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. Time permitting, I’ll try to throw in some non-sports stuff, and some weird stuff, culled from random headlines.
The New World Order in the NL Central returned to normal in the dimness of Thursday evening, with the Brewers giving another flogging to your somewhat beloved St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium.
The Brewers doubled up on the Cardinals by an 8-4 score, but at least the Cards attracted their largest congregation of paid customers (27,028) over this five-game series.
In winning four of the five games, Milwaukee upgraded its record against St. Louis to 8-2 on the season. At least our poor Redbirds can take some comfort in knowing they won’t have to worry about taking another round of shellackings by the Brewers until the teams meet in America’s Dairyland for the final regular-season series of the season.
Here’s my dumbest question of the week: do the Brewers have a better ballclub than the Cardinals? Well, yes, I’d say this appears to be the case.
In winning eight of their first 10 games against the Cardinals this season, the Brewers did some terrible things to reaffirm their domination:
– Outscored the Cards by 22 runs.
– Averaged 4.9 runs per game to STL’s 2.7.
– Had a 2.56 team ERA to the Redbirds’ 4.86
– Bullpen ERA: Crew 1.87, Cards 5.26
– Starting-pitching ERA: Milwaukee 2.98, St. Louis 4.56
– Brewers had more extra-base hits, 32-23
– Pitcher strikeout rate: MIL 24%, STL 18%
– In the 10 games the Crew led in 50 innings. The Cards led in 30.
– When batting with runners in scoring position the Brewers hit .297. The Cardinals hit .206.
– In the 10 games Milwaukee batted .270 overall, had a .752 OPS and were 9% above league average offensively per wRC+.
– In the 10 games the St. Louis offense batted .188 with a .542 OPS and a wRC+ that translated to 50 percent below average offensively.
I got a text from a friend on Tuesday night after the Brewers completed their doubleheader sweep of the Cardinals.
“We just blew our chance to win the division,” he wrote.
My response: “Dude! I’m sorry, but the Cardinals never had a chance to win this division so get your ass to bed.”
Recently recovered thoughts made possible by the assistance of two double espressos at 5:30 a.m.
1. Jordan Walker provided the only real highlight during Thursday’s unfortunate result by clubbing a three-run homer. His projectile landed in Big Mac Land, over the illuminated carton of McDonald’s french fries, which made me hungry. No, I didn’t order up on Door Dash.
2. The in-game entertainment crew needs to crank up “Shotgun”, the classic hit song by Junior Walker and the All-Stars when the All-Star J. Walker launches a happy homer at Busch Stadium. A perfect soundtrack for Jordan Walker’s home-run trot around the bases. And the name connection (J. Walker) and All-Star distinction make it a natural.
3. The Cardinals’ J. Walker has 22 homers and 73 RBIs through his first 90 games of the season. During the expansion era (1961-present) here are the only Cardinals to have at least 22 HRs and 73 RBIs over their first 90 games of the season:
Dick Allen in 1970
Jack Clark, 1987
Ray Lankford, 1997
Mark McGwire, 1998 and ‘99.
Albert Pujols: 2003, 2006, 2009
Walker, 2026
That’s a helluva list.
4. The Cards had another below-average run output in Thursday’s downer. This season the 30 teams average 4.53 runs per game. So a below-average total is anything less than five runs in a game.
So here’s an update of this disturbing trend by the Cardinals in games played at Busch Stadium this season.
— Cards record when scoring 5+ runs in a home game: 15-2 for a winning percentage of .882.
— Cards record when scoring 4 or fewer runs in a home game: 9-23 for a win percentage of .290.
— The chronic shortage of runs is the No. 1 reason behind the Cardinals’ 24-25 home record this season. Their home winning percentage (.489) ranks 20th in the majors. The Redbirds are 24-19 on the road, simply because the offense scores a lot more runs when away from Busch Stadium. Their .558 road win% is the seventh-best in MLB.
5. After an 18-13 record in their first month of play, the Cardinals have gone 30-31 since May 1, and are 20-25 since May 20. After getting back to nine games over .500 on June 16, the Cards have won just 8 of their last 21 games. Their .381 winning percentage since June 17 is tied for 13th overall and 25th in the majors.
6. Recent trends: not great. The Cardinals now trail the Marlins and Phillies by 3.0 games in the bidding for the NL’s No. 3 wild card. On June 16, the Cards held the No. 3 wild card by a margin of 2 and ½ games. This means St. Louis has lost 5 and ½ games in the standings over the past 22 days.
7. Andre Pallante didn’t have it in Thursday’s beatdown by the Brewers. But starting pitching hasn’t been the problem. While imperfect, during the team’s 8-13 slump the Cards starting pitchers have a 3.68 fielding independent ERA (FIP) which ranks 7th among the 30 teams since June 17. During the 8-13 slide the STL offense ranks 22nd in MLB in wRC+ with a performance that’s 10% below league average. And keep in mind this includes the 17-run whomping of the Cubs at Wrigley Field on July 3.
8. The Braves are in town for the three-game weekend series that’s a lead-in to the All-Star Break. Perhaps the Cardinals can end the so-called first half on a positive turn. The Braves have rebounded a bit with a 4-3 record since losing a home series to the Cardinals. But Atlanta comes in with a 9-17 mark over its last 26 ballgames.
9. JJ Wetherholt is looking to finish strong before the All-Star break. Going into the Atlanta series Wetherholt has a .344 average, .417 on-base rate and .500 slugging percentage over his last seven games. His 3.6 fWAR is fourth best among all NL position players. In the Rookie of the Year “standings” JJ’s 3.6 WAR is twice as much as the next NL rookie on the list, New York’s Carson Benge (1.8). Wetherholt leads all MLB second basemen in defensive runs saved, outs above average, and Fielding Run Value.
Let’s see what’s at the buffet …
1. France’s brilliant and unstoppable Kylian Mbappe is not only making a strong run at winning the World Cup Golden Boot award, he’s the best Mbappe since Hanson’s big hit, MMMBop, in 1997.
2. Sorry. That was corny as hell but it’s Friday and I couldn’t resist. And that was a helluva pop song.
3. Some nice words on Cardinals fans from Nolan Arenado, who discussed the warm and affectionate reception given to him during first visit back to St. Louis since becoming a Diamondback.
“St. Louis, it’s an amazing place. I really loved playing there,” Arenado said as a guest on Arizona Sports’ Bickley & Marotta Show. “My family loved it and it was a great chapter in my life. Then obviously going through that standing ovation and all that was special. To do it three times, I didn’t expect that. So it was really cool. It was amazing. The fans are first class.”
4. The trip to St. Louis may have provided a spirit boost for Arenado. In 12 games since the end of the series at Busch Stadium, Arenado has batted .273 with a .523 slugging percentage, .827 OPS and three homers.
5. The publication Gold Derby named 1998's The Big Lebowski as Sam Elliott’s greatest film performance, lavishing praise on the actor for his fantastic turn as The Stranger, the mysterious narrator who became a beloved character in the Coen brothers’ classic, offbeat comedy.
I need to consult with Bob Ramsey on this. But as a Sam Elliott fan from way back – beginning (for me) with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid in 1969 – I may have to go in another direction. There’s never been a bad Sam Eliott performance – he’s an institution – but here are my favorites. And it’s all subjective, so there’s no right or wrong answer.
Road House, 1989
We Were Soldiers, 2002
The Hero, 2017
Tombstone, 1993
Mask, 1985
Lifeguard, 1976
Thank You For Smoking, 2005
Gettysburg, 1995
The Contender, 2000
Up in the Air, 2009
A Star is Born, 2018
And yes, Big Lebowski
I left out some others.
6. Headline from HistoryExtra: “Where did medieval people poo? The answer may appall you.” Yo! Too much information! No thanks. I don’t want to read it. I don’t need to read it. I already had my garderobe installed here at the Miklasz castle.
7. Los Angeles Times baseball columnist Bill Shaikin on the LA Angels’ hiring of former Cardinals president of baseball ops John Mozeliak:
“For the first time this decade, with the arrival of John Mozeliak as interim general manager, they have legitimate hope,” Shaikin wrote. “Mozeliak, whose St. Louis Cardinals teams reached the playoffs more often than not in his 18 years running baseball operations there, is here to end baseball’s longest postseason drought, or at least steer the Angels in that direction.”
8. One thing in the story was pretty funny. Mozeliak got sassy about Angels owner Arte Moreno when asked if he, Mozeliak, could just walk away from his new consulting job in six months.
“I think I have that authority,” Mozeliak said, “and I think he understands that he can embrace change, because that is what is going to be required.”
Based on Moreno telling you that?
“Yes,” Mozeliak said.
Mozeliak is big-pimpin', and it’s a beautiful thing.
9. According to the Guardian, the U.S. federal government spent $625 million to help 11 American cities stage the World Cup. In return, FIFA will collect an estimated $9 billion in revenue from the tournament. Well, at least the White House intervened and got that red-card penalty reversed in a controversial decision before the Belgium match that put a ton of extra pressure to win on the U.S. squad – and gave a massive boost of motivation to the Belgians. The U.S. only lost by three goals. And don’t forget, the president got that “FIFA Peace Prize” trophy from the cunning FIFA president Gianni Infantino.
10. So this was a huge triumph for the U.S, no? Of course! That was the ruling presented to The Guardian by Andrew Guliani, the president’s appointed tsar of the World Cup.
“We want to make sure that America, especially when you consider all the federal dollars that we laid out for this, all of the years of preparation that went into this, the vision, going back to 2018, that we can ensure at least it was going to be fairly administered on the pitch,” Giuliani said. “We did that. You had that red card, which never should have been administered, reversed. And we stand by the actions that we took.”
That really worked out great.
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.