Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - St. Louis Cardinals SQUANDER Multiple Opportunities In Shutout Loss To The Pittsburgh Pirates

Episode Date: July 2, 2025

0:00 Intro: Cardinals shut out by Pirates again 4:06 Cardinals waste strong effort from Pallante 13:57 Missed opportunities and baserunning mistakes 18:33 Cardinals fail to execute in clutch situations 21:42 Andre Pallante's outstanding pitching performance 25:46 Preview of next game against Pirates 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/ Follow on Twitter/X: @JDSPORTSRADIO Follow the show on Twitter/X: @LO_Cardinals Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! Supply House Join the TradeMaster program today at SupplyHouse.com/TM and start ordering plumbing, HVAC, and electrical supplies with just a few clicks. Plus, use promo code S-H-5 for 5% off your first order. That’s SupplyHouse.com! Monarch Money Take control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONMLB at monarchmoney.com/lockedonmlb for 50% off your first year. Gametime Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONMLB for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime. FanDuel Right now, new customers can get ONE HUNDRED FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS when your first FIVE DOLLAR BET WINS! Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started. Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of the NBA. 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.

As frustrating a game as I can remember, the St. Louis Cardinals against all odds, figure out a way to get shut out again by the Pittsburgh Pirates. Roll the intro. You are Locked on Cardinals. Your daily St. Louis Cardinals podcast, part of the Lopton Podcast Network, your team every day. Hey, there are Cardals fans. I'm J.D. Hafford and I'm your host for Locktown Cardinals, part of the Locktown Podcast Network covering your team every day. on X at JD Sports Radio, the podcast also on X at L0 underscore Cardinals. We're on YouTube.

If you didn't know that, make sure you stop on by, like, subscribe, and comment, hit that notification button. You can also find us on TikTok and Instagram. This is a show serving Cardinal Nation and giving the best fans of baseball, all of the info about the birds on the bat. Today's episode being brought to you by Monarch Money. Take control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code locked on MLB at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. So there are games that you lose where you have to throw your hands up in the air and say, hey, good job. Good job to the other team, man.

They went out there. They outplayed us. They beat us. They deserve to win the game. There are games that you have no business winning. And you just get hammered by your opponent, like Monday, for instance. And you say, hey, we got to shake it off. man, you know, sometimes things just don't go your way.

We'll get up next time. No big deal. What we saw on Tuesday was neither of those. What we witnessed on Tuesday night was a complete failure by the St. Louis Cardinals' offense in just about every way that you can screw up to not win a baseball game. These are the games that make me want to drink. and I'm not talking about a seltzer out by the pool. I'm talking about bourbon,

neat, and just drink. Golly was this one a frustrating game to watch. You know, you look at the mistakes that were made. How many times have we said the little things? The Cardinals, when they do the little things right, they are a good team. They were not a good team on Tuesday night. The inability, this is on the offensive side, the inability to hit in key situations,

to hit a fly ball in a key situation, the inability to lay down a simple bud, the inability to read a soft liner off the bat, the inability to slide into the base after you misjudge said line drive, the inability of a third base coach to know when to send a runner. The third base coach, same guy, who basically made the exact same mistake against the exact same team against the exact same left fielder

and gets another runner thrown out by a mile at home play. The St. Louis Cardinals are not good enough to overcome crap like this. They're just not. and it bit them in the butt and cost them a win on Tuesday. Make no mistake. The Pittsburgh Pirates, yeah, they get the W.

They didn't win this game. The St. Louis Cardinals lost this game. They gave it to the Pittsburgh Pirates. And to do it in a game against a talent like Paul Skeens, to battle him as tough as they did for the five innings that he, he was around. And to waste an outstanding effort by Andre Palante, it just adds to the misery of it all, which was a one to nothing loss in Pittsburgh. And when you get blanked by the pirates and Paul Skeens as the starter, you would think that Skeens had a great day, that he dominated your lineup,

which is something he's been known to do against people. That is not what happened on Tuesday. The Cardinals wore that dude down. Now, Paul Skeens wasn't bad. He was good. He was good. But the Cardinals battled him and made him work. And he was gone after five innings. He was exhausted, wiped out. And the way that they were working him, forcing him into deep counts, fouling pitches off, not chasing things. It was awesome to watch.

And it seemed like a matter of time before they were going to finally break him. The problem was when they had the chances to finally, do that. They didn't capitalize on them. I'm going to take you through. There's a bunch of spots in this game where the Cardinals were set up for success and failure ensued instead. First inning, Mason win, two out double, or not a two out double, one out double. Grounder moves them over. Can't get the two out hit. But that's not a huge thing. That happens. It's okay. I'm not bashing that one. Third inning, back-to-back singles by Victor Scott and Donnie. You got first and third and nobody out with one of the fastest guys in the league standing on third base.

All you need is a fly ball. Nothing fancy. Doesn't have to be anything super deep, you know, shallow stuff. Got to get Victor Scott in. 99% of the time. But when has an unproductive out, strikes out on four pitches. Alec Berlinson then hits a soft line drive to the short stuff. At no point did it look like.

that was going into the outfield. Like the shortstop hardly had to move. And somehow, Brendan Donovan gets too far off of first base and gets doubled up. I had to go back and check. I was like, was he running on the play maybe? That was something. No. He just went too far off the base.

And then I don't know why he didn't slide into first base when he was coming back. He just stayed standing and, like, tried to hang on to the back. I don't know, what the hell was that? And then he kind of, like, put his arms up like he didn't, I don't know, I don't know what happened. I don't know if he lost sighted. I don't know. But it was weird. It was terrible base running all around by him.

But the Cardinals can't get the ball out of the infield. Schemes escapes. Fourth inning, Wilson Contreras gets it on the hand. 14th time he's been hit on the year. And it always feels like he's getting hit up and in on the hands and the arms. and he's sick of it. That's why he was chirping at the Cubs when he got hit in that game. And he's pissed.

You can tell. trainers have to come out and check on him. He stays in the game for now. Nolan Gorman singles. Now you got first and second. Nobody out for Jose Fermin who's in because Nolan Aronado is dealing with a jammed finger. And for me, attempts to lay down the sack of punt. Smart play in theory, right?

Move the guys over. You're playing for one run because this is Paul Skeenger going up. against. I get it. But instead he pops it up and Skeens makes the catch. Pop that's the pitcher on a bun attempt. One out, no movement, unproductive at bat. And I'm not saying that Paul Skeens is an easy guy to bun against. I'm not. I'm sure it's quite difficult. Dude's awesome. But it's just one of those fundamental things that you'd expect a major league baseball player to be able to do more times than not. And yet not many of them, like it's not just the Cardinals. Not many people around the league actually are all that good at bunning.

But Brin can't get the bunting. So they basically just gave him an out. Newton has an unproductive at bat. He flies out to right field to bring in Pedro Pahas. And that's when one of the most deja vu type of plays goes down and the similarities are staggering. We're going to relive the pain together. Come with me.

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Now stop me if you've heard this one before. Cardinals at the Pirates score zero zero. Runner on second, Pedro Pahez at the dish. Gets a base hit to left field where Tommy Fam is waiting. He scoops it with ease, throws out the runner attempting to score at home play by quite a bit. inning is over. Do you know why that sounds familiar? It's because the Cardinals did the same damn thing on the same damn field with the

the same damn score with the same damn hitter in Paix at the plate and the same guy Tommy Fam in left field in an eerily similar situation on April the 9th. This has already happened. There is a glitch in the matrix because this happened already on April the 9th. The differences here is that Michael Siani was the runner on second that day in April. This time, On July 1st, you have a much slower runner in Wilson Contreras. He's not a snail by any means. But 48th percentile sprint speed, he is below average. That's just the truth.

And the ball in April wasn't hit nearly as hard as this ball was hit on July the 1st. This time the ball goes off the bat at 103 miles per hour. And Tommy Fam is in left field. You guys know Tommy Fam. He was on your team last year. You know how accurate his arm is? He already showed you on April the 9th. This time, fam fields it a little bit deeper,

probably, I don't know, 10 feet deeper. But everything else is almost identical. Pop Warner, he's over third. Go, go, go, go. Windmills him home, runner gets gunned by a ton. The similarities to that mistake. stake in April and this one in July are so close, it's almost amusing. If the Cardinals had won this game, I would look back on it and probably laugh.

But I'm not in a laughing mood after what I saw on Tuesday and I said it that day and I'm saying it again, there's a time to be aggressive. There are times for it and I will applaud it. And then there's just being foolish. this would appear to be the latter once again. Now, if that is Victor Scott on second base, or new Cardinal superstar, Garrett Hampson, who gets in almost every game now?

It's wild. Or anybody with excellent speed, even Jose Furbine, if he was on second base there, I would understand sending the runner a little bit more. But not Contreras, not your catcher turned first baseman. And the result was another momentum shift away from the Cardinals and back into the Pirates direction. And the cherry on top of this is that Wilson ended up having to leave the game because of his hand,

because of where Skeens hit him. Good news was the x-rays came back negative, but I'm sure he's going to be very, very sore. So I don't know if you're going to see him in the lineup tomorrow or Wednesday, whenever you're watching this, gets the day off on Thursday. and then they're in Chicago, so probably not. I know he's a tough guy, but probably not. They end up, because of this,

Garrett Hampson has to come into the game and is now your cleanup hitter. Burley moves to first base. So another obstacle for the Cardinals to overcome. And what's really going to bake your noodle, another matrix reference, by the way, another, why does that keep happening? What's really going to bake your noodle here is that, If Willie had come out right away, after he got hit, trainers looked at him for quite a while.

If they decided, let's just get you out now and put Hampson in now, if Willie comes out right away, instead of running the bases in Hamson, was then instead, would Hampson have been safe at home play? He's a much faster runner. 85th percentile sprint speed, I think, is what they said. We'll never know. We'll never know. but yet another missed opportunity in the game for the Cardinals. Then we go to the seventh inning. We got another one.

Jose Fermin bloops in a hustle double, which you love to see, never gave up, even though he didn't hit it hard. He kind of hit it into that spot between the outfielder's and the infielders, and he just kept running hard to dive safely into second base. Love it. New grounds out to shortstop,

but for me, good base running here makes a nice read and gets a good jump off the second base. and the shortstop is forced to throw its first base instead. So it makes it to third safely with what out? Hey, how about a fly ball? Can we get a fly ball? Anybody? Anybody?

No. Pahas strikes out. Then Victor grounds out. Threats over. Eighth inning. Donnie gets a lead off walk. Normally those come around to score, right? We've talked about that a lot.

Mason win. Pops out. Another unproductive bit back. Burley lines out to left. It's hit it well, but it's an out. And then your new cleanup slugger, you're at Hampson. He ends up getting a walk, but Gorman flies out. Got a good swing on it, but nothing happens, ending over.

And then finally we get to the ninth inning and the crescendo of crap for the Cardinals in this one. Cardinals are down to one to nothing at this point, and they get another lead off walk. This time, it's too, Jose for me. Good speed. New flies out to center and unproductive at bat, bat out. Ali calls on Joel Pozo to pick. inch hit for Pahas because Poso is not one that strikes out all that often. He's going to put the ball in play. And he comes through again, rips a double down the line and left. And if it reaches the

corner, For Meme might score. For Mien runs well. And he might have scored on that play. But it doesn't happen. It hits off that spot of the stands that Jets out and goes into shallow left field instead, ends up second and third. But you're in business here. Second and third, one out, Victor Scott's up. Once again, situational hitting, all you need is a somewhat decent fly ball. It doesn't have to be super deep for mean runs well enough. Instead, Victor Scott chops a splitter, which was low and away. Not sure how that was the spot that you're looking for your pitch to be at, but he swings at it. It was up two and one in the count, too. So that's terrible. But chops it over to the first somehow gets a splitter low and away and pulls it and chops it over to the first basement,

Spencer Horwitz, who ends up fielding it and throws out for mean trying to score at home play, gets reviewed, close play, call stands, he's out, not mad at for mean for going there. And I know it's a stupid play, but it's a contact play. If it's on, if they say contact play here, on the ground, you're running on contact. If that's what they were doing, that's the way it goes. I don't always agree with that philosophy, but if that's what was going on there, then that's what he was supposed to do.

He made a great sliding attempt, trying to get around the tag, but really the inability to hit a fly ball there, again, is what sucks the most. Game's not over yet, though. Now you got Brennan Donovan up, Mr. Clutch, right? First and third, two outs. So still a chance,

but Britt and Donovan goes down looking with the bat on his shoulder. which you just cannot have. You can't watch that. He didn't like the call. There was a strike. Just horrible. Chance after chance after chance. And they just slip right through the Cardinals' fingers

because they couldn't do the little things right. Bunting, base running, situational hitting, all of it. Failures, apps, F minuses for all of it in this game for the Cardinals. and it really stinks because they should have beat Paul Skeins again. They really made it tough for him in this game. I applaud the effort of the at-bats in the games against, in the game during schemes this time while he was pitching, because they really, really wore him out and made him work.

And it was wonderful. They didn't score off of them. They had some chances, but they got him out of there by the fifth inning. So even not scoring there, it's still kind of a victory because he's gone. You know, he's not out there seven innings mowing people down. Like it was tough for him. And they really should have won this game. They really should have.

They just didn't do the little things to put them over. Now, the one thing you can hang your hat on about this game and smile about a little bit and feel positive about is what you got from Andre Palante. He was awesome. We're going to try and cheer things up in our final segment talking about him next on Lockedon Cardinals. ever check your bank account and wonder where did all my money go?

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be on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts. Andre Palante, kind of the forgotten man on the staff. Like I sometimes forget when it says turning the rotation. You know, Gray and Libertur, get the headlines. Michael Sinfetti are your whipping boys that just will never be good enough. And then there's Andre Palante who just goes about his business and takes the ball every fifth day. And usually if he can avoid like the one big blowup inning, he's going to give you a decent

start. Well, he was more than decent on Tuesday. He was outstanding. Now, the pirates, granted, have not been one of the best offensive teams in the league for most of the year. But the last four days leading into this game, they have bashed the Mets and the Cardinals 37 runs in their last four games before Tuesday night's matchup. That's over nine runs per game that they were averaging. Where this offense is coming from and how. they found it. Nobody knows. Nobody's got an answer to it. Not even Gary from locked on pirates can make

sense of it. He's like, I don't know, but he's enjoying it. He's like, hey, let's ride the wave. And I don't blame him. Well, Tuesday, Andre Palante shut the pirates down. Seven innings, no runs, one hit, three strikeouts. Now, Palante, not a strikeout guy. So you see three K's, you're like, that's not very good. But when he's on, you don't see it in the, category. What you look at is the ground ball outs column. And in that column on Tuesday, it reads 13. 13, ground ball outs out of 21 outs. The pirates were continuously just beating the ball into the ground over and over. And even with Aronado out tonight, missing your platinum glover over at third base, the Cardinals infield defense stayed strong and kept

the pirates off the boards, at least while Palante was in. The key here is to see if Andre Palante can actually replicate what he was doing tonight the next time he's on the mound. All right. Consistency kind of has been an issue with Andre over his career. So if he has unlocked something and has found something and can consistently find that, great. Cardinals will be more than happy to let him do that.

And he gives you the seven shutout innings. He deserved better in this one. Cardinals had the chances. The Ollie goes to Phil Maton in the eighth inning. Are you going to bitch about Phil Maton? No. He's been really, really good for the Cardinals this year. But he comes in and everything changes.

He immediately gives up a single and a double. Yeah, Pirates at second and third with nobody out. They get a sack fly to bring in the go-ahead run. Imagine that, just hitting the ball in the air with a runner on third and less than two outs. Oh, what a novel idea. Then another single, but Mayton's able to wiggle his way out of it, leaves the other rudder stranded, but that's all it took. A couple of hits, good situational hitting.

Pirates score the lone run of the game. They go on to one at one than nothing. Cardinals end up going one for 13 with runners in scoring position in this game, just a brutal night at the ballpark for the Cardinals outside of what you got from Andre Palante. Just there's not a ton of other things. I feel like Jose Vermeen stood out in this game a little bit, sub and then, like he was a part of the action walk, had that double.

It was nice to see that. Yeah, that's what I got. That's what I got. Andre Palante and Jose Fermin. Those are the ones you can be really proud of from what you saw tonight. Cardinals lost this game more than the pirates actually won it. That's just my opinion, but that's how I feel. Skeen still has not beaten the Cardinals yet,

but who cares because the pirates still won the game and they keep rolling. That's five wins in a row for them. They've only allowed four runs during this five game winning streak. Four. How's it possible? These are the pirates, right? Aliens didn't take them over? Like, this is the same team that was like 15 games under 500 before the series started, right?

Right? Am I right? It's amazing. It's amazing. People go on hot streaks, people go on cold streaks. the Cardinals came into the series, you thought that they were going to be writing a hot streak, you know? Sweeping the end. I almost said it.

Almost said the eye word sweeping the Guardians. But nope. They shut out again. So they've been shut out four times in the last week. That is not so amazing. Cardinals have Sunny Gray on the mound on Wednesday coming off this stellar performance in Cleveland. It is a day game. Mitch Keller will take the mound for the pirates.

Record says 2 and 10. You and I both know Mitch Keller is a better pitcher than 2 and 10. ERA at 3.90. Cardinals have already faced him twice. One game, he shut him out over seven innings early on in the season in May. Was it May? Well, whenever they were in town, was it April? April.

Shut him out for seven innings in April. In Pittsburgh, Cardinals did beat him when they faced him in St. Louis on May 7. So there you go. but he's much better than the record would have you believe. And you know this. Mitch Keller is a fine pitcher. Every team would love to have him. But 2-10 record, you know, some bad luck there.

But because there's the pirates. They're not supposed to be winning. He hasn't given up more than two runs in his last three starts, by the way, did pick up his second one of the season over the Mets in his last start. So he's coming in throwing well. Sunny Gray is throwing well, but the Cardinals aren't hitting. in these two games. Pirates, are they slowing down for this third one?

We'll see. Sunny Gray has been much better at home than he is on the road, but pitch pretty darn well in Cleveland the other night. It's just weird, man. Cardinals sweep Cleveland and now are in danger of getting swept in Pittsburgh right after that. What a sport, right? Can Sunny be the stopper?

We're going to find out first pitch. We'll be at 1135 St. Louis time on Wednesday. Cardinals, you made me drink tonight. You made me. drink and it was not in a fun celebratory way. Thanks for making Lockdown Cardinals, your first listen every day. If you haven't already, give us a follow on X at L.O. underscore Cardinals and a JD Sports Radio.

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And we will see you next time, hopefully with a better attitude on Locked on Cardinals.