Hello, and welcome to my new feature here at STL Sports Central: Breakfast with Bernie, which I’ll write in the morning on most weekdays. And if I’m a little late it’ll be “Brunch with Bernie.” On most days, I’ll lead off with a Cards recap. There will be plenty of baseball info served here, with emphasis on the Cardinals.
Your somewhat beloved St. Louis Cardinals took another two punches on the kisser from the merciless Milwaukee Brewers on Tuesday. In a split doubleheader at Busch Stadium, the Cardinals suffered a big fat split lip.
Another St. Louis reliever went down with a sprained ankle. The Cardinals were so short of relievers, I think I saw manager Oli Marmol looking to the bullpen and signaling for Drew VerHagen to give him an inning.
Infielder-outfielder Bryan Torres provided two innings of service to finish up the second game of a double-trouble doubleheader. Milwaukee’s sweep was complete.
And the unsettling thing is, Torres was more effective on this day than at least one dude, Jared Shuster, who is paid a salary to pitch a baseball and put food on the table.
The Brewers had another jolly good time in beating the Cardinals for the sixth – then seventh – time in a row. When Marmol brought in Torres to clean up at the end of a messy day, Brewers outfielder Jackson Chourio, a right-handed batter, decided to have a little fun by hitting from the left side. He drove a Torres pitch about 360 feet into center, where it was caught near the warning track.
Hey, the Brewers have maintained such firm ownership of the St. Louis Cardinals I guess they’ve earned some privileges to find ways to amuse themselves.
Have a reliever taunt the Redbirds with a crotch-chopping ritual dance (remember that?) or get a few chuckles from watching Chourio’s cute stunt.
What’s next? Maybe Brewers manager Pat Murphy can challenge the Cardinals to a Wiffle ball game? Murphy is a decent fellow, so maybe he’ll send one of his relievers to the St. Louis bullpen to help out.
Murphy didn’t need much relief help from his bullpen crew in the first three games of this series. Not with Milwaukee’s Shane Drohan, Jacob Misiorowski and Robert Gasser combining for just under 7 innings per start.
In Tuesday’s doubleheader, the Brewers used three relievers in the two games. The Cardinals used seven relievers, including Torres, in the two games.
A crowd of 44,829 attended the competitions at Busch Stadium. That’s 44,829, combined, for the two games. I remember when 44,000 would be the attendance count for a routine Wednesday-night game against the Pirates.
The Cardinals have the No. 9 winning percentage among the 30 MLB teams. But in the home-attendance standings, they’ve dropped a spot, to No. 18, in average tickets sold per home game.
Maybe the Cards marketing department can have a special “1970s Night” promotion.
Some thoughts and facts and other stuff that escaped from my head…
1. The Cardinals are 1-7 against Milwaukee this season. But let me do a Fredbird here and point out the Cards are 46-36 against the other teams they’ve played this season.
2. Recent trends are not particularly encouraging. The Cards are 19-24 since May 20, and have won 10 of their 25 games since June 11. And their 7-12 record and .368 winning percentage ranks 12th in the National League since June 16. Sure, last week’s 4-2 road trip to Atlanta and Chicago was a positive change of pace, but the current series against the Brewers is a bummer. Or as the kids would say: that’s mid.
3. Marmol’s doubleheader bullpen was a mish-mash. It included two designated-for-assignment guys, Bruce Zimmermann and Jared Shuster. Plus the two relievers, Justin Bruihl and Ryne Stanek, who were limping with sprained ankles. Stanek pitched to two batters in the first game but had to leave after injuring the ankle in a collision at first base. He wasn’t available for the second game. Lefty JoJo Romero, who has been pushed hard, could only contribute an inning.
Reliever Matt Svanson was used as a “starter” in the opening game Tuesday, working the first inning before handing off to Zimmermann, who did a commendable job in going five innings. Ryan Fernandez was sent to Memphis after Monday’s game.
The only relievers Marmol didn’t utilize Tuesday were George Soriano and closer Riley O’Brien. Yeah, managers save their closers for save situations. Marmol is just like the other 29 managers in that regard.
Soriano was off limits Tuesday, and I’m not sure what’s going on with that. After pitching back-to-back games on June 21-22, Soriano had three days off. He pitched on June 26 and had another day off. He pitched on June 28 and had another day off. He pitched July 2 and had another day off. He pitched July 4, and hasn’t pitched since then – which means he wasn’t used on Sunday, Monday or Tuesday. His last five appearances have come with a total of seven days off in the mix. If Soriano is hurt, then he should be on the IL. But instead the Cardinals are choosing to go forth with a bullpen that’s worn and frazzled.
4. As I mentioned, Milwaukee had three starters ready to work the first three games and provide bulk innings. And though all three games were close through the first six innings, Murphy didn’t have to worry about leaning on his bullpen. Marmol didn’t have that luxury. He doesn’t set the roster. He works with what he’s been given. In the first game, Dustin May was on a pitch limit and went just 4 and ⅓ innings. In the opening game of the doubleheader, Marmol went with Svanson for one inning, and turned to Zimmermann for five. So that wasn’t bad, getting six innings (and three runs allowed) from the two of them. But by using Svanson as an “opener,” it put him to the side for the second game. Hunter Dobbins started the second game Tuesday and went five innings.
Even if we include Svanson and Zimmermann as a tandem that worked six innings, the Cardinals got 5 and ⅓ fewer innings from their starters – compared to Milwaukee’s starters – for the first three games of this series. Yeah, that makes a difference. And in this case – with a weakened STL bullpen – that made a huge difference.
5. The Cardinals have younger pitchers who could come up here to help remedy the situation, but Chaim Bloom called for the two journeymen DFA guys (Shuster and Zimmermann) instead. Bloom is doing the Faberge Eggs thing. I came up with that term many years ago to make fun of the Cardinals front office for not bringing up prospects to fortify the team. The Faberge Eggs (prospects) were in the display case, and they looked great …. but they’re off limits, you can’t touch them, you must stay away from them, and they’ll stay locked in the display case. This seems to be happening again.
6. I do understand Bloom’s philosophy. He doesn’t want to rush prospects up here if they have flaws that need to be corrected, made better, to give them their best chance of having early success when summoned to the majors. Still, I also understand the frustration of watching Bloom go with DFA arms in a doubleheader against the Brewers – and with the Cardinals in a tussle for an NL wild-card spot. But Bloom has other priorities. Development comes first. Don’t yell at me; I’m just telling you what I know. I don’t make the policy at Busch Stadium.
7. Here’s an example of something that makes no sense to me. With the bullpen already strained, Milwaukee coming to town, and the Cardinals facing three games over Monday-Tuesday – then why did the Cardinals use prospect/rookie Brycen Mautz on Sunday, working two innings and throwing 44 pitches, for Triple A Memphis? Why not skip that one, and have Mautz available to provide innings depth for the Cardinals instead?
8. One repercussion of the pitching chaos could be framed this way: in Tuesday’s two games, the highly stable Brewers claimed 43 outs from their two starting pitchers and only 12 from relievers. The disheveled and dizzied Cardinals had to find a path to 54 outs by relying on minor-league temporaries or their own relievers – including a dude, Torres, who isn’t a pitcher. With all of their gymnastics, the Cardinals appear to be overthinking all of this.
9. It appears that the impressive rookie reliever prospect Luis Gastelum is in St. Louis, about to be officially promoted by Bloom. But why wasn’t Gastelum made available to jump in on doubleheader day? What’s the point of transporting a Faberge Egg to St. Louis, only to keep him in the display case for a day? I wonder if Bloom had security guards protecting Gastelum in the Faberge Egg curio cabinet?
10. There seems to be no limit to Milwaukee’s impressive depth. In the second game they started a flashy prospect, Luis Lara, in center field. They’d promoted him from Triple A in time to reach St. Louis for the doubleheader. After watching the first game from the dugout, the switch-hitting Lara played the second game. Batting second in the lineup, Lara got first major-league hit, his first walk, his first run scored, and his first RBIs.
11. When Baseball America published its midseason farm-system rankings this week, the Brewers were No. 1. The Cardinals were 6th. The Brewers have dominated the NL Central since 2018, and they have a small payroll, and they reside in MLB’s smallest market – and yet they’re also kicking every NL Central team’s backside in the drafting-development competition. Back in the day, Walt Jocketty and John Mozeliak could take advantage of the idiots running other teams in the NL Central. Bloom does not have that advantage. Not as long as Matt Arnold and associates are running the Brewers.
12. The Cardinals scored five runs, total, in 18 innings of doubleheader ball on Tuesday. This team’s offense continues to be weak and meek at Busch Stadium.
Consider these fact candies:
— The Cardinals are 2-8 in their last 10 games at Busch Stadium since June 17.
— In the 10 games, the Cards have scored 22 runs, an average of 2.2 runs per contest.
— Batting average, .194
— On-base percentage, .257
— Slugging percentage, .272
— OPS, .528
— Home runs, 5 in 309 at-bats.
— 52 wRC+, which is 48% below league average offensively.
For the season the Cardinals have a losing record (23-24) at home for a .489 winning percentage that ranks 11th among the 15 NL teams. The Redbirds have been held to three runs or fewer in 28 of their 47 home games, or 59.5 percent of the time.
13. In the home-ballpark offensive rankings, the Cardinals range between 21st and 29th among the 30 teams in batting average, on-base rate, slugging percentage, OPS, walk rate, home runs per game (0.95), doubles, triples, wOBA, isolated power, and wRC+.
14. The current four-game losing streak has displaced the Cardinals from the No. 3 wild-card spot. They now trail Miami by two games in the lunge for the third wild card. The Pirates, Nationals, Diamondbacks and Padres are all within 2 and ½ games (or less) of the Cardinals.
15. FanGraphs gives St. Louis a 29.5 percent crack at making the playoffs. That’s the eighth-highest probability among the 15 NL teams. But these playoff odds fluctuate from day to day, week to week, based on the changing trends … you know, like having rampant instability with your pitching staff.
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, Keith Tkachuk, 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.