Cardinals' Bullpen Walks: A Fixable Flaw

0:00It's April 22nd. Welcome in. This is MLB News Today, where baseball meets AI. The St. Louis Cardinals grabbed the solid 5-3 win over the Miami Marlins on Tuesday night, pushing their record to 14 wins and 9 losses this season. Things are starting to click for them, with the offense firing on all cylinders and the starters keeping games tight. Earlier this week, beat writer Derek Gould highlighted a real red flag in the bullpen before the next match-up. Aside from close to Ryan O'Brien, who's perfect with seven saves in ZERO walks, and Jojo Romero, who's been lights out, the rest of the pen is handing out free passes too often. That issue showed up big time Tuesday, when reliever Ryan Stannick walked the bases loaded in the late innings, letting in two runs before the cards hailed, on. Fans and insiders are buzzing because five out of the team's six innings with three or more walks this year came from the bullpen, including three in, the eighth or ninth. Pitch to contact arms like theirs can thrive, but Stannick owned it after the game, saying

1:04he needs to tighten up without overthinking or shying away. From contact, it's a fixable flaw, but ignoring it could derail their hot April start. If they clean up those walks, this unexpected surge might turn into a real run, keeping the cardinals in the mix longer than anyone thought.