Hochman: Ozzie should be proud. Cardinals’ Masyn Winn looks like Gold Glove SS as rookie
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If Superman was playing shortstop, he surely would’ve dived for this grounder like, well, Superman. But if he had, he likely wouldn’t have made the throw in time.
Luckily, Superman wasn’t playing shortstop. It was Masyn Blaze Winn (actual middle name).
On this ball up the middle last Wednesday — eighth inning, game tied with the Padres — Winn scurried to his left ... but rounded the grounder. He then slid toward the ball on only his right knee. This allowed him to sweep his left leg in front, push off it and pop up.
Winn fired it to first for the out.
“He continues to do things that other shortstops can’t do,” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said after the game to the media. “The play up the middle, how quickly he bounces to his feet — and then the arm behind it to finish that play? And he made it look easy. It’s a pretty-near-impossible play. And he makes those routine. So we have a really good player on our hands who is going to help us win for a long time.”
To me, Masyn Winn, still just 22, looks like a Gold Glove shortstop. And you don’t just say that sort of thing in Ƶ, where the definition of a Gold Glove shortstop reigned with range. But going by the eye test (from this Clark Kent) says Winn should win the award — and the metrics also say Winn should win.
No shortstop in Major League Baseball entered Monday with more defensive runs saved (14) than the Cardinals rookie. In fact, only three MLB players at any position had more.
He leads all National League shortstops in a stat called range runs above average, per Fangraphs. His ultimate zone rating is third-best among NL shortstops. And Winn averages 92.9 mph on throws, second only to Oneil Cruz among MLB shortstops.
Now, in the NL, there are other shortstops who flash similar leather but have flashier names, be it Francisco Lindor, Dansby Swanson or Elly De La Cruz. And the exquisite Ezequiel Tovar is a Colorado Rockie with range like the Rockies.
But defensive runs saved has ascended to become the OPS of defensive stats. And Winn is No. 1 in that category. Give the kid the Gold Glove.
“He’s fun to watch, he’s fun to play with, he’s fun to be around,” Cardinals pitcher Sonny Gray said to the media last week at Busch Stadium. “He’s turning into a really fun, exciting player to watch. I mean, you know you’ve got someone special when there’s one player who is all the kids’ favorite player. You know that’s something. My kids love him.”
Winn plays with an unswerving swagger. He approaches defense with an offensive mindset. And like Sonny said, he’s just fun to watch. No, Masyn Winn is not Ozzie Smith. No. 1 was a 1 of 1, as he pioneered playing shortstop like an acrobat or, I don’t know, let’s say, a wizard. But Winn is a modern marvel. A fitting heir to Ozzie’s Astroturf-covered throne.
“I absolutely love Masyn Winn,” said Marmol, an infielder himself during his minor league days. “He is an athlete, he’s a dog — he just cares about winning. And he shows up every day to do exactly that. He is a highly competitive, emotional player.”
I promised myself I wouldn’t talk about offense in this column as I wanted to give proper props to his defense. But consider that Winn is fifth in the NL in WAR among position players on Baseball Reference. Shohei Ohtani, Matt Chapman, Ketel Marte and Lindor — that’s it. Winn is at 4.7, just ahead of De La Cruz, Mookie Betts, Brice Turang and former Cardinal Marcell Ozuna, who leads the NL in RBIs and is second in both batting average and homers.
Some of Winn’s WAR is due to his offense — he entered Monday hitting .283 with a .754 on-base plus slugging percentage (OPS). But 2.2 of his 4.7 WAR is from his defense (only Turang has a higher defensive WAR).
OK, two more quick offensive things to sneak in:
Since Aug. 14, Winn is hitting .338 with a .881 OPS.
And Winn leads all National Leaguers with 71 hits with two strikes (ahead of 67 for Luis Arraez, who has struck out just 26 times all year — heck, I think Nolan Gorman did that in a game).
OK, back to Winn’s defense. It really is just a spectacle. The 6-3s, the 6-4-3s, the 4-6-3s — each has as splash of his flair. And each week at Busch Stadium, even though there are fewer and fewer fans, there seems to be more and more WINN 0 jerseys.
On Monday, MLB Network posted video on X, formerly Twitter, of a TV segment. It was with sportscaster Greg Amsinger (a Ƶ native) and longtime MLB manager Buck Showalter. The duo discussed the five top rookies in the NL — Winn, Pirates pitcher Paul Skenes, Cubs pitcher Shota Imanaga, Padres outfielder Jackson Merrill and Brewers outfielder Jackson Chourio. The question posed: If you were starting a franchise in 2025, who’s the first player you’d take of the five?
“I’m taking the shortstop,” Showalter said, stunning Amsinger, who chose Skenes. “I’m taking the premium position, I’m taking Masyn Winn.
“Now, this is not clear-cut. I’d love to have any of them. I just think the premium position, shortstop ... he’s going to be a single-digit-error guy, a plus-runner. I remember the first time I saw this guy, my eyes were drawn to him. I tell scouts all the time, when they were scouting somebody, your eyes are drawn to the player you were supposed to be looking at. This kid’s special.
“They’re all great. Skenes, I think because of the physical dependency that you have — (throwing that hard) is just not a normal thing to do to your arm. I hope (a major arm injury) never happens. I hope he stays healthy. But one of the guys you choose, you’re going to have to give a five-, 10-year contract down the road — and you’re betting. Long-term, I’m taking the shortstop.”
Well, Ƶ has the shortstop at least until he’s eligible for free agency — in 2030.
Judge approves Bally's NBA and NHL broadcast deals, including Blues games
Diamond Sports Group will air NBA and NHL games, including the Blues, for the 2024-25 season under a plan approved in court Tuesday.
Last month, Diamond filed documents outlining deals that will ensure fans can watch their local teams on television, but the plans weren’t solidified until Tuesday during a hearing in a Houston federal bankruptcy court.
Diamond — the parent company of Cardinals and Blues regional telecaster Bally Sports Midwest — has been in bankruptcy proceedings since March 2023, a result of dwindling cable viewership over the years. Currently, the broadcaster is working on finalizing its reorganization plan to emerge from bankruptcy.
The newly approved NBA and NHL plans offer certainty to the leagues and their fans that there will be coverage of local teams throughout the entire season, even if Diamond does not emerge from bankruptcy.
Judge Christopher Lopez also approved the rejection of Diamond’s agreements with the New Orleans Pelicans and Dallas Mavericks, which were set to expire after the 2026-27 and 2029-30 seasons, respectively.
Diamond attorney Joe Graham called that move a “critical building block” to Diamond’s amended plan. He said the company plans to schedule a confirmation hearing in early or mid-November, which could put Diamond on the path to emerge from bankruptcy before Nov. 30, in time for the 2025 MLB season.
“Diamond also believes that providing this adequate assurance is a sound exercise of business judgment,” Graham told the judge Tuesday. The deal gives the NBA and NHL certainty for the upcoming season, while the bankruptcy case proceeds.
Diamond attorney Andrew Goldman said that these NHL and NBA deals don’t negatively affect the company’s dealings with the MLB.
But, during the hearing, MLB lawyer James Bromley raised concerns over what he said is a lack of transparency regarding Diamond’s deals. He said Diamond’s plan to appear in court this fall is not set in stone and Diamond shouldn’t wait until next year to reach a baseball deal.
“We have to keep in mind that what is being described to the court is a Band-Aid at this point,” Bromley said. “We are talking about complete uncertainty with respect to 2025”
Following Class AAA debut, Cardinals prospect Quinn Mathews eyes continued growth
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Considering the little time remaining in the minor league season, the little movement for starting pitching up to Class AAA Memphis despite injuries to its rotation and Class AA Springfield’s final stretch before entering the playoffs, Cardinals prospect Quinn Mathews assumed there wouldn’t be another promotion awaiting him.
“I thought there was just a chance they were going to leave me down there to hopefully bring a championship back home,” he said.
Then came a talk with Class AA Springfield (Missouri) manager Jose Leger that caught Mathews, 23, off guard a week ago during Springfield’s road series in Wichita, Kansas.
“I was like, ‘This can’t be good,’ because I truthfully didn’t really have an expectation to be getting the call up to Memphis,” Mathews said during a phone interview. “I just went in (to Leger’s office), and then we talked. He told me I was going to Memphis, and I was, to be honest with you, quite shocked and surprised.”
A fourth-round pick in the 2023 MLB draft and the biggest breakout performer within the Cardinals system this season, Mathews made his Class AAA debut Friday, two days after earning his third promotion of this season and after he made nine starts in Class AA.
In his introduction to more advanced hitters, a different strike zone and major league baseballs with a different feel than the baseballs used in Class AA and below, Mathews allowed three runs on five hits in four innings. He struck out seven and walked three.
“It’s definitely different,” Mathews said about the changes from Class AA and Class AAA. “But I mean, it’s just a job. It’s just baseball at the end of the day. I wasn’t very good this week. It’ll definitely be a week to look back on and find the areas that I need to improve on, which we’ve already done with the coaching staff and kind of talked over what I didn’t do very well this first week. It’ll be nice to hopefully put together a quality start this upcoming week and just continue to learn, honestly.”
The seven strikeouts Mathews collected in his Class AAA debut upped his season total to a minor league-leading 187 in 130⅔ innings. The 23-year-old lefty and Futures Game participant has posted a 2.41 ERA and gone 8-4 this season, which began with an opening day start in Class Low-A Palm Beach that marked his professional debut.
Among minor league pitchers with at least 130 innings of work this year, Mathews leads in strikeout rate (36.6%) and batting average allowed (.168), per FanGraphs. The lefty’s walk rate ranks 15th-best in the minors.
“Usually low walk rate, high strikeout rate and dominance,” Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak said recently when asked about characteristics of pitchers who rapidly ascend through the minors. “Carlos Martinez. Trevor Rosenthal. Guys that just — they put it together quickly.”
Before his promotion to Memphis, Mathews posted a 2.41 ERA and struck out 70 batters in 52⅓ innings across nine starts in Springfield. Mathews surrendered a season-high six runs in his first start after MLB’s All-Star break. The 23-year-old followed that by maintaining a 1.25 ERA and striking out 54 batters in six starts that followed.
In Mathews’ last Class AA start before his promotion, the 23-year-old struck out 12 batters — his seventh double-digit strikeout performance of 2024 — and allowed one run in 7⅔ innings on Aug. 23 vs. Tulsa. The 6-foot-5 lefty carried a perfect game bid through 6⅓ innings vs. Tulsa before it was broken up on a solo home run.
“I think it was just getting back to what I’ve done well in the year, and that was just attacking hitters and not being too fine at times,” Mathews said of the adjustments after the six-run outing. “And basically, just trying to challenge guys to hit my pitch, instead of putting them into counts that they’re going to get their pitch. ... It was just kind of that role reversal that I don’t think I attacked, and that’s kind of what I saw my first outing in Triple-A was: I don’t think I attacked the hitters enough.”
Mathews, a product of Stanford University and a native of Aliso Viejo, California, entered his first professional season with improved fastball velocity that reached 97.3 mph while in Palm Beach and touched 95.7 mph during his Class AAA debut. The fastball gains combined with his swing-and-miss repertoire that includes a change-up, slider and curveball have helped him to three promotions in a year he felt he needed to move quickly because of his age and the conversations that surrounded that during the draft process.
Now that he’s leaped another level and is a step closer to the majors, how much, if any, satisfaction has come with that?
“No, there is never any,” Mathews said. “And then I think even once you get there or if and when I do get there, I still don’t think there will be any. There is always a new expectation for yourself, which is: You’re trying to get to Ƶ to help the Ƶ Cardinals win games. And then it becomes: I need to help Ƶ win as many games as possible. ... I don’t think the expectation and the satisfaction is ever met, unfortunately.
“It’s just the nature of the beast of being a competitor. Your sights change on what’s important and what you need to do to help the team win.”
After 4 months, Steven Matz back from injury to face Brewers: First Pitch
The Cardinals, walloped 9-3 in Monday's opener, continue a road series Tuesday against the Brewers. First pitch is set for 6:40 p.m.
Left-hander Steven Matz (1-2, 6.18) will return from a herniated disc and back strain that's kept him out four months to take the mound Tuesday for the Cardinals.
Matz, who hasn't pitched in the majors since April 30, gave up four runs in each of his last two rehab starts with Triple-A Memphis.
In the third year of a four-year, $44 million deal, Matz has pitched just more than 180 innings in total for the Cardinals.
The Brewers will send out right-hander Aaron Civale (5-8, 4.59), acquired two months ago from Tampa Bay.
Civale, in his best start of the year, allowed no runs in seven innings vs. San Francisco on Thursday.
He has only faced the Cardinals once in his career, a loss in 2020 when he was pitching for Cleveland. Paul Goldschmidt fared well against him then, going one for three with a double.
The Cardinals are 3-8 vs. Milwaukee this year but the Redbirds' three wins have all come in the teams' last five meetings.
The Cardinals are 69-69, third in the NL Central and 12 games out of first. Ƶ is 5 1/2 games behind Atlanta for the final wild-card spot, and two teams are between the Cardinals and Braves.
Both and give the Cardinals a less than 1% chance to claim a wild-card berth.
The Brewers are 81-57, first in the NL Central and 10 games up on second-place Chicago. Milwaukee's magic number to clinch the division is 14.
The three division leaders in the NL are separated by two games, Milwaukee being third. Only the top two earn first-round playoff byes.
Lance Lynn (knee strain): Veteran right-hander recovered well from his 80-pitch outing Sunday for Class AAA Memphis. He and the Cardinals are discussing if he needs another simulated game or an extra between-start bullpen before returning to the major-league rotation within the coming week to 10 days. Updated Sept. 2
Lessons, like walks and homers, came quick for Cardinals Andre Pallante in loss to Brewers
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MILWAUKEE — The four-seam fastball that got a hunk of the strike zone but not the call was only the beginning of how Andre Pallante’s start came apart on him in the first inning. What followed was an overreliance on a pitch he had purposefully avoided, walks galore and baseballs soaring in ways they don’t normally against the Cardinals right-hander.
He had a brief diagnosis of the issue.
“I reverted to who I was before,” Pallante said.
He means before he returned as a starter who steadied the Cardinals.
As Pallante’s reinvention as a starter shifts to his education as a starter and audition to remain a starter, he let one inning get away from him before the Cardinals eventually watched Milwaukee walk away with the game. The Brewers asserted once again their hold over their rivals and the National League Central with a 9-3 victory Monday afternoon at American Family Field. The Brewers slugged three home runs, including Willy Adames’ 29th of the season on his 29th birthday and rookie Jackson Chourio’s grand slam.
Each of those homers brought home two runners who had been walked by the Cardinals. They gave more walks away (eight) than Milwaukee had hits (seven) in the loss.
“We’ve been good at not walking people,” manager Oliver Marmol said. “Today, that wasn’t the case.”
The Brewers lead the National League in walk rate and are one of three teams in the majors with more than 500 walks this season. They’ve nourished their offense with it and on Labor Day used it to increase their lead in the division to 12 games on the Cardinals. Milwaukee is a remarkable 30-17 against division foes.
Milwaukee lowered its magic number while increasing the Cardinals’ magic-trick number. At 69-69, the Cardinals have 24 games remaining to overtake as many as three teams and at least five games in the standings for a playoff spot. They’ve rallied to win or split recent series against winning teams after dropping the first game, but any momentum the Cardinals had from their jubilant weekend of winning at Yankee Stadium vanished fast in the first inning.
It began with a call that should have ended the inning.
Pallante wedged a four-seam fastball on the inner edge of the strike zone against Brewers designated hitter Jake Bauers. The pitch caught the zone, but home plate umpire Alfonso Marquez called it a ball. Instead of a strikeout to end the inning, Pallante lost his grip on the plate appearance and walked the left-handed-hitting Bauers.
“It was unfortunate that that pitch should have ended the inning there,” Marmol said. “That’s a punch-out. And it leads to a walk and a homer. So (Pallante) did his job in the first of making pitches. Unfortunately, he has to throw some extra ones there, and it leads to runs.”
Pallante said it wasn’t just extra pitches, it was too many of the same pitch.
As part of his transition from reliever to starter over several weeks at Class AAA Memphis, Pallante had to develop a pitch to attack right-handed batters. He had pitches that foiled lefties. Right-handers did all the damage to him. His solution was to improve a two-seam fastball, one that could keep right-handed hitters on the ground with its sink and also chase some strikeouts up in the zone. That pitch helped him become a starter.
So with two on, two out and the right-handed hitting Adames at the plate ...
Pallante threw him eight consecutive fastballs, only one of which was a two-seamer.
Adames crushed the seventh four-seam fastball he saw for a three-run homer that tied some Major League Baseball history. Only Ken Griffey Jr. in 1996 has had as many three-run homers as Adames’ 13 in a single season.
“That should not be a primary pitch,” Pallante said of the four-seamer. “Throwing five of them in a row — of any pitch — is a bad idea, especially one that is not my best pitch. ... Really what I’m more upset with is the way I wasn’t throwing my fastball in to righties. That’s a very important pitch for me. That’s the biggest thing I changed. It’s given me a lot of success this year. Not doing that in the first inning, I felt a little trapped, kind of felt like I reverted back to where I was, not where I’ve gotten.”
Pallante (6-7) walked a career-high five batters and pitched through the fifth inning, but he did so leaning into the four-seam fastball. He threw 51 of them — twice as many as any other pitch.
He got only one swing and miss on it.
He allowed two homers total.
“Both of those home runs were poorly sequenced at-bats from my part,” Pallante said. “They were horrible sequenced.”
Down quickly after Adames’ home run, the Cardinals played catch-up all game. Rookie catcher Pedro Pages hit two solo homers for his first multi-homer game of his career, and he hoisted the Cardinals within reach of the Brewers each time. The Cardinals were down by two after three, down by three after five and then in the sixth went aggressively to pinch hitter Luken Baker to potentially flip the game. The Brewers called on lefty reliever Bryan Hudson, and Baker, who homered off Hudson earlier this season, greeted him with a pinch-hit sacrifice fly. That cleaved the Brewers’ lead down to 5-3.
The game went haywire from there with more walks.
Reliever Riley O’Brien walked two of the first three batters he faced in the sixth inning and sandwiched a double in between. The bottom of the Brewers order all reached base to get the inning back around to Chourio at No. 2. The 20-year-old arriving star drilled a 1-1 pitch 420 feet to put it and the game out of reach for the Cardinals. Chourio’s second career grand slam set the final score and assured four of the eight Brewers who walked scored.
Opposite Brewers starter Freddy Peralta (10-7), Pallante felt he strayed from his game plan because of early misses in the strike zone. He did not have an immediate feel for his sinker but thought after the game that wasn’t a reason to pocket it so early, so often.
“That’s all of it, right?” Pallante said. “It’s learning from poorly sequenced at-bats or maybe not understanding where I’m at in the lineup. Or how to get myself prepared to go out there and pitch. My first couple of starts, I had a really good stretch in the first innings. I felt comfortable out there. The last couple, I have not felt comfortable out there. Now it’s come back, learn, try to make the adjustment and come out in the first inning feeling strong.”
And he knows he’ll get that chance.
As Steven Matz returns to the rotation from injury Tuesday and Lance Lynn’s return is on the horizon for as soon as next week, the Cardinals feel Pallante has pitched well enough as a starter to remain a starter — and see how far it takes him, not just this season but into the offseason and their planning for next. Marmol’s first comments after the loss Monday reflected that as he said, “Everyone is allowed an outing that doesn’t go their way.”
“You get out of that first (inning), it just feels different, confidence-wise,” Marmol said. “You stay locked in. But you have to overcome that. It’s part of the game. You’re not going to get every call.”
Photos: Brewers pull away from Cardinals to take series opener
How rookie Victor Scott II is getting up to speed — and can use his speed more, too: Cardinals Extra
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MILWAUKEE — While playing time has the potential to slow considerably for rookie Victor Scott II in the coming weeks, the Cardinals have an idea to use his time out of the present lineup to get up to speed on the ways his “elite” skill should propel future lineups.
“You can’t have him up here if there’s not a deliberate plan for development while he’s here,” manager Oliver Marmol said. “That’s a little bit of a waste, I would say.”
Scott, the Cardinals’ opening day center fielder when he dashed out of spring and into the lineup due to injuries ahead of him, spent the past month as the Cardinals’ starter again in center. The return Monday of Michael Siani from an oblique strain meant the Cardinals plan to start him “the bulk of the time” in center, displacing Scott for the time being into a part-time role. He’ll see innings as a defensive replacement like he did Monday in a 9-3 loss to the Brewers. He’ll be used as a pinch runner.
And he’ll have time for instruction before and during games that the Cardinals believe will unlock how he utilizes his speed on the bases and maximizes it in the field.
“The game is faster up here, so learning how to use my speed best to impact a certain situation is the goal,” Scott said. “It’s just learning and continuing to develop on that side of the ball, too. Gives me a chance to focus on those little things.”
In his second run with the Cardinals this season, Scott showed improvement at the plate. He hit .085 in 20 games to start the year in the majors and then returned from Class AAA during Siani’s absence to bat .233 with .656 on-base plus slugging percentage (OPS) in August. What was lacking at times from his game was what made him a standout prospect a year ago in his first full season as a pro. Scott stole 94 bases to tie for the minor league lead, and he spoke candidly and openly about aiming for a 100-steal season.
He’s been more conservative in the majors with five steals in five attempts. On Sunday, he hesitated when given a chance to advance to second while a teammate was in a rundown, and he did not attempt steal second when he had a favorable chance that same inning.
“When you take a base down there (in the minors), the value of an out isn’t the same, so you take more chances and more risk, even if it’s not the right time or opportunity to do it,” Marmol said. “He’s starting to figure out, if I’m hitting down here (at No. 9) then the top of the lineup is now up. So when do I go, when do I not, when do I risk it? Can I just outrun the game up here? There are different variables to it because making an out up here is meaningful. Down there, it’s a learning experience. It’s a different game.”
The Cardinals want Scott to steal more, and while he’s playing less, there will be time he spends with base-running coach Ron “Pop” Warner on how to spot more chances to steal. That will include studying pitchers, decoding their habits and also discussing situations throughout games, including a few times when it’s a situation he must go.
On Monday at American Family Field, Scott also did his usual round of drills in the outfield with coach Willie McGee as the Cardinals and their young outfielder seek to improve his read and reactions to baseballs. Scott has among the best sprint speed in the majors, and that allows him to close quickly on a ball like a defensive back and rob hits as he did at a pivotal play near the wall Sunday.
A goal while he’s in the majors is to keep him working with the coaches there on first steps, direction and routes because “the closing speed is incredible,” Marmol said, “and now we’ll have a really elite defender.”
That will allow him to eventually run away with starts.
“It’s continuing to learn the game,” Scott said, “and how to impact it at this level.”
Fedde gets a day; Matz starts Tuesday
In his office Sunday, Marmol stressed that the principle guiding any decision the Cardinals faced with their starters in the coming week would be “protecting and preserving the rotation.”
On Monday, he showed how.
The Cardinals will turn to lefty Steven Matz to start Tuesday’s game against the Brewers — not just because he’s healthy and recently back from a monthlong rehab assignment but because it allows for an extra day of rest for right-hander Erick Fedde. That, Marmol said, was the goal as Fedde has already pitched a career-high number of innings in the majors, and his next start — his 28th of the season — will set a new career high in the majors for the right-hander.
“Protection of the rotation is my No. 1 filter,” Marmol said. “I meant it. Really wanted to give Fedde the extra day.”
The Cardinals will conclude the series in Milwaukee with Sonny Gray starting Wednesday, and that sets up Fedde to start Friday against Seattle at Busch Stadium.
Matz last appeared in the majors at the end of April and has been recovering from a herniated disc and back strain ever since. He made six starts for Class AAA Memphis on an extended rehab assignment meant to replicate spring training. The lefty warmed up at Yankee Stadium on Sunday for a possible mid-game assignment if the Cardinals got a clean inning. When they did not, Matz sat, and Marmol sought the chance to get Fedde the added rest.
In six starts this season for the Cardinals, Matz was 1-2 with a 6.18 ERA and 17 strikeouts with 37 hits allowed in 27⅔ innings.
“He’s not a comfortable at-bat,” Marmol said, “so I’m excited to see him back out there.”
Lynn’s next step, then return
By the start of a homestand this weekend against the Mariners, the Cardinals will decide what veteran right-hander Lance Lynn will do between starts before returning to the rotation. Lynn could simulate a game at Busch Stadium against teammates, throw an extensive and aggressive bullpen similar to what he would do in spring training, or some other option that will best prep him for his start being the majors.
Lynn struck out eight of 20 batters faced and reached 80 pitches (54 strikes) in his rehab appearance Sunday with Class AAA Memphis. He allowed five runs on seven hits.
The right-hander had no issues recovering Monday from the lengthy outing and after several scheduled days of rest will begin preparing for a big league start that could come early next week.
Extra bases
Since the Cardinals joined the National League in 1892, they’re 91-107-3 on Labor Day. The last time they faced Milwaukee on the September holiday was in 2011, when they lost, though a month later ousted the same Brewers from the NLCS.
Before allowing a grand slam Monday to Milwaukee rookie Jackson Chourio, the Cardinals were tied with the Detroit for the fewest grand slams allowed this season. They each had allowed one.
Paul Goldschmidt has doubled in a career-best five consecutive games.
‘5-hit days are sick’: What Cardinals Jordan Walker takes from landmark game at Yankee Stadium
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NEW YORK — In the ninth inning, as the Cardinals put the finishing strokes on a rock-’em, sock-’em rout in the Bronx, Kyle Gibson and a few other Cardinals tried to get the attention of the host Yankees’ bat boy on the other side of the field.
The baseball that had just come his way was the same one Jordan Walker roped to right field for his fifth hit of his day. The Cardinals wanted to be sure they got the souvenir for their young outfielder, and with the real baseball safely delivered, Gibson, the wily vet, palmed another ball from a nearby bucket and did a switcheroo. On the unremarkable ball, he wrote:
“J-Walk” and five hits.
“Sept. 2, 2024.”
“@ Citi Field.”
“Messed up everything I could, except his name,” Gibson said, grinning.
In Walker’s locker after the game, that scribbled-upon baseball sat beside the real one Walker hit for a home run Sunday — the baseballs providing a nice, knowing wink to an afternoon he and the Cardinals needed. The baseball that had everything wrong came from a win when almost everything went right. The Cardinals riddled the Yankees with a season-high 21 hits, had 10 RBIs with two outs and shattered a tie game with a late burst of offense for a 14-7 victory at Yankee Stadium.
Lars Nootbaar delivered the decisive, bases-clearing double in the seventh and added a two-run homer in the ninth. Paul Goldschmidt was one of three Cardinals with three hits, Luken Baker homered and four Cardinals had at least two RBIs.
In the midst of every rally the Cardinals had was Walker running. He became the first Cardinal with five hits since Matt Carpenter in July 2018 at Wrigley Field. At 22 years old, Walker is the youngest Cardinal with a five-hit game since 20-year-old Rogers Hornsby had one in June 1916.
That whippersnapper Hornsby probably echoed Walker’s sentiment.
“I think five-hit days are sick,” Walker said.
He could not remember ever having one.
The culmination of offense the Cardinals spent all summer searching for arrived in time to win a regular-season series for the first time at any version of Yankee Stadium. The Cardinals have not lost any of their previous four series — all of them against contending teams — and reach Milwaukee for an afternoon appointment Monday with four wins in their past five games. The three-day visit against the first-place Brewers is their last stand against the division rival and their next chance to claw back into contention with at least three teams to climb over.
To borrow from Walker: This September surge better be sick.
“They’re not going to give in,” manager Oliver Marmol said. “This was an important series, no different than the last one we just played, no different than the last one, the last one and the one we’re about to play. They’re going to show up every day with one thing on their mind. It’s: How do we win today? And if it goes our way, great. And if it doesn’t, we show up the next day. How do we win today? And we’re going to do that all the way to the end.
“When you look at the style of play right now, it’s a good one.”
What cost the Cardinals on Friday night against the Yankees and what’s stymied them all season is a lack of production — real, genuine thump — with runners in scoring position.
In August, the Cardinals hit .195 as a team with runners in scoring position. They had 12 extra-base hits all month with runners in scoring position. They nearly matched that on the first day of September. The Cardinals went 8 for 18 on Sunday with runners in scoring position, and five of those hits were for extra bases.
When the Yankees pounced on a fielding error in the fifth inning and a play not made in the seventh to erase the Cardinals’ five-run lead and tie the game, 7-7, the Cardinals answered immediately with a five-run seventh inning.
All five runs scored with two outs.
Four scored on extra-base hits.
Three on Nootbaar’s pivotal double.
“I loved our answer back,” Marmol said.
He adored who was a part of it.
If there are two hitters the Cardinals need to assist in this last-month dash, it’s right fielder Walker from the right side and left fielder Nootbaar from the left side. Both have struggled this season. Both have been relentlessly working on swing adjustments in the batting cage. Nootbaar has been trying to correct an angle in his bat so that he can restore the line-drive lift and get away from so many grounders. Walker’s adjustments have been more long-term and involved two trips to the minors this season where he could work on them. The prized prospect has been trying to unlock more long-range power by adjusting his stance at the plate and developing more loft on his naturally percussive swing.
Promoted in time to face the Yankees and promised everyday playing time, Walker struck out five times in the first two games, including three times Saturday. Every day, he would go through a batting-tee progression. As he saw the way the Yankees pitched him, he moved the tee around to simulate those pitch locations.
“They’re throwing up and in, low and away, up and away, way out all week,” Walker said. “I tried to get that ball (on the tee) pretty much anywhere.”
An inning after Victor Scott II’s running, leaping catch in the right-center gap turned what could have been a crooked number into a sacrifice fly that merely tied the game, the seventh began with Nolan Arenado’s walk. By the time the inning reached Walker, the Yankees had two outs and reliever Tommy Kahnle in. The right-hander challenged Walker with a fastball, and the young outfielder had seen that pitch in that location before.
He’d literally put it on a tee.
Different from the home run he launched to 422 feet to center in the fifth inning, Walker drilled the fastball to opposite way for a base hit toward right field. Arenado was unable to score on the hit, leaving the bases loaded for Nootbaar.
His turn to put the work from the cage into the box score.
“I was thinking about the swing too much before,” Nootbaar said.
Kahnle threw Nootbaar five consecutive change-ups to level the count 2-2 and then came back with another change-up. Nootbaar laced it to right field and over Juan Soto’s reach. Three teammates scored. Nootbaar looked to the dugout to celebrate. The Cardinals never looked back.
Walker added his fifth hit of the game with a single in the ninth and stole second to make Nootbaar’s two-run homer just another hit with runners in scoring position.
There were times the game was tipsy with flaws. Miles Mikolas committed his first error since 2018, and he faced five Yankees in the fifth inning but did not retire one. A few base-running mistakes cost the teams runs; a few fielding mistakes led to runs. But there were also moments of essential excellence.
Scott stole runs from the Yankees with his catch in the sixth. Lefty John King minimized the ruckus the Yankees caused in the fifth by coaxing a double play that allowed him to veer around Aaron Judge and get the third out from someone else. The Cardinals held Judge hitless in the game and 1 for 12 with seven strikeouts in the series.
“Nothing but positives,” Nootbaar said. “This game is so tough. When you feel something click or you start to feel momentum shift in your way, you can ride with that. For (Walker) to get five hits — they don’t come along very often. Right now, he’s got a blueprint of what he did today and how he can carry that on.”
And he’s got a baseball with all of the wrong information on it to prove it.
The real baseball from Walker’s fifth hit, Gibson assured the Post-Dispatch on Sunday evening, was safely with a team trainer. His ornate writing will be correct when he writes the events of the day on a memento that will go to Walker’s parents. That doesn’t mean the error baseball doesn’t have its place.
If anything, it’s an even better reminder.
“Wrong date,” Walker said, laughing and turning the faux souvenir over in his hand. “It’s super-sick though. Close enough for sure. (Reminds me) how fun this game is, and playing it brings me joy. Sometimes it’s hard, it’s hard to find. But in the end, I do enjoy playing the game. Stuff like this helps me remember that.”
Photos: Walker, Cardinals run through Yankees in series finale
Hochman: 1st Black Cardinals pitcher turning 100. Rev. Bill Greason talks of history, dignity
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The reverend said “dignity” with reverence and emphasis — “Dig. Ni. Ty.” — with each syllable pointed, as if to poke you and remind you of the word’s seriousness.
In the Negro Leagues, “We played to entertain people and to hold onto the dignity of our profession,” Rev. Bill Greason said via Zoom.
In the Major Leagues, “Jackie Robinson, Satchel Paige, all of those guys did a tremendous job at keeping alive our dignity,” Greason continued.
And now like before, as he approaches his 100th birthday on Tuesday, Greason defines dignity.
A former Negro Leagues standout, he was the first Black pitcher for the Ƶ Cardinals. Yet that’s just a part of his story. He fought at Iwo Jima and he fought for civil rights in the South. In 1963, he was a member of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., where .
And then, 53 years ago, he followed his calling and became a minister — and he’s still inspiring congregants at the Bethel Baptist Church in Birmingham’s Berney Points.
Along the way, Greason met many famous people in history. He grew up on the same street — and attended the same church — as a young Martin Luther King Jr. He played on a winter baseball league team with Roberto Clemente. He mentored Bob Gibson in the minors. And he was a lifelong close friend of Willie Mays.
And Greason, too, is history.
“He epitomizes what it means to be an American in principle — everything that this country is built on, he represents it,” said Bob Kendrick, the president of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City. “I’m so proud that he’s getting his flowers, that people are getting to learn who he was and about everything that he has stood for and represented so beautifully during his lifetime. …
“He is one of the most important figures, I think, in Negro Leagues history, because he embodies the kind of athlete and man that was so commonplace in the Negro Leagues. … (The late Baseball Hall of Fame member) Buck O’Neil had a special affinity for him. … you could tell that (O’Neil felt) there was something a little special about a man of the magnitude of Rev. Greason.”
On Tuesday in Birmingham, the Heart and Armor Foundation for Veterans Health will host a 100th birthday celebration for Greason, the oldest living Negro Leagues player. Veterans and active-duty military will be in attendance, along with members of Birmingham’s spiritual community and sports community. There will be speeches, history lessons and historical artifacts, including dirt retrieved from Iwo Jima. And the event will take place at … Rickwood Field.
That’s, of course, where the Cardinals faced the Giants this summer in the game called “MLB at Rickwood Field: A Tribute to the Negro Leagues.” That evening, many Americans were introduced to Greason for the first time. The reverend threw out the first pitch and later was interviewed live by FOX during the broadcast.
“To be here and to see this team play, it’s good, because it was not like that when I went to the Cardinals,” Greason said on FOX. “Eddie Stanky was the manager. And it hadn’t developed yet — playing together, being together.”
That’s the curveball of history. Some might see Greason’s pitching for Ƶ like it was a beacon of hope. But it was a brutal experience for him. Due to an unfair clause in his contract, he actually had to take a pay cut to go from Class AAA to the Cardinals.
And the Ƶ players and fans were not all friendly.
“I think people don’t really grasp this,” Kendrick said. “For the longest time, St Louis was as far West as baseball went — and South. And it had that very Southern kind of background. I oftentimes tell people that Branch Rickey could have never made the move to get Jackie Robinson while he was with the Cardinals. It just was not going to happen. So it kind of gives you an understanding of what the tenor was like in St Louis. …
“And the pressure that came with those players — and the short leash that they had? And this is even more so for a pitcher. It was difficult for those early Black pitchers. … And depending on what organization you were with, you were never going to get a fair shake. You just weren’t.”
First baseman Tom Alston debuted for the Cardinals on April 13, 1954, becoming the first Black player in franchise history.
On May 31, 1954, Greason debuted for the Cardinals in a start against the Cubs at Wrigley Field. But the first appearance by a Black Cardinals pitcher lasted three innings — he allowed five runs on six hits, including a trio of homers (one to Ernie Banks).
On June 6, 1954, Greason made his second outing — and his lone appearance on a Ƶ mound. In the first inning, he allowed a homer, followed by two walks. Stanky pulled him right then.
And on June 20, 1954, Greason allowed a hit and a walk in a scoreless relief inning.
And that was it. Greason never pitched in the big leagues again.
Being a Black pitcher “was, in essence, the Black quarterback,” Kendrick said. “It was treated almost in the same manner.”
During the Zoom with Greason, the former Ƶ pitcher wore a red hat, but it wasn’t a Cardinal cap — it read “U.S. MARINE CORPS VETERAN.”
He shared a story that he’s often told over the decades.
After two close friends died during World War II at Iwo Jima, “I said, ‘God, if you get me out (alive), I’ll do what you want me to do,’” recalled Greason. “God called me (to ministry in the 1970s) … I was ready to give him everything that I had.”
Greason has touched so many lives in Birmingham. And now, as he approaches 100, he’s touching lives across the country, specifically in Ƶ.
From the battleground to the mound to the pulpit, he’s a pillar of dignity.
“I’m just thankful to God that he allowed me to be here this long,” Greason said. “It’s surprising to me — I never thought I’d live this far. … I just want to be an example for others to follow.”