最新杏吧原创

Change was necessary, and so far, the Cardinals fanbase has embraced it like Linus鈥� grip on his blanket or a child clinging to a favorite stuffed animal or toy. However, the cupboard wasn鈥檛 bare.

The new blood introduced into the organization, led by president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom, assistant general manager Rob Cerfolio and farm director Larry Day, has taken huge steps toward modernizing the way the Cardinals teach, nurture and develop players. Bloom also made changes that impact how the organization evaluates and acquires players.

All it took was a three-second conversation for Cardinals manager Oli Marmol to be sure starter Dustin May would be ready to return to the mound to pitch the ninth inning of what was already the best outing of his big league career on Monday night at Busch Stadium.

Up to that point, May had tossed eight scoreless innings on 93 pitches vs. the Padres. He limited them to one hit and a walk in that span. He carried a perfect game bid through six innings vs. the Padres before it was broken up with a leadoff walk to start the seventh. A no-hit bid went through 6 1/3 frames until it snapped with a single.

Days after his major league debut in Minneapolis, Blaze Jordan made his first Busch Stadium appearance with a start against the Padres on Monday. He batted eighth and played third base.聽

With the stadium being a four-hour drive from his hometown of Southaven, Mississippi, Jordan expected a decent crowd of family and friends in the stands.

With his 14th home run of the season, Cardinals prospect Jesus Baez broke the single-season home run record for the Cardinals' High-A affiliate, the Peoria Chiefs, on Saturday.聽

Across his 53 games in the 2026 campaign, Baez has hit .251 with an .803 on-base plus slugging percentage. More than a quarter of Baez's hits this season have been home runs.聽

Dustin May went the distance, allowing one hit in his first-ever complete game, a 3-0 Cardinals win over the Padres Monday.

Here's what manager Oliver Marmol as well as May and catcher Jimmy Crooks had to say afterwards.

Having flirted with history once already this season, Cardinals starter Dustin May made another push to make history on Monday night at Busch Stadium.

The makings were there.

Hola! Welcome to this week鈥檚 edition of the Cardinals beat writer question-and-answer. Post-Dispatch baseball writer Daniel Guerrero here to respond to the questions and comments submitted throughout the week here at STL Today.聽

An interesting week with the Cardinals. A couple of interesting road series in New York and Minnesota following a sweep of the Reds and a salvaged series vs. the Rangers.

MINNEAPOLIS聽鈥� With the way many teams prime their lineups, just like the Minnesota Twins do, to swap batters later for better matchups, lefty reliever JoJo Romero can often precisely spot the hitters due up when he鈥檒l be used if the Cardinals have the lead.

And also know he鈥檚 unlikely to face several of them.

From where Cardinals farm director Larry Day sits, the decision to move top catching prospect Rainiel Rodriguez to Class AA was not 鈥渢he most slam dunk鈥� decision despite the 19-year-old鈥檚 thundering start to the 2026 minor league season.

Through 28 games with Class High-A Peoria, Rodriguez batted .311, slugged .519 and drove in 21 RBIs. He had a 14.8% walk rate and a .430 on-base percentage. His quality of impact and consistent contact were signals that a move could make sense.

The nastiest closer since Alec Baldwin in 鈥淕lengarry Glen Ross鈥� pitched his college ball at Gardner-Webb University, which, apparently, exists. Mason Miller (0.90 ERA) comes to 最新杏吧原创 on Monday for the Cards-Padres series. And if it鈥檚 the Cards who need to close out a game, they鈥檒l likely go to their guy, Riley O鈥橞rien, who is second in National League saves and went to ... College of Idaho.

Oh, baseball鈥檚 best pitcher? Jacob Misiorowski went to Crowder College (in Neosho, Missouri). So did 9-0 Brewers teammate Aaron Ashby. Yankees ace Cam Schlittler (1.82 ERA) pitched at Northeastern. And Tarik Skubal, who won the Cy Young in 2024 and 2025, attended Seattle U.