Bernie’s Redbird Review: I Hope The Cardinals Got Some Shuteye On Monday Night. This Is No Time To Start A Losing Streak.

THE REDBIRD REVIEW

I was trying to think of a song that fits the Cardinals’ half-awake offensive performance in Monday’s boring 3-1 loss at Cincinnati.

I’ll go with “Daysleeper” by R.E.M. That’s mostly because of the title, though I like the lyrics about the frustration of working late at night and trying to sleep during the day.

The Cardinals didn’t literally sleep during Monday’s competition – it just looked that way. Because of a 2 and ½ hour rain delay, the Cardinals and Cubs had a long evening of baseball on Sunday night, and after winning 4-3 the Redbirds jetted to Cincinnati and got to their hotel around 4 a.m. There wasn’t much time to snooze before heading to the ballpark.

“You get it in whenever you get in,” manager Oli Marmol told reporters on Monday. “You still have to post. Not an excuse.”

OK. The manager is correct. That’s the baseball life. No need to feel sorry for the Cardinals. But I do understand why something like this would happen. I’m noting the connection between sleep-related issues and the subsequent procession of zombie hitters. I’ll assume the boys grabbed some Zzzz on Monday night.

The visiting team’s noncompetitive day at the plate was comical in a way. If you’re gonna be bad, then get it out of the way right away and be really, really bad.

The series opener at Cincinnati offered an expert demonstration of giving away at-bats. For all that it mattered, these guys could have stepped into the box to swing at pitches with a ballpark hot dog.

After Paul Goldschmidt’s hopeful solo homer in the first, the Cardinals went 4 for 30 for the remainder of the contest. All four hits were singles. The sleepwalking Cardinals did not draw an actual walk, but they struck out 12 times.

The Cards had only one at-bat all game with a runner in position to score. The Cards had one hit after the fourth – and that became their only batsmen to reach base over the final five innings. Nine of the last 11 STL hitters struck out.

The Cardinals took 24 called strikes on pitches in the zone. They had 15 swinging strikes on pitches out of the zone. According to the Statcast data, their hitters barreled only two pitches and had one instance of “solid” contact. Sixteen of their batted balls were classified as “weak.”

After a lively 7-1 homestand the Cardinals went all humpty dumpty in the first game at Cincinnati. They all but carried one of those soothing sleep-sound devices to the plate. (Nobody asked me, but I prefer the “Brown” noise.)

For the 29th time in their 52 games this season the Cardinals scored three or fewer runs. That’s the second-most by a National League team, and they’re 7-22 (.241) when it happens.

The nine-game road trip got off to a slow start, but at least the Cardinals had ample time to rest and regenerate in time for Tuesday’s 6:40 p.m. starting time in Cincinnati. That would be 5:40 p.m. in the central zone. I just wanted to make sure to note the difference in case the Cardinals put you to sleep on Monday and you’re still adjusting.

The rested and ready Cardinals will attempt to halt the losing “streak” at one game by winning Tuesday. But the Reds have won four in a row and are getting all perky and peppery again.

SKEPTICISM IS UNDERSTANDABLE: When the Cardinals ran off 10 wins in 12 games to get themselves back into the hunt, I appreciated just about all of it. The offense went from dull to dangerous, the team provided more entertainment, and winning three consecutive home series from the Red Sox, Orioles and Cubs was a whole lot of fun for a fan base that hasn’t had much to enjoy since the start of 2023. That said, that 10-2 will only matter if it was more than just a brief vacation from losing. And that 10-2 didn’t even get them to .500. I don’t blame any of you for being skeptical – or for having a wait-and-see attitude.

Didn’t we see something like this last year? Yes. We did. The Cardinals were 10-24 on May 5, got hot, and proceeded to win 11 of their next 14 games. That rush of success put them at 21-27, so it was imperative to keep pushing. At least they were moving on a positive track. Yeah, well, about that … the 2023 Cardinals ended May by going 4-5, and opened June by losing 11 times in 13 games. That sunk them to 16 games below .500 at 27-43. Season. Over. Time to sell.

I’m not saying the 2024 Cardinals will fall apart. I’m curious to see what develops. Nothing wrong with hoping for the best, but it is wise to be skeptical. The dud at Cincinnati cooled the optimism – if only by a little. How will we view the Cardinals after they are done playing two more at Cincinnati, three at Philadelphia and three at Houston?

ACCOUNTING DEPARTMENT: The Cardinals (25-27) once again came up short in their quest to reach .500 for the first time since sitting at 9-9 after a win at Oakland on April 16. Since then they’ve gone 0 for 4 with a chance to even their record … with Monday’s setback the Cardinals slid to 5 and ½ games behind the first-place Brewers in the NL Central but remained one game behind the second-place Cubs, who lost at Milwaukee on Monday … the Cubs have dropped four consecutive games … St. Louis is 5-7 against NL Central rivals this season … the Cardinals are 10-3 in their last 13 games and have won five of their last six.

LANCE LYNN: He allowed one earned run in six innings Monday and has an 0.75 ERA in 12 innings over his last two starts. Lynn has given up no more than one earned run in six of his 11 starts this season and hasn’t allowed more than three earned runs in seven of 11 starts. During STL’s 10-3 streak Lynn, Kyle Gibson, Sonny Gray and Miles Mikolas have a 3.43 ERA in 11 starts and the Cardinals are 9-2 in those games. I like watching Lynn pitch. He’s a laborer, and that’s a compliment. I believe it was one of the U.S. Presidents who said “honor lies in honest toil.” Yes. That was Grover Cleveland, the 22nd and 24th president.

The commander in chief enjoyed generous quantities of basic food and was known to savor a cold beer and a fine cigar. As biographer Henry Graff noted of dear President Cleveland, “the meals prepared for him were elaborate, although unless he was entertaining guests no wine was served. Sometimes the fare struck him as too fancy. He did not enjoy the offerings of the French chef he had inherited from the urbane Chester Arthur … Once, as his supper was being presented, he smelled the appetizing aroma of corned beef and cabbage coming from the servants’ quarters. To the dismay of the chef, he said ‘take this dinner  down to the servants and bring their dinner to me.’ ”

Grover and Lynn would have gotten along swell.

SHORT OF RUN SUPPORT: Lynn hasn’t benefited from much run support this season. The Cardinals have scored 2.1 runs per nine innings for him – second lowest in the NL and sixth lowest in the majors among pitchers with at least 10 starts. As a group, St. Louis starting pitchers have been given only 114 runs by their hitters this season, the fourth-lowest total among the 30 major-league rotations.

BEDEVILED BY ERRORS: For the first time since they became St. Louis teammates in 2021, third baseman Nolan Arenado and first baseman Paul Goldschmidt were charged with an error in the same game. That happened Monday, and their fielding mistakes set up the Reds for two unearned runs. This is an ongoing problem that has gotten really ugly. The Cardinals have now been charged with at least one error in 12 consecutive games. The team’s 30 unearned runs are the sixth most in the majors this season. And it’s gotten out of hand (in more ways than one.) The Cardinals have been tagged with nine unearned runs in their last six games.

PAUL GOLDSCHMIDT: His home run in Cincinnati, came off a two-homer performance in Sunday’s win over the Cubs. At that point Goldy had three homers in his previous four at–bats. In his last 13 games Goldschmidt has revved up for three doubles, five homers and 11 RBIs. He’s batted .304 with a .350 OBP and .625 slug in 60 plate appearances during his flashback stretch of games. Do we call this a comeback? Not yet.

NOLAN ARENADO: PROBLEMS. Since peaking with a .405 slugging percentage on April 16, Arenado has slugged an anemic .324 in his last 33 games. That .324 slug ranks 147th among 168 MLB hitters over that time. Arenado has only three home runs this season. And 202 major-league hitters have popped more homers than Arenado so far in 2024. Goodness. I’ll have more on Arenado on a follow-up column that I’ll have ready for you later this afternoon.

BURLESON AND WINN: It sounds like a law firm. But of course we’re referring to St. Louis hit men Alec Burleson and Masyn Winn. In 90 combined at-bats during the team’s 10-3 stretch they’ve collectively batted .389 with a .411 onbase percentage and .611 slugging percentage for a sweet 1.022 OPS. Their harvest includes eight doubles, four homers, 12 RBIs, 15 runs scored and three stolen bases. The funny thing? Burleson has more steals (2) than Winn (1) in the last 13 games. Winn and Burleson entered the season as the least experienced MLB hitters among the homegrown players in the St. Louis lineup. Burly (.408) and Blazer (.366) have the team’s top two batting averages since the Cardinals began to turn their season around on May 12.

POOR MATTHEW LIBERATORE: As we’ve written about many times here at “Scoops” the Cardinals have lost their organizational ability to draft or otherwise develop young pitching. Liberatore is the latest in a long line of guys that have been mishandled along the way. Since the Cardinals started screwing around with using Liberatore as a fifth starter – a move that brilliantly weakened their rotation and their bullpen – Libby has made two cameo appearances as a reliever. In the two relief gigs he retired three batters, allowed two earned runs, gave up three hits and two walks, and struck out only one. Before the Cardinals turned to Liberatore to backfill a rotation spot and attempt to cover for glaring front-office negligence, he pitched to a 1.64 ERA in his previous eight relief appearances.

ENTER ANDRE PALLANTE? As I type this I’m assuming the young right hander will be given the starting assignment for Wednesday’s day game at Cincinnati. Given the reality created by a procrastinating front office, I don’t have a problem with seeing how Pallante does. If he gets blasted, then it’s onto the next candidate as the Cardinals play their version of the old “Gong Show” game.

This is a small sample and all of that, but Pallante started 10 games for the Cardinals in 2022 and did a decent job, pitching to a 3.98 ERA and 4.01 FIP in 54 and ⅓ innings. He didn’t strike out many hitters but kept the ball in the yard (for the most part) and limited walks to 2.7 per nine innings. Pallante’s 61.4 ground ball rate as a starter was an effective defense mechanism against left-handed batters. They hit .229 against Pallante in his 10 starts.

One other note: though the cast of Cincinnati hitters has changed, Pallante had a 2.61 ERA in his two starts against the Reds in 2022. That said, both starts were at the more spacious Busch Stadium. The Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati is a driving range. Step up. Take a swing. Hit a routine fly ball. Congratulations! That routine fly ball is now a HOME RUN! Sheesh. Brandon Crawford could hit 15, 20 bombs in that place.

IN THE GRAND TRADITION OF TYLER O’NEILL: Lars Nootbaar is hurting again, sidelined by a tight hamstring. He missed Sunday’s game against the Cubs, but the team said it was no big deal. Just a little cautionary move to be safe. And then Nootbaar sat out Monday. And now the Cardinals tell us Noot might return to the lineup until Friday in Philadelphia. Noot is saying he’s ready to go — today? — if the Cardinals need him. The Cardinals need him back. They need him to stay in the lineup for an extensive period. The more he plays, the better he hits.

Since the start of last season Nootbaar has missed 15 days with a thumb contusion, 20 days with a back strain, 15 days with a lower abdomen contusion, and 14 days with a rib fracture. And evidently the hamstring wanted in on some of that. Question: why was Nootbaar going berserk and literally hanging on the dugout railing Sunday night in reaction to a Goldschmidt homer? Or am I terrible person for wanting to see Nootbaar in the lineup more frequently without being disrupted by injury?

Thanks for reading …

–Bernie

A 2023 inductee into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame, Bernie hosts an opinionated sports-talk show on 590 The Fan, KFNS. It airs 3-6 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 4-6 p.m. Friday. Stream live or access the podcast on 590thefan.com or the 590 The Fan St. Louis app.

Please follow Bernie on Twitter @miklasz and on Threads @miklaszb

For weekly Cards talk, listen to the “Seeing Red” podcast with Will Leitch and Miklasz via 590thefan.com or through your preferred podcast platform. Follow @seeingredpod on Twitter for a direct link.

Stats used in my baseball columns are sourced from FanGraphs, Baseball Reference, StatHead, Baseball Savant, Baseball Prospectus, Sports Info Solutions, Spotrac and Cot’s Contracts unless otherwise noted.