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. I'm late getting the kitchen open so let’s get started...
Why the Cardinals lost the series at Minnesota, dropping two of three games.
I've got three reasons in mind...
1. The tired, battered and grossly ineffective bullpen. The Cardinals had late leads in all three games and two got away. And though the visitors won Saturday’s game, the lead, there was another ninth-inning breakdown by closer Riley O’Brien.
In the 7th, 8th and 9th innings of the three games, the STL bullpen was gored for 10 earned runs in 7.0 innings (12.86 ERA.) The Twins jumped on Cardinal relievers for 11 hits, seven walks, three home runs, two doubles and a .462 average with runners in scoring position over the final three innings. Six different Redbird relievers worked in the series. Only one, Matt Svanson, emerged without a welt and did not allow a run.
2. Cards starting pitchers set up the relievers to fail. Gotta love the instant, predictable reaction from the “X” mob when Cardinals relievers get smacked around in a game. It usually goes something like this: Bullpen sux! Manager sux! Do something Bloom!
According to National Geographic, chimpanzees have the shortest attention span among mammals. “Studies show our closest living relatives have a short-term memory span of only 20 seconds for non-survival, trivial information,” the magazine wrote.
The behavioral scientists at National Geographic apparently never checked out the “X” platform during Cardinals games.
The Cards relievers weren’t good in this series. Heck, no. They were bad. As for the manager, all 30 MLB pilots get ripped and blamed when their team blows a lead. It’s the automatic reflex reaction. And second-guessing the manager is a cherished baseball tradition.
Maybe it helps to add some context? I’m thinking it does. Beginning with Thursday’s 5-4 loss to the Mets, the Cardinals got a combined 13 and ⅔ innings, total, over three games from starting pitchers Hunter Dobbins, Kyle Leahy and Matthew Liberatore. That sequence of starters collectively recorded 41 outs in their three starts, leaving the Cards’ bullpen responsible for getting 40 outs over the three games.
And even though Michael McGreevy helped the cause with his six-inning start on Sunday, that didn’t mean the bullpen was rested and ready. No matter how many innings McGreevy pitched in this assignment, the heavy innings tax over the previous three games had left the bullpen fatigued and short-handed.
The manager’s choices were limited and less than ideal. JoJo Romero looked terrible Sunday – he obviously was on fumes as he labored through his fourth appearance in the last five games. JoJo shouldn’t have been in there. But Oli Marmol had to scramble to keep the bullpen solvent all weekend, and he probably made some moves he wouldn’t make under fairly normal circumstances.
Again: context. That’s the life of a manager; having a bullpen on fumes happens repeatedly to every team over the course of a 162-game MLB schedule. No one will feel sorry for Marmol or any manager. That’s the way it is. And I completely understand it.
I was a little puzzled by the narrative after the game: how can the Cardinals fix their bullpen?
You mean, the same bullpen that ranked 4th overall and 3rd in the NL with a 2.83 ERA from May 1 through June 13, a span of 34 games? This group needs reinforcing. It also needs more innings from 40 percent of the rotation.
Well, one way to “fix” the bullpen is to address a rotation that puts too much stress on the relievers because of two weak-link starters, Leahy and Liberatore, who don’t supply enough innings. And the situation is made worse by having them pitch back-to-back in the rotation.
This season, Leahy and Liberatore have gone 6+ innings, collectively, in only 26 percent of their 27 starters.
The other three starters – McGreevy, Dustin May, and Andre Pallante – have gone 6+ innings 52% of the time in their combined 40 starts.
Big difference, yes?
3. The one-run luck has turned. At least for now. The Cardinals began the season by posting a 10-3 record in their first games that were determined by a one-run margin. That’s difficult to sustain, and it can easily go the other way. In their last eight one-run outcomes, the Cardinals are 2-6. That includes all three losses during the six-game road trip to New York and Minneapolis.
— The death of former Mizzou pass-rushing star Aldon Smith at age 36 is tragic, and sad, and incredibly frustrating. The 7th overall selection (by the 49ers) in the 2011 Draft, Smith generated the most dominant two-season start to an NFL career by a pass rusher in league history. He bagged 33.5 sacks combined in 2011 and 2012, which eclipsed the unofficial record of 31 sacks set by Hall of Famer Reggie White. And Smith was the fastest player in NFL history to reach 30 sacks, doing it in just 27 games.
— In 2010, Smith’s interception and 58-yard return for a score led Mizzou to an upset victory over No. 1 Oklahoma at Faurot Field. It was one of the most memorable plays made in Missouri football history. Smith made the football-hero play, returning to the field after missing three weeks with a fractured right fibula. Smith wasn’t close to 100 percent when he made that exhilarating play to knock off the Sooners.
— After Smith’s first two NFL seasons, I told colleagues on the Pro Football Hall of Fame selection committee that we’d be discussing Smith’s case for Canton one day. He was a sensational pass rusher, and I could only imagine how many sacks he’d pile up during a lengthy and prestigious NFL career. I genuinely believed Aldon Smith was on track for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. I really did. He had Hall of Fame talent.
— All of that talent – and his career – went to waste in a devastating haze of drugs, arrests, and troubling off-field incidents. And all of it came to an end – including the demons within him – on Sunday Northern California when a friend, Amir Shirazi, found Smith unresponsive in the passenger seat of a vehicle outside Shirazi's home. As was reported elsewhere, the two had reportedly spent the afternoon delivering food for a local charity. Shirazi told reporters that Smith seemed "perfectly fine" an hour earlier and speculated it may have been natural causes, though officials have not confirmed this. Toxicology and autopsy reports usually require weeks to be completed and released.
—- No one at Mizzou who knew Aldon Smith ever believed, for a second, that he was a bad guy. That said, there was the underlying feeling that Aldon was a bit of a tormented soul who dealt with a lot of things, including mental-health challenges.
BIRD BYTES
— Welcome, Blaze Jordan. What a wonderful MLB debut for the big bopper after his promotion from Triple A Memphis: 5 hits in 12 at-bats (.417) with a triple, three-run homer and four RBIs. Jordan also went 3 for 3 with four runs batted in when hitting with runners in scoring position.
— All of a sudden, the Cardinals have a deeper, stronger and more fearsome lineup in the 5th though 9th spots. This could become a pretty big deal for a 38-31 Cardinals team that still ranks 6th in MLB for best winning percentage despite giving away two games at Minnesota.
— Ivan Herrera reached base in 16 of his first 24 plate appearances on the road trip, and that’s crazy. Herrera’s .398 on-base percentage on the season ranks 3rd in the NL and 7th overall.
— The Cards have encountered more difficulty on the road as of late. Since winning all four games at Pittsburgh at the end of April, the Redbirds are 8-10 away from Busch Stadium.
— Memphis righty relievers Luis Gastelum and Max Rajcic aren’t on the Cardinals’ 40-man roster, which could be a deterrent to a big-league promotion. But both are pitching well enough to merit a shot in a tired bullpen that could use a proverbial shot in the arm.
— Alec Burleson is up to 13 home runs and 51 runs batted in on the season. He’s homered in five of his last six games, and has gone deep six times in his last nine games. Those six bombs came in only 38 at-bats.
— If he keeps going, tell me why Burly wouldn’t be invited to join the NL All-Star team. Among other pearls in his batting profile, Burleson is tied for 1st among NL first basemen in RBIs and is tied for third in home runs.
— Cards reliever Matt Svanson seemingly has found what he lost. In his last five relief appearances for the Cardinals, the righty has allowed one hit and one walk in 7.0 scoreless innings and has punched up a 30.4% strikeout rate over that time.
— JoJo Romero has a 3.94 ERA that’s his highest in a season as a Cardinals. (He got here in 2022 in a trade with Philadelphia.) In seven June assignments the lefty has been roughed for six earned runs in 5 and ⅓ innings for a 10.13 ERA.
— As of Monday morning FanGraphs gave the Cardinals a 45 percent shot to make the postseason. That’s fifth among NL teams behind the Dodgers, Braves, Brewers and Phillies. So even though the Cardinals frittered away what should have been a winning weekend in the Twin Cities, this is a good time for me to remember something: other teams lose games too, you know. Through the lens of viewing the postseason picture, the Cards aren’t the only NL team that takes a hit, stumbles and trips.
Before I Go On My Way
— I have extra appreciation for the two teams that won league championships and received coveted trophies over the weekend: the New York Knicks (NBA) and Carolina Hurricanes.
— The Hurricanes won the Stanley Cup after plenty of heartbreak in the previous seven NHL seasons. According to analyst Neil Paine, Carolina won 44 playoff games over the previous seven years without ever advancing to the Stanley Cup Finals – the most ever by such a team in NHL history. And the 44 victories over seven straight postseasons were, by far, the most by a NHL team that went on to win the Cup in the eighth year.
— In similar fashion, the the Knickerbockers became just the second team in post-merger NBA history to win 20 playoff games over a three-year span without making an NBA Finals appearance. But the Knicks didn’t give up on Jalen Brunson and the other key parts of the star nucleus, choosing instead to bring in a new coach, Mike Brown. And the franchise finally broke through.
— It sure does help to have Brunson as your heart-and-soul leader. He scored 45 points when the Knicks charged the way to another dramatic comeback to eliminate the San Antonio Spurs in Game 5. We often throw around the term “winner” in a casual way … but Brunson is a winner. Absolutely. He has four titles in the last 11 years: the Illinois state basketball championship in high school, two NCAA championships at Villanova, then leading the Knicks to their first NBA title in 53 years.
— Brunson averaged 10.3 points per 4th quarter during the NBA Finals; that’s the highest 4th-quarter scoring average for any player in the NBA Finals since the 1996-97 season. During those 4th quarters in the Finals series, he shot an incredibly efficient 48% from the field, 43% from three range, and 89% from the free-throw line.
— Brunson became the first NBA player since at least 1971 to score the final go-ahead points in the final 2 minutes in back-to-back NBA Finals games – doing so in Games 1 and 2 to steal victories for NY.
— In the classic Game 5 comeback: In the clinching Game 5, the Knicks were down by 10 points with just eight minutes left to play when Brunson took over and scored 10 consecutive points by himself to tie the game at 83-83.
— In The Finals the Spurs led for 177 minutes of play, with the Knicks leading for only 56 minutes. The Knicks won three times in the series despite trailing by double digits, and Brunson's amazing fourth-quarter surges were the non-stop engine in the push to the championship.
— Here’s another reason why Brunson showed the way to that elusive NBA title that had New Yorkers going wild: During contract negotiations with the team, Brunson chose to take $113 million less than he could have signed for because he wanted to give the Knicks salary-cap space to strengthen the team through major acquisitions.
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.