I never got worked up and did the huffing and puffing over the schedule and the Cardinals’ assignment of playing 17 games in 17 days.
If the Cardinals had a successful run, filled with victories, the homecoming would not look like something out of the Roman Triumphs. If the poor Redbirds had a bad time of it, getting clobbered and left bleeding (metaphorically), it wasn’t Custer’s Last Stand.
Look, I like concocted dramas and forced narratives as much as anyone. But the 17 games in 17 days would not become a historical marker. It was just baseball and all 30 teams have challenging schedule maps because baseball is the most challenging season of any sport.
1. Baseball’s regular season lasts 162 games. That’s 10.5 percent of the schedule. Winning ballgames always makes for a great time, and winning ballgames is preferable. But absorbing blows and getting repeatedly knocked down during a rough sequence of the May schedule is not a terminator. It makes your job harder, sure. But it’s not The End of Days.
2. I never framed this as “17 in 17.” That’s because I mentally included the three-game series against the A’s in Sacramento. Yeah, I know … the Cardinals had a scheduled day off after completing the series in San Diego. But so what? I looked at this itinerary as a block of 20 games in 21 days.
The games against the A’s counted in the standings; they weren’t an afterthought. Let’s say the Cardinals had won three of four (or all four) at San Diego to complete the 17 in 17. Celebrate! Jubilation! OK, but would we still feel that way if the Cards had soiled the sheets and flunked out at Sacramento? Nope.
3. And as it turned out, it never was 17 in 17. The middle game of the Brewers-Cardinals three-game series was washed out by rain. It was 16 in 17. Or, including Sacramento, 19 games in 21 days.
4. The Cardinals did fine, going 11-8. What if they had gone, say, 8-11? Would all hope be lost? Of course not. I was a little confused by the Hallelujah Chorus after the boys split the four-game set at Petco Park to complete the original 17 in 17 … Hold on, my fellow yappers and scribes. There were still three more games to go. And that was a good thing.
If this section of schedule was some crucial test (it wasn’t) the grade went up – to maybe a “B” – because the Cardinals captured the series at SAC with a fantastic comeback to topple the A’s on Thursday.
5. Finally, the most important thing: the 17 for 17 hype will look particularly silly if the Cardinals get situated at Busch over the next six games and fail to protect their home.
I love that the Cardinals have the second-best road record (15-8) in MLB. Outstanding. I dislike that the Redbirds are just 10-10 at their custom aviary.
That home record is tied for 21st among the 30 clubs. That said, the Cards did go 4-2-1 in their first seven Busch-bash series this season. That certainly makes the 10-10 look a little more presentable.
The fellers need to start winning more frequently at home. A tough road team should be an even tougher club at home. I’m not being greedy here. I just respect the Redbirds enough to believe they should win more often at home sweet home.
Kansas City is in town for three.
Then Pittsburgh moves in for three.
I’m a reasonable man, so I’ll take a 4-2 outcome.
BIRD BYTES
– Entertained by the fine folks who were outraged – just outraged! – by manager Oli Marmol removing Michael McGreevy after six innings and with a pitch count of 74. A few of McGreevy’s pitches lost steam in the sixth inning. There was no need to push it. Once again, and pardon my snotty attitude: Not the NFL. This is baseball. 162 games. I want McGreevy strong and fresh to the finish line.
– McGreevy has a 2.10 ERA in his nine starts this early campaign. That’s the 10th lowest ERA by a Cardinal in his first nine starts of a season during the DeWitt Era, which began in 2010.
– McGreevy’s 2.10 ERA ranks 7th among NL starting pitchers who have started at least seven games.
– The starters ahead of McGreevy for best National League ERA through Thursday were (in order) Shohei Ohtani, Bryce Elder, Clay Holmes, Chase Burns, Chris Sale and Paul Skenes.
– In his last four starts McGreevy has been dinged for only two earned runs and 14 hits in 24 innings for a 0.75 ERA.
– Forgive me, but I trust Marmol and pitching coach Dusty Blake on these pitcher-removal decisions considering their impeccable record in protecting their arms and shoulders to lower injury risk. And doing what you can to limit starting-pitcher injuries is very important for a Cards team that lacks rotation depth. The Cardinals are ahead of the curve in this area.
– St. Louis starting pitchers have a 2.91 ERA so far in May; that ranks tied for fifth-best in the majors. And in their last 27 starts, going back to April 14, the Cards starters rank tied for fifth overall and fourth in the NL with a 3.48 ERA. Their starters are also tied for seventh in the majors with 11 quality starts over that time.
– An excursion down the river Jordan. As in Walker. I’ll just give you his rankings (going into Friday) among National League hitters.
* 3rd in OPS
* 3rd in wRC+
* 3rd (tied) in HRs
* 4th in slugging
* 4th in OPS
* 4th in total bases
* 4th in runs created
* 5th in extra base hits
* 6th (tied) in fWAR
* 6th in RBIs
* 6th in runs scored
* 12th in WPA
* 15th in OBP
* 25th (tied) in batting average
Does this look like information one would hand out in a brochure to inspire MVP support, or what?
– Walker’s wRC+ is 66% above the league average offensively. Not bad for a dude who was 56 percent BELOW average at this exact same time of the season (42 games) in 2025.
– I would like to request a couple of home runs from Ivan Herrera on this homestand. Thank you in advance.
– So what’s been the problem at home for the Redbirds? Well, in going 15-8 on the road the team averaged 5.08 runs per game – but have scored an average of only 4.1 in their 20 home dates. The Cards bullpen has one of the worst home earned-run averages (4.83) in the majors. The overall team ERA at home is 4.40, which ranks 25th.
– First of all, Dayn Perry is a fantastic baseball writer and analyst, one of my favorites, and I heartily encourage you to subscribe to his Birdy Work blog on Substack. You can do that by going to birdywork.com Dayn, a lifelong Cards fan, shares your interest. In his “day job” he writes on baseball at CBS Sports.
– Second, Mr. Perry displayed a little sumpin-sumpin while responding to a subscriber question. And it caught my attention. While assessing the Jimmy Crooks situation, Perry pointed out the strikeout and whiff swing issues. And he confirmed that Crooks, who bats left, is handcuffed by lefty pitchers.
– This is what drew my notice: Crooks not only mauls right-handed pitching, but he is also reliably violent when assaulting their off-speed and breaking pitches.
– Swinging for Triple A Memphis, Crooks has busted right-handed mound men for a .269 average, .424 on-base rate, .641 slug, nine homers, a 52% hard-hit rate, 22% barrel rate, a 19.2% walk rate – and his 27.3% strikeout rate is a reasonable fee for all of that power.
– Crooks has abundant thump against the off-speed and breaking balls flicked by righties. The numbers include a .250 average, .455 OBP, .625 slug, four homers, a 44.4% hard hit rate, 25% walk rate, and a strikeout percentage (31.8%) that’s on the high side. But there’s no freebies. That strikeout rate is a tax on the goods. The 46.8% whiff-swing rate is a reason for a slight grimace, but when Crooks makes contact everybody forgets about that.
I’ll go away now.
Thanks for reading and have a wonderful weekend.
–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.