Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - St. Louis Cardinals SWEEP The Chicago White Sox!
Episode Date: June 20, 2025- Cardinals Sweep The Double Header And The Series - Steven Matz Makes Cardinals History - Villain Willy Is Awesome - Nootbaar Looks MUCH Better - Oli Pushes The Right Buttons - Nolan Arenado Makes Hi...story - McGreevy Shines Again - Bullpen Blow Up - Granillo's Big Day - Cincinnati Reds 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! Trade Coffee Right now, Trade is exclusively offering our customer 50% off your one-month trial at drinktrade.com/LOCKEDONMLB. OpenPhone Streamline and scale your customer communications with OpenPhone. Get 20% off your first 6 months at www.openphone.com/lockedonmlb Wonderful Pistachios Get snackin' and get crackin' with the snack that packs a protein punch. Visit WonderfulPistachios.com to learn more! 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 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 TWO HUNDRED 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.
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The Cardiac Cardinals were added again on Thursday and got some historic contributions to come away with the double sweep in Chicago.
You are Locked on Cardinals. Your daily St. Louis Cardinals podcast, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day.
Hey, they're Cardals fans. I'm J.D. Haffern and I am your host for Locktown Cardinals.
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and use the code locked on MLB for $20 off your first purchase. So the Cardinals didn't make the games easy on Thursday.
They don't make games easy in general for most of the season.
At least it feels like that.
After punishing the White Sox on Tuesday night,
the Cardinals got rained out again on Wednesday,
which set up their sixth.
Yeah, six double headers already this year for the Cardinals.
I had to do that on Thursday.
And it really was a tale of two games just with similar endings for the Cardinals
who win or lose tend to make things very, very interesting.
Sometimes it's a good thing, like in game one.
Sometimes it's infuriating, like in game two.
So let's start in game one, where the cardals jumped out early
with the sack fly in the first inning by Wilson Contreras,
who had a big day all around knocking in five runs combined.
But, you know, that inning felt like a missed opportunity, right?
You get bases loaded, nobody out, and you only manage one run.
That's not usually great.
You usually want to push at least two across.
but they do manage to get one at least.
So beggars can't be choosers,
but you would hope you could do a little more damage in that inning.
The offense then, unfortunately, stays quiet until the sixth inning.
Cardinals are down two to one.
Yvonne Herrera gets that lead off single.
Cardinals catch a break on the catcher's interference call for Burley.
And then Contreras and Gorman go down,
but Gorman's is a productive event.
And it gets overlooked a little bit because the fact that he put the ball in play
rolled a ground ball over to the first baseman.
It moves the runners over to second and third.
This prompts the White Sox to walk Nolan Aronado.
They intentionally give him the pass so that they can take on the struggling Lars Newpar.
And the fact that Gorman did what he did, it set up this whole sequence.
It was a chain reaction of things.
And what the White Sox did there, it made sense.
You know, the Chicago White Sox are thinking, all right, let's get a lefty, lefty matchup.
Newt's not hitting all that well.
This is a good spot.
If you're going to take chances with somebody,
you want it to be with Newt and not Aronado.
But anytime you load the bases,
it just puts a lot of pressure on that pitcher.
And in this case, it ends up working out
as Newt draws the five pitch walk to tie the game up at two.
And what we saw there was the new part that we're used to, right?
That's the guy who is very patient.
He's not chasing.
And although none of the balls were all that close,
he looked very i don't know if i'm making up a word here he looked very nudy in that at bat and i'm not
saying nude newtie newtie very large newt barish uh in that particular at batty he looked
like he was seeing the ball well he was tracking it well was able to to lay off didn't go
chasing didn't swing it you know stuff that he wasn't going to do anything with anyway which
is kind of the stuff we've been seeing uh since he's been in this slump then now that we got a
anti-ball game, Matt's comes in and he gives the lead right back at the bottom half on a two-run shot by the number nine, which is Michael Taylor, which is, ends up being a part of a historic inning for Matt's in the long run. He strikes out four guys in this particular inning after the leadoff hitter swung at strike three. Ball gets away. It's in the dirt, goes off Herrera's glove and he tried to backhand it, bad, bad form thereby Herrera can't do that. You got to get in front of that ball. And that ends up putting Sosa on first.
base, but that's a strikeout, even though he gets on.
He then with Slater, then after going 0 and 2 on Taylor and not getting a strike call
on that sinker, which it clipped the zone, like watching it live and then going back
and looking at the strike zone.
It clipped the zone, but was called the ball.
So ABS, I'm tapping my head if you're not watching on YouTube.
ABS, please hurry.
Anyway, hangs a change up instead on the next one and two run, home run.
Makes it four to two.
Obviously, he's pissed.
You can see the way he was throwing.
Matt's is unhappy.
He strikes out Talkman and then my drop to give him four strikeouts in an inning,
which is significant.
The last time a Cardinal did it, and I think it's the only time a Cardinal has done.
I think this is just the second time it's happened was Bob Gibson in 1966.
So a historic and memorable moment, but not one that Matt's is really going to think fondly of
because he gave up the lead.
Cardinals are losing again.
But for usual, one of the great things about this Cardinals team is they don't.
don't back down. They tend to fight back and they did it again in this one when they played in
three runs in the eighth inning. The socks end up going to their lefty Camboozer, which is a
fantastic name by the way. And you get the lead off single by Alec Berlison, who is just white
hot right now. Red hot is really, really good. White hot, scorching hot right now, Alec Berluson.
When he puts the ball and play, it is finding room no matter how hard he hits it. And then you get
villain Willie to come up to the plate and he just enjoys playing in Chicago.
You know this.
I know this.
He talked about it after the game that, you know, he enjoys playing in Chicago.
He enjoys getting booed.
You're doing us a favor.
When you booed Wilson Contreras, he thrives off a bit and he unloads on the first
pitch that he sees to tie it at four, 10th smash of the year.
I love villain Willie.
I'm going to say it.
I love it.
I love the swagger.
I love the cockiness.
I like hell he plays to the crowd.
It is entertaining.
And when he goes down on strikes in front of these people,
they boo him mercilessly and they should.
And it's all in good fun.
But he gets booed no matter whether it's the Cubs,
whether it's the White Sox Chicago booze them all the time.
But it's just good, clean fun.
I enjoy it.
I think it's great.
I think it makes the game more fun.
So after that, Boozer goes full White Sox in this one
and ends up overthrowing.
that tapper back to him by Gorman. Lally pops it over to first base, goes over the first
baseman's head. He then throws a wild pitch, moves Gorman over to second base. Newt tries to
punt, falls behind O2, but then very nudie again, works his way back to another walk, which
you gotta love it, comes through. Walker ends up smoking one to left center. That's the one
that Chip Kerry thought was going to land in Canada, and it ends up dying on the track.
The win was a tough one for the Cardinals in game one at least.
So that dies on the track, but it's a productive back because it moves Gorman over.
And then the pinch hitter, Joe Alpozo, Olli hits the right button here, laces an RBI, singled the left to give them a five to four lead.
Once again, doing the little things right.
Not striking out in big situations, just putting the ball in play, making other teams make plays.
It moves guys over good baseball, good baseball.
Mayton and Helsley pitched clean innings and the Cardinals win that one, five four.
Eric Fetty, very strong in his five that innings.
He allows just one earned run, was quoted after the game talking about how these Cardinals don't quit, man.
He says whether we've won or lost, we've had a lot of fight in the late innings.
These are big games for us to win.
And having that fight and coming back is huge.
And it carried over into game two when the Cardinals were able to jump out on the socks pretty quickly.
Plus, Dono Aronado has a historic moment.
Should have had one in the first one, but the win.
knocked it down. Historic moment in game two. We'll discuss it all coming up next on Locked on
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So after that thrilling, come for behind victory in game one, the Cardinals,
came out smashing in game two.
You had Michael McGreevy making the spot start, which was great because we love seeing
McGreevy on the hill.
He is the future.
He's going to be in this rotation.
If not after the trade deadline, you know he's coming next year.
Coming in hot next year is one of these guys that's going to be in that in that rotation
every fifth day.
And again, he pitches well.
He does give up a home run in the second inning, which this one, sometimes a batterers just
when this is a change up off the plate outside to the left hander and he goes out and gets it and
somehow gets the ball over the wall in left field you know the whole the the pitches or the the
swings in the in the in the hits and the fly balls in the first game by you know aranao herrera
walker they don't go out somehow someone in game one but this one makes it over the wall in
left field hilarious stuff you know but what can you do you know that that's that's
It's just the way. That's the way the wind was in Chicago.
And so they're down 1-0 in this third inning.
And they get the lead off hit by Victor Scott,
who promptly steal second base.
Run, McRan, we love it.
They end up plunking Contreras.
That wasn't intentional.
It was a curve ball.
Everybody relax.
It was fine.
And that brings in Alec Berluson.
And I still not entirely sure how he hit this ball,
but he swings at a ball that is a foot above the strike zone.
I mean, really it's almost like a foot.
It's above his shoulders.
And he somehow hits it to the opposite field and turns it into a three run home run to left.
I don't know how he did it.
I don't know how the physics work out that way where he was able to get on top of that ball and still send it and have enough lift on it to get.
I don't know.
I don't know.
But when you're hot, you're hot.
And Alec Berlinson is scorching right now.
It doesn't matter.
Lefty, righty.
He doesn't care.
He's going to hit it.
Three to one Cardinals after that swing of the back.
And that brings in Nolan Aronado, who ends up yanking a sweeper outside part of the play,
yanks it into left field for a solo blast and left, back to back jacks for the birds,
but more importantly, which, well, that's pretty important too,
but another milestone for the great Nolan Aronado,
who ends up hitting his 350th long fly of his career,
became just the sixth active player to reach 350 home runs,
John Carlos Stanton, Mike Trout, former Cardinal Paul Goldschmidt, Mani Machado and Freddie Freeman, the only other ones in Major League Baseball that are active that are at 350.
And now, just the seventh player ever, ever in the history of this game to have 350 home runs and 10 gold gloves joining Johnny Dunge, Mike Schmidt, Willie Hayes, Willie Hayes, just Willie Mays, King Griffey Jr., Andrew Jones, and Al Kail.
everybody but Andrew Jones is in the Hall of Fame.
Everybody else is in there.
Not too shabby.
No one aren't out.
It was going to be there eventually.
Cardinals were not done, though.
That was not the end of this.
In the fourth day, they get a two out, two run single by guess who?
Will and Villeneville.
And it seems like they're going to run away with things.
Like this feels like it's in the bag and ready to go.
But that didn't happen.
After pulling McGreevy, after five innings and 76 pitches,
didn't have a lot of rest.
and so because people were like, why the hell is he pulling him out with a comfortable lead?
And they just, he was at 76 pitches.
What was he going to go?
Maybe one more inning.
And it was just a rough schedule thing there to get McGreeving to the game.
So I kind of get it.
But the bullpen ends up falling apart.
O'Brien comes in just fine in that next inning.
But in the seventh, you get John King out there, gives up another annoying ass infield single.
I swear the Cardinals leave the league in the stupid.
infield hits.
Like it is unbelievable the amount of swinging buntz
that these teams get against the Cardinals pitching.
And again, I've explained it before
because they don't get enough swinging mess,
the other team gets just enough of the ball,
and that's why this keeps happening.
And it is so,
when you're the pitcher.
Because you make a good pitch.
The guy doesn't hit it hard,
and he still gets a single out of it.
it just sucks.
Then he gives up a single to Slater.
Ollie goes to the bullpen, goes to Cal Leahy, who again has been struggling recently.
He has not been as, you know, dominant as he was early on in this season,
whether it's scouting reports, whether his stuff just isn't as good.
It just hasn't been as easy for him.
He does get the striking of Luis Robert Jr.
But then there's a single to right.
Nice shot there.
Then a walk.
And then Andrew Benitendi, it's a hanging breaking ball.
first pitch swinging for a grand slam and we got a tied ball game.
It's unreal.
And I remember tweeting at the time, I was like, if they lose this game, they should all have to walk home.
Because you cannot blow a six to one lead against the team like the Chicago White Sox.
You just can't have it.
They're not to your level.
You're a better team than them.
And you blow a five run lead.
That cannot happen.
But you can either cry over it or do something about.
about it. And the bullpen after this moment locks it down. Thanks to some solid defense,
though, great diving play by Jose Barbero to save a run. Nolan Aronado makes that play and they get
the out at home when Talkman was running. I don't know if he got hurt. I don't know what the hell
happened there. He just quit running and made the out so much easier at home play, but they saved
the winning run from scoring. That pushes things to extra innings. And in the 10th inning,
the Cardinals get an RBI single by Nolan Aronado. A nice piece of hitting there. Jordan Walker was
the pinch runner for Wilson Contreras. So a super smart move there again by Ali Marmal, another
move that will go overlooked, but to get the faster runner and Jordan Walker out there instead
of having Catreras running, he's able to score on the base set. And then Lars Newport tags one
for a solo home run to make it eight six. Cardinals bringing on Drake Renio, who had a very
entertaining day. He picks up his first major league win in game one. Only faces one header in that
game. It still gets the win and then gets his first major league save in the 10th inning in game two.
So cards win it by a score of eight to six. Wacky wild day. You don't want to have games that are
this tied against teams that aren't as good like the Chicago White Sox, but you'll want them all.
You still got the Ws at the end of the day. And that's what matters. They sweep the double header.
They sweep the series. You get the loud, ugly shirt because the Cardinals finally want enough
series and they push themselves back into a tie for second place in the division with the Milwaukee
Brewers. They're both five and a half back of the Cubs and are a half game back of the Padres in the
wild card standings. And you look at the wild card standings and I know it doesn't look great for the
cardinals. You know, you got a lot of good teams that are sitting up there in the wild card.
I mean, you're seeing what's going on in the NL West where you've got the Padres. You've got the Giants.
The Dodgers are obviously very.
very, very good. Arizona has certainly fallen off from those guys. But then you're also dealing
with what's going on in the NL East between the Phillies and the Mets who are both as far as wildcard goes.
There you go. Mets in L. Wildcard because technically they're tied right now with the Phillies. So they're
tied. So one of them two, obviously, is going to be that first one. And then you got the Giants.
And then you got the Padres. And then there's the Brewers.
and the Cardinals and the Reds are right there.
The Reds are a game and a half out of it too.
And the Braves are surging.
Now they're starting to get healthy and they have won three in a row.
So it's going to be tight.
It's not going to be easy for the Cardinals.
So getting a sweep and beating the teams like the White Sox,
like you just have to do that if you're going to stick around in this thing.
So successful three game series against the White Sox,
not a whole lot to complain about.
Nothing's perfect.
I don't like seeing these runners getting.
picked off. That's stupid bad base running. He's going to drive everybody insane. But overall,
you know, you come out of it feeling pretty good. I mean, the grand slam from Ben and Tending
makes things look really, really bad for the bullpen in the grand scheme of things. But,
you know, the first game, everything went well. Second game, they were able to hold them after,
you know, giving up a few runs. But I just,
There's not a whole lot to complain about.
Things can be better, obviously, clean some things up.
But you're feeling pretty good about yourself.
Finally, you get a few games in a row here where you're winning
and they're exciting wins and you feel better about yourself going into this series.
You're coming back home finally after this road trip.
And now you've got to take care of business with two huge series at home coming up against
the Reds and the Cubs.
We're going to preview this Cincinnati series coming up next on Lockdown Cardinals.
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So the Reds are in town this weekend.
Cubbies follow after that.
but let's keep it focused and talk about the Reds first.
I know you want to talk about the Cubbies.
We'll get to that, but we got to get through the Reds first.
Don't overlook these guys.
You know, things are tightening up and the trade deadline is on the horizon.
It is looming.
This homestand is huge.
Like, you can take five games out of this one.
You're feeling really good about yourself.
But if you don't, you lose both, you're going to start really second-guessing what your
strategy is going to be.
as you move into the trade deadline area of July.
Reds are coming in playing very well, too.
This is not a pushover team.
Winters of seven of their last 10,
they won four straight series over some good teams,
the Diamondbacks, the Guardians, the Tigers,
just two or three from the Twins,
although one of those games was a range shortened one,
but they get the win.
They didn't lose on Thursday 12 to 5,
so they are licking their wounds a little bit
from getting beat up in that one.
The Cardinals and Reds split the four game series
in Cincinnati earlier this year.
They swept that double header,
which I was at outscoring them 15 to 1,
which was awesome.
But the Reds are, they're tough.
They've given the Cardinals a tough time
over the last couple of years.
You know, for years and years,
it was always, hey, the Cardinals are the Big Brother
and they just kicked the Reds around.
They don't fear the Cardinals like they used to.
In fact, I believe most of the Reds fan base feels
that the Reds are a better team than the Carders.
They really do.
They have confidence against them.
Pitching matchups,
singer against Andre Palante. I think he kind of like singer and just being honest in that one.
Sunny Gray against Wade Miley. Give me sunny gray all day. And then it's Andrew Abbott and Miles
Michaelis on Sunday. And Abbott has been outstanding. So I would take Abbott in that one.
So you get two more lefties for the Cardinals who fare much better against Ritees.
As I mentioned, Abbott has been exceptional. So not an easy series setup for these guys.
Red's hottest hitters right now in the past week, T.J.
Friedel, their leadoff guy at the top of the order, has been hitting 300 over the last week,
294 on the season.
He's pesky.
He's not a guy that's going to run a whole lot, but he is just a steady presence at the top of
their order.
So you got to keep an eye on him, keep him off the base pass.
Matt McLean, if you go down to the bottom of the order, Matt McLean is hitting 353 over the last
week.
Had a really rough year so far.
He's trying to get to that.
Did he make it to 200 yet?
I know he was below the Mendoza line for quite some time.
and I'm pretty sure he's still there.
But either way, if he's not, he's right there at 200.
But he has been hitting very well.
We're at 197 for Matt McLean right now.
He's been hitting much better, though.
353 over the last week.
And if he's getting high, he's certainly a guy you've got to keep an eye on
because a Caesar move didn't play last year because of injuries.
And before that, though, speed, power.
That was his game.
He's a steady glove at second.
base, very good defensive second baseman.
So he can cause some haggrix.
So you don't want those two guys to beat you.
But getting the role players out is really the key against the Cincinnati Reds.
L.A. Daly-L. Cruz, an incredible talent.
We know this.
Switch hitter, cannon arm, super fast, one of the fastest in the league, a lot of power.
He is their best player, by fault, their best player.
And if he gets on base, he's going to run.
they got to slow that down somehow or just keep them off base because he likes to strike out a lot too.
So try to get him to go fishing on some stuff because he will swing and miss a lot.
But honestly, it's the it's the bit players for the Reds that you've got to make sure that you don't want to beat you.
Guys like Will Benson and Jake Fraley and Gavin Lux and Christian Incarnacion and Zstan and Jose Trevino, who was a demon against the Cardinals,
Cincinnati. Those are the guys that you can't let beat you. You know, Ellie, Spencer Steer, Tyler
Stevenson, they're going to get their hits. They're good players. But what's going to drive you
nuts is giving up two out hits or missing your spots to the other group of players that I mentioned
there, the more of the rotational role guys that are on that roster. That's what's going to drive
you nuts with Cincinnati Reds. You start letting those guys come through and you're
in big trouble. That's when you're in big trouble. The Reds bullpen moved on from Alexis Diaz
after the Cardinals beat snout out of him during that doubleheader. And things have settled down for
the bullpen, especially with the righties. Emilio Pagan, Tony Santion, Scott Barlow, they've been
really, really good recently. The lefties for the Reds bullpen has struggled a little bit. So for
the Cardinals, my suggestion to you is to just continue to do the little things,
You're a better baseball team when fundamentally sound stuff is happening.
Okay, good defense, good base running, you know, taking advantage of extra bases that the defense will give you,
taking advantage of errors that the other team commits, you know, just being smart out there,
making the smart plays.
Don't make too many mistakes.
With two lefties on the mound, you're going to need the big boppers in this lineup.
to come through. You're going to need big, you know,
Treyrhus is hitting very, very well right now. I love where his head's at. Stay being
villain Willie. Mess with the Reds. Be cocky. Make them think about you. Yvonne Herrera.
Let's get him going again. Nolan Arnadev, obviously hit the 350th. He's been doing well.
Jordan Walker back in the lineup. Let's see him do some damage and eat into that bullpen.
Then when they use their strong righties, you attack them with the good,
left-handed bats that you have in your possession already.
Hopefully Lars Newfar's coming out of it.
He looked so much better in the double-hatter against Chicago.
Burleson, again, white-hot right now.
Briton Donovan, let's get him going again.
Nolan Gorman has looked much better.
Victor Scott doing some things in that series against Chicago.
Make them burn through Santion and Pagan or just eliminate them all together,
you know, and your path to victory is going to be so much easier and so much smoother.
Those are my suggestions.
Let's see a lot of Cardinals fans down at Bush Stadium this weekend.
This is big.
This is big.
You've got to get two out of three against the Reds because you know things are also going to be very difficult when the Cubs come to town.
But do not look past the Cincinnati Reds right now.
Okay, they are right on your heels.
They just passed you actually on the rainout day.
When the Cardinals didn't play, Reds won and actually passed the Cardinals and moved up ahead of them in third place.
and forth. Like, they're right there. So don't let them, don't let them get any more momentum moving
forward. Take care of business. Let's get it done. Thanks for making Lockdown Cardinals for first listen
every day. If you haven't already, give us a follow on X at LO underscore Cardinals and the JD Sports
Radio, TikTok and Instagram and Lockdown Cardinals, like, subscribe on YouTube, help our channel and
our love for the Cardinals grow. You guys are the best fans in baseball for a reason. I want to see you
next time this weekend, in fact, on Lockdowns.
