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.
Good morning. It was a winner of a weekend for the Cardinals, who defended their home turf by sweeping three games from the receding Reds at Busch Stadium. The Redbirds closed their nine-game homestand with a 6-3 record.
The Cardinals have won four in a row and are 35-28 for a .556 winning percentage that’s sixth-best in the majors. And the only National League teams that hold a better record than St. Louis are the Braves, Dodgers and Brewers.
Um, not bad for a rebuilding-project club that’s tied for the youngest roster in the majors and ranks 28th among the 30 franchises in active-cash payroll to cover the current 26-man roster.
Why the Cardinals Swept the Reds
1. The rousing return of Lars Nootbaar. The Cardinals are not short of energy, but Noot came off the injured list at a great time, sparking a St. Louis offense that had stagnated through a 3-9 slump before his arrival. In his first three games of 2026, Nootbaar went 3 for 10, walked four times (one intentional), knocked in three runs and scored twice. During Saturday’s eighth inning, Nootbaar got the ballpark bouncing with a pulsating, two-run homer that turned a 5-4 deficit into a 6-5 triumph. Hello! Welcome back! What a nice homecoming.
2. The bullpen vs. bullpen matchup was dominated by St. Louis. The Reds entered this conflict with the worst bullpen ERA (6.55) in the majors since May 1, and the superiority of the Cardinals’ set of relievers was a huge factor in the sweep. In the series Cincinnati relievers were left wounded with an 8.25 ERA, and got pounded for a .280 average, .419 on-base rate and .500 slugging percentage by Cardinal hitters. There was no such carnage with the Redbird bullpen, which took control and conceded only one run in 12 and ⅔ innings. When stepping into the box with runners in scoring percentage to take on St. Louis relievers, the Reds were 0 for 15 with five strikeouts.
3. STL’s deeper position-player roster made a difference. In the three games nine different Redbirds drove in at least one run, and nine different players scored at least one run. Since May 23, the Cardinals have reordered their personnel by adding outfielders Bryan Torres and Nelson Velazquez and catcher Jimmy Crooks to the 26-man roster.
Not only that but during this time Jose Fermin has been given an expanded and more meaningful role as a super-utility player. This season Fermin has taken shifts at all three outfield positions – and logged innings at every infield spot except second base. But Fermin can play second base and we'll probably see him spell rookie JJ Wetherholt every now and then. Fermin started Sunday’s game at shortstop, giving Masyn Winn a needed day of rest. And the changes were capped by Nootbaar’s return from the IL. Positive bottom line: Manager Oli Marmol has more options – and more talent – available to him now.
Let’s take a look at the buffet …
— In all candor, I hadn’t planned to watch much of the Stanley Cup Finals between Carolina and Vegas … but this crazy, frenetic and absolutely thrilling series has lured me in. It’s total madness. This series is on amphetamines. Three one-goal outcomes, one settled in overtime, another that raged into double overtime. In Game 3 Mitch Marner was stopped on a penalty shot that would have given Vegas a 5-0 lead – and then Carolina scored three goals in 39 seconds to get back in it, eventually getting the tying goal to move this action-adventure movie – evidently directed by John Woo – into overtime.
— You can’t make me watch Game 3 of the NBA Finals. The Knicks lead the best-of-seven series 2-0 and will play the next two at Madison Square Garden, but this series (at least for Game 3) will be taken over by mostly second-rate celebrities, annoying actors, egomaniacal security-disrupting politicians, and enough poseurs to violate a building code.
— That said, my friend Mike Vaccaro, the splendid New York Post columnist, did a helluva job of describing the NYC vibe. I have to give him credit. This is part of what he wrote for Monday’s issue.
“New York has become a dartboard again. Of envy. Of spite. Of resentment.
“We have all fallen over each other to empty the thesaurus to identify words that will best describe what’s coming: electric and eclectic; furious and ferocious; ear-splitting and hair-raising and chill-inducing.
“This is what New York has always been, after all. New York is a big-ticket town, whether we’re trying to get two on the aisle for ‘Death of a Salesman’ or a table for four at Rao’s or two in the old blue seats for Knicks-Spurs Game 3.
“New York is a melting pot, the ultimate blender of race, color, creed and political aspiration. And so it will be that among the 19,812 people filling the old gym on top of Penn Station will be one polarizing president and one polarizing mayor, for whom the circles of a Venn diagram couldn’t possibly be farther away from touching, let alone connecting.”
— And then there’s this observation from Fat Joe, the one and only New York legend. “I’ve seen Hasidic Jews breakdancing with black kids,” he said. “This is the greatest unification of the city since 9/11.”
— Hell, I may have to watch this damn thing. A boy is allowed to change his mind. I blame it on Vaccaro.
— Dear Battlehawks: please find a quarterback, and then maybe you can win the conference championship instead of repeatedly failing to reach the UFL title game. With this QB stuff, you fellas guys have taken me to a dark place in time, when the St. Louis Rams played quarterbacks named Scott Covington, Brock Berlin, Kyle Boller, Joe Germaine and A.J. Feeley.
— Cincinnati has lost eight of its last 10 games, and the sweep by the Cardinals shoved the Reds below .500 at 31-33. Incredibly manager Terry Francona’s team is 2-13 vs. NL Central rivals – and hasn’t played Milwaukee yet.
— Francona called a brief team meeting after Sunday’s 5-3 loss to the Cardinals. “When it’s the hardest to believe, you have to. And when there’s doubt you’ve got to believe in each other and pick each other up,” Francona said, in describing his message to his players. “What I don’t want is for this to be a morgue. That’s not the way it’s supposed to be. Because it’s hard for us right now. There’s a lot of things that aren’t going right. We can make it better. And we will.”
— Pity the Cubs. Or maybe laugh at them. After Sunday’s 2-1 loss to the visiting Giants in 10 innings, the North Siders have lost 20 of their last 27 games and are 0-8-1 in their last nine series. They’re losing another starting pitcher, Jameson Taillon (hamstring), to the IL. At last look the Cubs have put six different starting pitchers on the IL this season and they’ve collectively missed 327 days (and counting.) And now the list will include Taillon.
— There should be a misdemeanor criminal offense to put Miracle Whip on a BLT. And if someone puts avocado on a BLT … it’s not a BLT … and the person who commits this borderline act of treason should have to perform community service to make amends.
— Good to see erstwhile pitching prospect Tink Hence pitching again for Triple A Memphis.
— Ivan Herrera should have a slugging percentage higher than .403. He’s too talented for that. In his last 13 games Herrera has put up Pedro Pages numbers: .200 batting average, .260 slug and a .570 OPS.
— Until listening recently, I’d forgotten about the exquisite 2001 album, “Time (The Revelator)” by the great Gillian Welch.
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.