton.
It will be YouTube channel or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
You're the best fans of baseball for a reason.
We'll see you next time on Lockdown Cardinals.
I'm still worn out from the game yesterday.
Crazy stuff.
