Hello, and welcome to my new feature here at STL Sports Central: Breakfast with Bernie, which I’ll write early in the morning on most weekdays. I’ll serve up observations, opinions, notes, facts, stats, praise, cheap shots, randomness, and some weirdness as I have my first cuppa or two of the day. We’ll (mostly) go “Buffet” style to give you a chance to graze before I write a different column I’ll post later in the day. On most days, I’ll lead off with a Cards recap. There will be plenty of baseball information served here.
Note: because of other responsibilities this morning, my writing time was limited, so today’s breakfast will be an all-baseball theme. Help yourselves to my specialty dish, the Crab Cake Benedict.
Onto baseball …
The final Wednesday at Busch Stadium: Cardinals 5, Rangers 3 as the Redbirds prevented a Texas sweep and leveled their record to 3-3 on the current homestay.
FIVE REASONS WHY THE CARDINALS WON …
1. Higher quality of at-bats: though they scored just one run, the Cardinals put Rangers starter MacKenzie Gore through a tough first-inning workout, making the lefty throw a consuming 31 total pitches to seven batters. The Cards fouled off four pitches. In that first inning Cards hitters patiently held their ground as Gore threw 14 pitches out of the strike zone. They fouled off four pitches, walked three times and got an RBI single from Alec Burleson. The Cardinals had averaged only 1.6 walks per game over their previous six contests, so it was quite a change to see them come out and work Gore for three walks in the first frame. Gore made 100 pitches in the start and was out of gas (and removed) after 4 and ⅔ innings. Gore’s first-inning labor was a likely factor in the Cards’ two-run third inning for a 3-1 lead.
2. Alec Burleson and timely hitting: in the first and third innings Cards hitters went 2 or 5 with a walk and three RBIs in when setting up with runners in scoring position. In addition to his RBI single in the first, Burly delivered a two-run double in the third. For the game the Redbirds had four hits and five RBIs in 13 at-bats with RISP. The Cardinals have been terrible at coming through on RBI opportunities this season, batting .224 as a team with men in position to score. But don’t blame Burleson; this season he’s batting .357 with a .926 OPS and 36 RBIs in his 70 at bats with RISP.
3. Jordan Walker’s impressive night: after going into a frigid cool-down funk over the first five games of the current homestand –he was 2 for 20 with nine strikeouts – Walker had a Wednesday warm-up. In his team’s 3-1 snapback, Walker had three hits, scored three runs, and swiped a base. Walker’s baserunning is an overlooked part of his skill set. This season Statcast has him in the 75th percentile among MLB players in Base Running Value, the best of his career. His sprint-speed rating is in the 80th percentile, which really stands out considering his 6-6, 250-pound size. On the season Walker leads the Cards with eight steals, and has a SB success rate of 73 percent. When running the bases (non steals) Walker has an extra-base taken rate of 61 percent, which is significantly above the MLB average of 43%.
4. Andre Pallante, gateway-city grinder: Look, no one will be putting his name on a Cy Young award watch list. But I appreciate Pallante’s locked-in competitiveness as he proceeds from start to start, determinedly taking on all comers, and generally making the most of his talent. Pallante out-pitched the highly regarded MacKenzie Gore in Wednesday’s win, and that’s a matchup that should have favored the Rangers. In his 5 and ⅔ innings, Pallante ceded three hits and one run while striking out five. The league-average Game Score for a starting pitcher is 50, and Pallante turned in a 62 score to earn the win over Texas. Official starting-pitcher wins can be misleading, but let the record show that Andre Pallante leads St. Louis starters with six credited wins this season.
5. Ryne Stanek, bullpen asset. The right-handed power pitcher looks like a cast member – maybe a ranch hand – in “Yellowstone.” But in Wednesday’s game, with Texas invading the Dutton Ranch and trying to steal away with some cattle, Stanek put a stop to it with 1 and ⅔ innings of one-hit relief. Stanek replaced JoJo Romero, who had allowed a two-run triple to Joc Pederson to cut the home team’s lead to 5-3. It was getting tight, and Pederson stood on third as Stanek entered the fray with one out in the seventh. Stanek struck out Josh Jung and retired Brandon Nimmo on a harmless fly ball. Stanek returned to pitch a scoreless 8th to set up Riley O’Brien’s 15th save.
The beginning of Stanek’s Cards career was loaded with early angst and anxiety and troubles that included a preposterous 18.8% walk rate, .308 opponent batting average, and a 9.00 ERA in his first 14 appearances.
OK, now here’s Stanek since then: 13 appearances, 12 and ⅓ innings, .163 opponent batting average, 28 percent strikeout rate and a 1.46 ERA. The walk rate is subsiding, with only one walk handed out by Stanek in his last five relief assignments.
STATE OF THE CARDINALS
Record: 32-28, .533. Despite winning only nine of their last 22 games since May 9, the Cards haven’t been shoved into irrelevancy. Their .533 winning percentage is tied for the seventh-best mark in the majors, and the Redbirds are hanging with the Padres and Pirates at the top of the NL wild-card standings.
THE JOSHUA BAEZ REPORT
– The Nootbaar-Baez assault: In Wednesday’s 18-4 trouncing of Louisville, the Triple A Memphis Redbirds went with a lineup that had the injury-rehabbing Lars Nootbaar leading off, followed by power-hitting prospect Joshua Baez. That worked out pretty well. In the game Noot and Baez combined for five hits in nine at-bats, each banged a home run, and the duo teamed for four RBIs and six runs scored.
– Nootbar looks ready to return to the Cardinals and make his regular-season debut and boost the lineup for the weekend series vs. Cincinnati that begins Friday at Busch Stadium.
– The dynamic Baez is continuing on his incredible run of offense. In his first two games in June, Baez had seven hits in nine at-bats and with three doubles, a homer and six RBIs. He struck out once in the two games.
– This follows a booming month-of-May performance in which Baez batted .274, slugged .632 and had a .980 OPS. Sixteen of his 29 hits in May (55%) went for extra bases including 10 home runs.
– Baez is now 2nd in the International League this season with 17 homers. The leader is White Sox prospect Jacob Gonzalez, who has 19 home runs for Charlotte. But Gonzalez, 24, is two years older than Baez.
– Sayeth Baseball America of Baez: “The 22-year-old is one of the minors’ premier power prospects and is likely to reach the majors at some point this summer.”
– Baez has started 32 games in center field for Memphis with 14 starts in right field and three starts in left.
– Check out the Baez damage report over his last 19 games for Memphis:
* 91 plate appearances
* 79 at-bats
* .342 batting average
* .418 on-base rate
* .835 slugging percentage
* 1.253 OPS
* 27 hits, 17 for extra bases (63%)
* HR rate of one bomb every 7.9 at-bats.
* .493 ISO (isolated power) which is nuts.
* His wOBA over the 19 games is .524. Oomph.
* Over his last 19 games Baez has as many home runs (10) as singles (10). Who does that?
* Oh, and the strikeout rate is falling. In his last 19 games Baez has struck out in 25.6 percent of his plate appearances. But before that his strikeout rate fluctuated between 33% and 35%.
Hey, someone is improving.
DREAMING OF THIS OUTFIELD
+ Lars Nootbaar in left field.
+ Joshua Baez in center field.
+ Jordan Walker in right field.
+ A choice of reserve outfielders from a large pool that includes Nathan Church, Bryan Torres, Jose Fermin, Nelson Velazquez, Victor Scott and Thomas Saggese. Many choices there. Good luck to Chaim Bloom and Oli Marmol in sorting that out.
Coming soon … but how soon?
Thanks for reading …
–Bernie
Bernie was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 2023. During a St. Louis sports-media career that goes back to 1985, he’s won multiple national awards for column writing and sports-talk hosting – and was the lead sports columnist at the Post-Dispatch from 1989 through 2015. Before that Bernie spent a year at the Dallas Morning News, covering the Dallas Cowboys during Tom Landry’s final season (1988) plus the sale of the team to Jerry Jones and the hiring of Jimmy Johnson as coach. Bernie has covered several Baseball Hall of Fame managers during his media career including Tony La Russa, Whitey Herzog, Earl Weaver, Joe Torre and (as an interim) Red Schoendienst. In his career as a beatwriter and columnist, Bernie covered Pro Football Hall of Fame coaches Joe Gibbs, Tom Landry, Jimmy Johnson and Dick Vermeil on a daily basis.
Bernie has covered and written about many great St. Louis sports team athletes including Albert Pujols, Kurt Warner, Brett Hull, Yadier Molina, Adam Wainwright, Jim Edmonds, Marshall Faulk, Scott Rolen, Mark McGwire, Orlando Pace, Isaac Bruce, Torry Holt, Adam Wainwright, Chris Carpenter, Al MacInnis, Brian Sutter, Bernie Federko, Chris Pronger, Dan Dierdorf, Jackie Smith and Aeneas Williams. Bernie covered every baseball Cardinals’ postseason game from 1996 through 2014 and was there to chronicle teams that won four NL pennants and two World Series. He provided extensive coverage on the “Greatest Show” St. Louis Rams and has written extensively on the St. Louis Blues, Saint Louis U, and Mizzou football and basketball. Bernie was/is a longtime voter for the Baseball Hall of Fame, Pro Football Hall of Fame, Heisman Trophy and the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame.
You can access his columns, videos and the podcast version of the videos here on STL Sports Central, catch him regularly on KMOX (AM or FM) as part of the Gashouse Gang, Sports Rush Hour, Sports Open Line or Sports On a Sunday Morning shows. And you can catch weekly “reunion” segments here at STL Sports Central featuring Bernie and his longtime friend Randy Karraker.