Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor
(THE BASEBALL)—The St. Louis Cardinals appear to be closing out the promising month of may not with a bang—as they lifted fans’ hopes with in mid-month—but with a whimper, as they have demonstrated in a 3-4 road trip and a holiday loss to one of the worst teams in major league baseball, their cross-state rivals, the Kansas City Royals.
Inconsistent starting and relief pitching—the Redbirds are hoping somebody can consistently finish the sixth inning—and the sudden lightening of briefly-heavy lumber has St. Louis struggling for hits and scratching for runs.
The 7-0 shutout by the Royals on Memorial Day indicates St. Louis is not likely to make much or any post-season noise, an observation that could produce ridicule if the team makes it deep in the post season.
The Royals had the pitching, with reliever John Staumont pitching the first inning and starter Mike Mayers held the Cardinals without a baserunner through seven innings until Nolan Arenado broke up the perfect game in the 8th. The Cardinals wound up with two hits in the game. The Royals jumped on Adam Wainright going his usual five innings, for nine hits and three runs. The bullpen remained unevenly unimpressive.
The Cardinals and Royals finish their odd two-game series today (Tuesday) with Miles Mikolas, who went seven scoreless innings against Cincinnati last week, against Zack Greinke, whose final season is an unproductive 1-5.
For those holding out hope the Cardinals can be a playoff team, they’ll have go to 58-48 just to break even, let along make the playoffs.
(RACING)—It was Josef Newgarden’s turn to “unleash the dragon” at the Indianapolis 500…and when he did, the monkey left his back.
Newgarden snatched the lead from defending 500 champion Marcus Ericsson in a dramatic final lap,
then held off Ericsson in the fourth-closest finish in the race’s 107-year history, watched by a crowd estimated at 330,0000 people, the second largest crowd in Indianapolis 500 history.
Newgarden had to make a desperate move called “the dragon” to keep Ericsson from slingshottig out of the draft past him before the finish line, coming out of the fourth turn and diving far to the inside to break the draft, limiting Ericsson’s opportunity to make the race’s 53rd pass for the lead.
Newgarden beat him to the finish line by 0.974 seconds.
Newgarden, a two-time INDYCAR champion, had high personal aspirations and high public expectations that he would have won the 500 before now. He said after the race, ““Everyone just kept asking me why I haven’t won this race. They looked at you like you’re a failure if you don’t win it. I wanted to win it so bad. I knew we could. I knew we were capable. It’s a huge team effort, as everybody knows. I’m so glad to be here.”
Santino Ferucci finished third, driving for A. J. Foyt’s team. It’s the best finish for a Foyt-owned car since Kenny Brack won the race for Foyt in 1999. Pole-sitter Alex Palou survived a pit-road shunt early in the race to climb back to fourth and 2016 winner Alexander Rossi was fifth.
Ericsson and Rossi were among nine former winners of the race trying for another win of The Greatest Spectacle in Racing. Scott Dixon and two-time winner Takuma Sato were sixth and seventh. Ryan Hunter-Reay was 11th. Four-time winner Helio Castroneves was 15th, one spot ahead fellow Brazilian Tony Kanaan, who was running his 23rd and last Indianapolis 500.
Newgarden teammate Will Power, who won the 500 on his elventh try, was 23rd and Simon Pagenaud was 25th.
Newgarden and his team earned a $3.666 million check for winning the race, a new record. Ericsson earned $1.043 million. The total purse topped $17 million.
(NASCAR)—NASCAR’s longest day took an extra day to run. Rain washed out the 600-mile race at Charlotte on Sunday night and interrupted the race on Memorial Day before Ryan Blaney held off pole-sitter William Byron to end a 59-race winless streak.
Blaney gave Roger Penske his first same-year sweep of both races on the Memorial Day weekend.
Blaney dominated the race, leading 163 of the 400 laps, getting the jump on Byron on the last restart with 20 laps left.
The pair finished ahead of teammates Martin Truex Jr., and Bubba Wallace, who drive for 23XZIZ Racing.
Ross Chastain, who led late in the race before falling to 22nd, remains in the points lead—by one point over Byron.
(FORMULA 1)—Max Verstappen made sure Team Red Bull’s winning streak continued by taking the trophy at the Grand Prix of Monaco, the six win in six races this year for Red Bull.
Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso, a two-time F1 champion, had his best finish since he finished second in the Hungarian Grand Prix of 2014.
Red Bull is playing down paddock talk about whether Red Bull will win all 22 Formula 1 races this year. No team has run the table in an F1 season. The closest to a perfect season any team has achieved was McLaren’s victories in 15 of the 16 races in 1988.