Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - UNSUNG HERO: St. Louis Cardinals’ Kyle Leahy CONTINUES Elite Run, Masyn Winn IGNITES The Offense!

Starting point is 00:00:00 Kyle Leahy has been one of the best starters in baseball over the last three months, and he was working his magic once again on Tuesday night in Cincinnati. 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 Jady Haffern, and on today's show, we're going to preview tonight's game where the Cardinals have a very tall task ahead of them when they face one of the most dominant young pitchers in the game.

Starting point is 00:00:38 We'll update the NL Wildcard standings and let you know where the Cardinals sit after winning their game on Tuesday night. We had a couple of very nice performances by two of the top prospects of the organization as well to talk about. But let's get to the game that was on Tuesday night in Cincinnati. Outstanding pitching performance by Kyle Leahy. The ballpin was excellent. Mason Wynn doing it on both sides. Let's start with Kyle Leahy. You know, the everydayers know that Kyle Leahy has been really, really good for a very long time.

Starting point is 00:01:09 He's one of the most unassuming players in the league, not only on the Cardinals, but like in the league. You know, nobody, nobody's talking about Kyle Leahy. You know, they're not outside of St. Louis, nobody even knows who this dude is. They don't. He's not someone that media is going to be overly attracted to. He's not going to give you great soundbites. You know, he's not that vocal guy. He's not one of those charismatic personalities that's going to attract attention.

Starting point is 00:01:39 He's just a guy that is there to do his job to the best of his ability. And then he moves on to his next game. And that's really who he is. He's so simple. And since the back end of June, he's been one of the best pitchers in the league. And the stats don't lie. You can go look this up. He doesn't wow you with triple digits.

Starting point is 00:02:01 that's not his game. He doesn't pitch deep into games at all. But in his last 10 starts, which goes back to June 23rd, he's 5 and 0 with a 1.380 RA. He's only walked nine hitters in 52 winnings, mind you, with 52 strikeouts and just eight earned runs against. And he's got a FIP of 2.41 when hitting like the three mark in FIP is considered elite. he's down at 2.41.

Starting point is 00:02:33 It's been insane. And again, we bring this up basically every start that he makes. That at the beginning of the season, remember how not good he was to start things off? And we were all questioning whether or not, hey, is this going to work? Like, is it time to get him back into the bullpen? Thank God, none of us are in charge because we make impulse decisions in real life where when you're running a franchise and you're running a team and you realize how long the season is, you can't do that.

Starting point is 00:03:10 Like you've got to let things play out. Anytime us as fans start to think like, got to make that move, the people in charge probably going to wait a little bit longer because we jump to our conclusion so fast and that's not a great idea. I mean, I got people who already want to send Joshua Baez down. Like there are people that have written to me and left comments about that already. Like, come on. I got people who want to trade Joshua Baez in my comments.

Starting point is 00:03:40 Like, what? Stop it. Now, what Kyle Leahy's been doing too, it's not like he's just doing this against like cream puff teams. You know, he's doing it against good and some bad teams, mind you. But he's not doing it just against the bottom feeders of the league. Like during the stretch of 10 games. He shut out Arizona, who's in the playoff chase.

Starting point is 00:04:03 They're ahead of the Cardinals right now by a game. Gives up one run and five innings against the Marlins, again, in the playoff chase. Shut out the Cubs over five innings, top in a wildcard team. Shut out the Braves over only three innings, mind you. But they lead the NL East. One run over five innings against the Phillies and a wild card team. And then he's gone out and done what he needs to do against L. teams like the Angels, the Reds twice, Toronto and Colorado.

Starting point is 00:04:34 Ten straight games with two or runs or less against him, and he was added again on Tuesday night in one of the most hitter-friendly ballparks in baseball. Five shutout innings. Allows just three hits. No walks. Strikes out six. Brendan Schaefer at MLB.com took the words out of my mouth on how he described it. I was like, man, that's pretty efficient.

Starting point is 00:04:56 And right there in his article, Model of Efficiency is what Brendan wrote. So that's what he does. Now, if there is a knock against Leahy, because he's not perfect, obviously, it's that he doesn't make it deep into games. Sometimes that's by design where the cardinals are like, look, pitch count, like this is your first full year as a starter in the big leagues again.

Starting point is 00:05:17 Let's be smart about it, which drives some people nuts from time to time. They all think that these guys should be going seven, eight innings. But other times it's by necessity. And that was the case on Tuesday night. 90 pitches in five innings. Like you're not going to send them out there to face like one guy and then pull them again. So you give whoever you're bringing out of the bullpen, get them a fresh start in the inning.

Starting point is 00:05:42 The Reds, like they did on Monday against Quinn Matthews, had a couple of really long at bats against Kyle that pushed that pitch count up. First inning, it took 22 pitches to get through it. Face four hitters, five, six, five, and six where the pitch counts against those guys. winning five to start against Tyler Stevenson, their catcher. And then comes Dane friggin Myers. I am so sick of this guy already. And this is with all due respect to Dane Myers, man, because he's driving us nuts.

Starting point is 00:06:17 Like if you're on the other side, you're like, I love this Dane Myers guy. But on our side of things, we're sick of him, just falling off pitches over and over and over. He had that 11 pitch at bat against Quinn Matthews on Monday that ended up in the home run. in game one. And then in the second inning here, another 11 pitch at bat files off five pitches before he grounds out. Then right after that, Matt McLean goes eight more pitches and his

Starting point is 00:06:45 at bat before he grounds out. So Kyle Leahy's at 46 pitches at the end of the second inning. And they only got one hit. You didn't walk anybody. Like there was just them putting difficult the bats together wearing him down. And so credit to the Reds on that. And yeah, it's annoying. It's like gnats and mosquitoes in your face. Like you're so annoying. Just get out of here. But this is what Leah he does. You know, he's not going to give in. He's going to continue to pump strikes. He's not going to walk you. You're going to have to beat him to get on. And only three times where the Red's able to accomplish that on Tuesday night, Red certainly made him work. but in the end it was a big old donut in the run column when he exited the game

Starting point is 00:07:31 at the end of the fifth inning. Score was one to nothing at that point. Now, despite the tough loss in game two on Monday, this bullpen has done an excellent job against the Reds in these three games. Five shutout innings in game one after Matthews departed. Then one out away from three more shutout innings when friggin Dane Myers, it's the tying home run and then the winning run from the free runner on second base in extra innings. So you combine that with the four shutout innings that we got from the bullpen on Tuesday night,

Starting point is 00:08:06 and that's one earner run against the bullpen in their last 13 innings in the series. In that ballpark, that's pretty awesome. That's pretty good. Ryan Stannick came in first in this one, followed by Gricepho, George Soriano, Riley O'Brien comes in at the end. they only allowed one batter to reach base. Only one. And that was a walk from Gordon Grosepho.

Starting point is 00:08:32 That was it. No hits, no runs, three strikeouts. Bing, bang, boom. Let's go home. Riley O'Brien picks up his NL. leading 30-second save, lowers his ERA below three for the first time since the end of May. Remember how he came out of the gate and he was just like, whoa, this dude looks unhittable. And then he kind of hit a lull.

Starting point is 00:08:51 And now he's back again. He's rattled off 11 straight shutout. appearances and in the month of August he's made eight appearances has allowed just one hit no runs two walks seven strikeouts six for six and save opportunities opponents are hitting 42 against him this month and yeah i get it it's the Cincinnati Reds who have three guys hitting under 200 in their lineup basically every day but still you got to take care of business no matter who your opponent is and that's exactly what cardals did in this game which all but stuffed out any of that momentum that the Reds had coming into Tuesday night's

Starting point is 00:09:29 matchup following their dramatic come from behind winning game two on Monday. Now offensively, the boys didn't have a whole lot going on in this game. Andrew Abbott, who was thrown for the Reds very, very good, was pitch for pitch with Cal Leahy. But Mason Wynn had himself a hell of a game, led the charge both offensively and defensively. So we're going to talk about him coming up next. Unlocked on Cardinals. Make baseball season more this year.

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Starting point is 00:10:46 $500 in bonus credits when you trade $25 calci K-a-l-S-H-I Cal sheet trade on anything 18 plus restrictions and eligibility requirements apply event contract trading involves risk it not be suitable for all investors. Cal sheet products are not available in all jurisdictions, prices, values, and available markets may differ from those mentioned. For more information, see calshy.com slash regulatory. Thanks again for making it locked on Cardinals, your first listen of the day. Thank you for making locked on the number one sports podcast network. You guys are awesome. We couldn't do all of this without you. Mason win. Couldn't have won this game without Mason win last night. Man, that was that was fun to watch.

Starting point is 00:11:36 Now, he hasn't had the best year offensively overall. We all know this. You look at the numbers, not a whole lot stands out where you're like, yeah, that's our, that's our guy, 241 batting average, five home runs, 51 RBIs, 102 strikeouts. I think we all expected more than that from Mason at the plate. And I think he expects more from himself at the plate. defensively, we're not going to even argue with anything here.

Starting point is 00:12:06 He continues to be elite. He's second in the National League, an ounce above average with 14. Cubs, Danesby Swanson's got 16. He leads all in all short stops in defensive runs, save with nine. Only the raise, Taylor Walls, is better at 16 for Taylor Walls, although he's had 170 less innings played than Mason win, so he's not out there nearly as much. But still, that's pretty impressive.

Starting point is 00:12:28 Tuesday night, Mason Wynn put the whole package together. Three for four, a double in the second inning, got stranded, smacks his fifth home run of the season, which broke up the zero, zero tie. Did that in the fifth inning. It was a line shot that, you know, a lot of ballparks that would just be in the gap. Would have been another double probably carries into the seats, 105.6 off the bat. It wasn't a, it wasn't a cheapie by any means.

Starting point is 00:12:58 Home running 12 of 30 ballparks, definitely not one back home. Bush Stadium. So good for him to take advantage of his surroundings. He then rips another double down the line in the seventh inning, comes around to score on Jose Fermin's RBI double. He was all over the place. And then he was his usual self on the defensive side of things. You know that the highlight reel for Mason win got got another edition on Tuesday night. Eighth inning, he goes way over to the second base side of the diamond. It was playing up the middle and goes way over.

Starting point is 00:13:31 And in one motion, he slides, fields the ball, pops up, and throws an absolute seed to Burley over at first base to rob Hector Rodriguez of a single. It was beautiful. It was just so smooth. Like, he just makes it look so easy. And the blue spikes are a vibe, dude. My guy looks badass and then. I feel like they should all wear those.

Starting point is 00:14:00 Everybody dressed like Mason Wood. I think he just looks, he looks the part. It was one of the most complete games of Mason Wynn's career. Now, Daniel Guerrero at SCL Today.com did a piece giving credit to catcher Pedro Pahas for helping Mason kind of get back on track. He was in, I think it was an over 18 skid. And according to Guerrero, it was Pedro Pahez, who noticed that there was a lot of bat movement going on with Wynn while he was standing in the box.

Starting point is 00:14:31 And he was like, okay, and when Mason went back to the video to kind of look at what he was doing and what it looked like when he was hitting really well, he realized Pedro was right. Mason then watched this highlight reel that was shown by their hitting coach, Bram Brown, during a hitter's meeting on Tuesday. And he was like, yes, look, look at this. Look at when I was going well, much more still with the bat in the box. And during this bad stretch, he was moving around a lot more. So he went to the cages, started working on it, made the adjustments on Tuesday,

Starting point is 00:15:07 and the results speak for themselves. It worked. His manager, Ali Marmal, certainly impressed with his day, just like the rest of us, called it a phenomenal day, said he swung the bat really well, just short to the ball, stayed through it, big double to left. and her big homer another double. And then it seems like this guy makes a play that the rest of the league can't make every night. It's a heck of a lot of fun watching.

Starting point is 00:15:34 And I wish we had more of these days from Mason Wynn where it was not obviously defensively does it all time, but just offensively. It just feels like there's always so much more that is there because of what a great athlete Mason Wynn is. If he wants to hit home runs like he did two years ago, he could do it. but he's decided a different approach was needed, which was fine. Like, I got no problems with that. I'm not one of those guys who likes to rely on home runs anyway.

Starting point is 00:16:02 But, yeah, just more gap shots, more doubles. I need this team to have more doubles. That's really what I'm looking for. You got to play at Bush Stadium. Trying to hit home runs is a terrible idea. So you've got to be able to use that massive outfield and hit the gaps, get them down the line, get those doubles. And that's how the Cardle's offense can succeed when they get home.

Starting point is 00:16:21 home to Bush Stadium. At Great American Ballpark, just hit the hell out of all. Like it might travel into the seat. You never know. But same approach. Split those gaps, pull them down the line, get people on base. And that's what they did. And Mason Wynn was excellent at it on Tuesday night. The only other run for the Cardinals came in the eighth inning after a lead off infield single by Jordan Walker, followed by a league leading 33rd double by Alec Berluson, which would have been a home run in a few other ballparks. Weird that it didn't get out of great. Great American ballpark out of all places. But it's set up for a second and third, nobody out.

Starting point is 00:16:56 Joshua Baez, the rookie comes up, falls behind O2. You're thinking it. I'm thinking it. Oh, crap. He's going to strike out again, Eddie. Oh, this is going to suck. But he doesn't. He makes contact and he drives the ball just deep enough to center field.

Starting point is 00:17:11 Freaking Dane Myers out there who apparently has a cannon for an arm as well. Dean Myers might be the greatest player in baseball. Like, it's insane what he's doing in the series. But he uncorks like a really good throw to home play. But Jordan Walker with his really good speed, just deep enough from Baez to get Walker home. That makes the score three to nothing. So another insurance run. And I know we still got people concerned about Baez, but most rookies struggle when they come up.

Starting point is 00:17:40 Like what he did in Chicago was bonkers nuts. No one's ever seen it before in this game. It's not supposed to happen like that. If you spread those three home runs out across his first 21 at bat, instead of how all of them happening in the first three. Maybe criticism isn't quite as loud as it is at the moment. He's still hitless since hitting that third home run. Seven strikeouts and 19 played appearances.

Starting point is 00:18:02 But in this situation, give the guy credit, did exactly what was needed. He made contact. He got it out of the end field. And again, with Walker's excellent speed at third base, got the run in. So good job, Joshua Baez. What happened around the rest of the NL Central?

Starting point is 00:18:20 One team put on a whooping of record-setting proportions, and the Cardinals got big nights from two of their top prospects in the farm system. We'll talk about all of this coming up next on Lockdown Cardinals. A big thank you to our friends at Amazon for this limited break, this back-to-school season, spend less on your kids with Amazon. Now, we all know how crazy the back-to-school shopping experience can be. It starts with a few items on your list. Then suddenly you're shopping for, all right, we got supplies.

Starting point is 00:18:55 check, clothes, check, one's gear, check, check, and about 10 other things that you didn't see coming, it all adds up really fast. And when you look at the school supply list and wonder if you're shopping for one child or maybe opening a small office supply store with all the stuff, you got to get, you know, I didn't realize first grade required this much inventory. I don't remember it being like that when I was at first grade. Shopping like this can get out of control if you're not careful. And when your kids spend days planning that perfect first day of school outfit because they want to make a great first impression. God bless them. You end up putting almost as much thought into the outfit as they do. First day photos are

Starting point is 00:19:31 going to be worth it, but it all adds up. So remember, with Amazon's low back to school prices, just spend less on your kids because every dollar you don't spend on them, there's a dollar you haven't spent on that. Shop back to school at Amazon and spend less on your kids. Thanks for making Lockdown Cardinals' first listen of the day. And again, thank you for making locked on the number one sports podcast network. Let's start with the farm system, which saw the low A debut of this year's number one draft big, Trevor Condon, who very much looked the part of the spark plug that they are hoping he is going to be in St. Louis one day. Trevor goes two for five in his debut with Palm Beach with a double, which was like kind of a blooper down the line in the

Starting point is 00:20:19 left field. It wasn't played all that well by the left field, although he didn't get robbed of extra bases earlier in the game when the center fielder took a really bad route and then made an outstanding athletic catch. So it evened out. He also had a stolen base in this one, so it showed off the speed. So a really nice start to his career. I'm excited about Trevor Condon. I love the skill set. You know, you see what, you know, everybody calls them like baby PCA and you see what Pekro Armstrong is doing for the Cubs. And similar skill set with Trevor Condon, you know, PCA. C.A has a little more power, but maybe that's something that Condon develops. But we're excited. I'm excited about that. Speaking of being excited,

Starting point is 00:21:03 Rainier Rodriguez, who's not excited about this guy? Cardinals top prospect, top catching prospect in baseball, according to him, will be pipeline four for five last night in Springfield's four to three win. He's now hitting 310 on the season with 18 home runs and 65 RBIs and 96 games played combined at Peoria in Springfield. I think it was like 28 games that he played at Peoria before he got promoted to Springfield. And our buddy Jeff Jones pointed out on X that in his last 243 played appearances, which are all at double A, by the way, he's now hitting 346 with 13 home runs and 18 doubles at the age of 19. It's some impressive stuff.

Starting point is 00:21:44 So very, very much excited about the future of Daniel Rodriguez. There's been a lot of debate online. I've noticed recently people are like, maybe he should be Arthur. basement of the future or learn to play first base or something like yeah why not i say teach all of these catchers to be able to play other positions that way you can keep two of them in the game if you need to at some point like it doesn't hurt to be versatile so yes you know that was something i've said about evan herr over the years i was like yeah it's great you want to keep trying him a catcher i was like but let's teach him some other positions so that he can be in the game and not just

Starting point is 00:22:19 be d h catcher and that's it let's see what else he can do so um Yeah, very excited about Rodriguez having one hell of a season. In a wild card picture. All right. So Cubs walk off another one at Wrigley Field. I think I saw that it's 13 walkoff wins they have this year, which is crazy. I think that's like close to the most they've ever had in the history of their franchise in one season. So nuts.

Starting point is 00:22:45 This time it was Alex Bregman that beat the White Sox. Phillies knock off the Marlins again for their fifth straight win, which is good and bad because the Marlins are behind the Cardinals now, but the Phillies are in front of them and they just keep winning, so it's hard to catch them. Padres take down the Mets 5 to 2. Fernando Tatis Jr. had a monster day, two home runs. He also robbed Francisco Lindor of a grand slam. So he's really turned his season around. The only other team in front of the Cardinals right now in the wild card is Arizona, who lost 9 to 4 to Boston. They've now dropped three in a row, which leaves the Cardinals one game behind them, but still three back of San Diego. Again, this is why. it's so difficult to catch up the people because they got to lose too, even when you're winning. And the Cardinals have been winning a lot more recently, and they're hardly making up any ground against these guys. Positive side, you're not losing any ground, but it's just tough. It's really, really tough. The other game of note in the division was that the Brewers and what they did to the Seattle Mariners,

Starting point is 00:23:44 22 to nothing, that is not a typo. Nine of those runs did come against the position player pitching in the 8th. But still, wholly embarrassment for the M's. It was the worst loss in their franchise history. It also tied the largest shutout victory in MLB's modern era, which is since 1900, matching Pittsburgh's 22-0-0 went over the Cubs in 1975, and Cleveland's 22-0-0 went over the Yankees in 2004. The Mariners, remember, like, people thought the Mariners were,

Starting point is 00:24:19 I mean, they were almost to the World Series last year. You're supposed to be really, really good this year. They're 59 and 67. They've had a horrible year from Cal Raleigh, who was just falling off a cliff offensively. So bizarre. But because, here's the thing, because the American League hasn't been very good this year,

Starting point is 00:24:40 you know how the Cardinals are, what, three games above 500 now and are three games back in the wild card? The Mariners are eight games under 500 and are still only three games back in the Air Wild Card. They're at the same spot as the Cardinals. That's nuts, right? The Texas Rangers are holding down the number three wild card spot in the American League, and they have a losing record.

Starting point is 00:25:05 They're 62 and 64. The AOS leader is Houston, who's at $5.63 and 63. Crazy, right? Tonight's matchup, the Great American Ballpark. It's going to be a tough one. Going to be a tough one for the Cardinals. I just want to prepare you for disappointment. First off, you got the Cardinals with Matthew.

Starting point is 00:25:24 Libertura on the mound. You never know what you're going to get there. But the real concern, I'm not as much concerned about Libby, but it's who's on the other side. Right hander Chase Burns, the fireballer 14 and 2 on the year with a 2.47 ERA and 151 strikeouts. 14 wins, third most in baseball, ERA fifth best, strikeouts, top 15. Bottom line, the kid is awesome. Former number two overall pick in 2024 out of Wake Forest coming off seven shutout innings against the Marlins last Friday, although the game before that, he actually got roughed up a little bit by the Washington Nationals, five runs over five in a third. So it's not that he's completely unhittable, but most of the time he's pretty close. Oddly enough, the Cardinals have only seen him once.

Starting point is 00:26:10 And he came up last year, and then, of course, he's been pitching full time this year. But they've only seen him once so far, and he came in and pitched two winnings last year. And that's it. Now, splits-wise, lefties, 223 against them, right? Right. are hitting $199. So I'd expect a very lefty, heavy lineup tonight for Ali outside of your normal righties like Walker, Wyn, Pereira. You know, you're probably going to get Church, Brian Torres, Crooks, Burley, JJ, obviously. Maybe this is the day off night for Josh Boyas.

Starting point is 00:26:43 Maybe he gets a rest. Like, it's not a great matchup for him. So maybe Jose Fermin gets the start instead, more of a contact guy. So we'll see. We'll see. But again, that's why they play the games. So we're not just going to give the win to the Reds, but it ain't going to be easy tonight. So if things get a little tough and they only score one or two runs, it wouldn't shock me.

Starting point is 00:27:03 So I just want you to be prepared because I know how it worked up everybody gets when the Cardinals don't hit so well. But nobody hits Chase Burns very well. So it'll be tough. It'll be tough. But hey, we'll see what happens. Thanks for making a lockdown carlars first listen every day. If you haven't already, give us follow on X at L underscore Cardinals. We're on TikTok and Instagram at Lockdown, Cardinals.

Starting point is 00:27:24 like subscribe on YouTube. If you haven't already for your second list and check out Lockdown. MLB game night every game every night until World Series champion is crowned. Local analysis, but it's on a national scale. You can fight it on the lockdown. It will be YouTube channel or wherever you listen to your podcast. You guys are the best fans in baseball for a reason. I'll see you tomorrow and we'll see you next time on Lockdown Cardinals.

Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - UNSUNG HERO: St. Louis Cardinals’ Kyle Leahy CONTINUES Elite Run, Masyn Winn IGNITES The Offense!

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