Hello, and welcome to my new feature here at STL Sports Central: Breakfast with Bernie, which I’ll write early in the morning on most weekdays. And if I’m a little late it’ll be “Brunch with Bernie.” I’ll serve up observations, opinions, notes, facts, stats, praise, cheap shots, randomness, analysis and some weirdness as I have my first cuppa or two or three of the day. At times we’ll go “buffet” style for morning grazing, and later in the day I’ll author a new column. 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 St. Louis Cardinals are on the road again, down there in Atlanta, for a change in scenery that could reanimate their offense and reawaken their hitters. In the sci‑fi world, this miraculous turnaround is known as a bio‑recovery.
Then again, Matthew Liberatore will take his place atop the hillock for the Cardinals this evening, so we could see runs o’ plenty from both units. Whoa, Atlanta! In seven road stops this season Libby the lefty has a 6.00 ERA. He’s been tyrannized for eight home runs and a .579 slugging percentage in 33 grievous innings.
In nine road tests this month, the Cardinals have averaged 7.1 runs, discharged 18 homers, 21 doubles-triples, and slugged .530. As assessed by wRC+, the boys have the second-best road offense among MLB teams in June – and the fifth-best road show over the last two months.
The Cardinals may or may not be arriving in Atlanta at a fantastic time. As the saying goes, the Braves look good on paper. But since peaking to a 45-21 record on June 7, the Georgians have the worst record in the bigs at 4-12. Their cushy 10 and ½ game lead over the Phillies in the NL East is now down to 3 and ½.
During this time of unrest, the most harmful negatives for Atlanta are a destabilized starting rotation and a bootless offense that’s averaged 2.8 runs over the last 16 games. It pains the Braves to have injured star hitter Ronald Acuna out of the lineup, and other rooms on the IL are taken by starting pitchers Spencer Strider and Spencer Shellenbach and reliever Robert Suarez.
Hotter than Venus and Mercury early on, cornermen Matt Olson and Austin Riley have cooled considerably. The first baseman Olson has six home runs and a .717 OPS over his last 41 games, and the $212 million third baseman (Riley) has batted .204 with no home runs since May 20.
After Liberatore does his thing, Michael McGreevy and Dustin May are scheduled to start the final two games of the ATL series, and then the Redbirds are off to Wrigley Field for the weekend.
The Braves are 1-5 in their last six series. The Cardinals have lost seven of their last 10 games and have taken only one of their last four series. Well, someone has to win this one.
The Buffet is open …
— With so much talk about the America 250 celebration, it got me thinking a little, which is often a dangerous thing. But it occurred to me that, at age 67, I have been alive for 28.6 percent of America’s official existence. Damn.
— It is an absolute pleasure to listen to John Rooney call Cardinals’ games on the radio. He’s never been better, and that’s saying something. Heck, John is so good that he’s got me smiling at puns for the first time in my adult life. He’s a gem.
— Left-handed Cardinal starting pitching prospect Quinn Mathews has a 2.07 ERA and a fantastic 33.6 percent strikeout rate in his last six starts at Triple A Memphis. Mathews is still walking too many hitters (13.8% in those starts) but has nasty swing-and-miss stuff, gets a lot of soft contact, and keeps the ball on planet earth with a 55% ground-ball rate. Mathews is 25.
— It’s the final day of June, and the Chicago Cubs sure have packed a lot of craziness into three regular-season months of baseball. They have 10 walkoff wins, two double-digit winning streaks, and a double-digit losing streak. We’re not even at the All-Star break and the Cubs have endured the nonstop chaos of placing 14 different pitchers on the IL for a total of 739 days missed (through Monday.)
—The injured Chicago arms include five starting pitchers: Justin Steele, Cade Horton, Matthew Boyd, Jameson Taillon and Edward Cabrera. They’ve collectively missed 273 in-season days and that number increases each day. Horton will miss the entire season, and Steele has had multiple setbacks while rehabbing from elbow surgery. Key bullpen pieces are missing including closer Daniel Palancia and setup man Phil Maton. In fact, with the guys on the IL right now you could have a six-man rotation and a pool of eight relievers.
— And yet, here are the Cubs with a 47-38 record and a .553 winning percentage that’s No. 6 overall and 4th in the National League. They’ve moved past the Cardinals and into position for the No. 2 wild card. Should be another fun Cards-Cubs series at Wrigley this weekend.
— Scenario: John Mozeliak hires Randy Flores as the Los Angeles Angels’ GM, and Flores hires Albert Pujols to become the team’s new manager after the season. And where does Michael Girsch fit in?
— Back to left-handed pitching prospects: the Cardinals have promoted Mason Molina from Double A Springfield to Triple A Memphis, and he’s looking good. Pitching in the Texas League – a notorious hitter’s playground – Molina had a 29 percent strikeout rate, didn’t walk many, and gave up only five homers in 69 innings. He pitched 13 and ⅓ scoreless innings in his last two starts before the Cardinals moved him to Memphis. Molina came over in the deal that sent reliever Phil Maton to the Rangers at the 2025 trade deadline. The Cardinals obviously have good feelings about Molina which is why he’s just one step away from the big leagues.
— Dick Vermeil has got to be the only Pro Football Hall of Fame coach that’s been played by two notable actors, Greg Kinnear and Dennis Quaid, in the movies.
— I thought about this while watching “American Underdog”, the biographical film of Kurt Warner’s incredible story. Quaid had the role of Vermeil as the STL Rams coach. Kinnear portrayed Vermeil in the film “Invincible,” the true story of Vince Papale – a Philadelphia bartender and substitute school teacher who tried out for Vermiel’s Eagles and made the squad. Papale played three seasons in the NFL as a wide receiver and special teamer.
—Someone should make a movie about the beloved Coach Vermeil. He’s 89 and will have 90 candles on the cake come Oct. 30. God bless him.
— It looks like Cards catching prospect Rainiel Rodriguez, age 19, has adjusted to Double A pitching at Springfield. In June he’s hit .338 with a .446 onbase percentage and a .545 slug for a .991 OPS. His June breakout includes 4 homers and 12 RBIs.
--- In MLB Pipeline's updated Top 100 MLB Prospects list, Rodriguez moved all the way up to No. 13, pitcher Liam Doyle is 23rd, and slugger Joshua Baez is No. 50. I was surprised to see Baez there; I thought he'd be moving into the 40s rankings in the top 100 prospect evaluations. But his plate-discipline concerns still hang over Baez.
— The Braves could be in the market for – not one, but two – starting pitchers before the trade deadline. They’ll have a chance to scout Dustin May in Thursday’s game.
— Recommended: Mitski has one of the best new albums of 2026, “Nothing’s About to Happen to Me.”
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.