The Cardinals are on a season-worst four-game losing streak, but there is still a belief in place that they have the right players and the necessary toughness to get back to their winning ways.
ST. LOUIS – Back in late April, when the Cardinals had been swept by the Mariners at Busch Stadium, and it looked as if St. Louis’ feel-good start to the season was about to crumble, manager Oliver Marmol stood in the face of that swirling chaos and predicted a different path for his club.
Because there are so many youthful players in the Cards’ clubhouse, Marmol countered, there is an exuberance to the club that makes it almost immune to tough times. With a host of players all around the same age and still trying to prove themselves at the MLB level, Marmol boldly doubted that a few losses would do anything to budge the chips that remain on shoulders of players in Cardinals colors. When the baseball world was expecting failure, this club would prevail because of a steely resolve that has been overshadowed by the youth and relative inexperience of the group, Marmol predicted.
Right on cue, the Cardinals came out of their first sweep of the season and responded with six straight wins and victories in 13 of the next 19 games. That backstory is relevant now that the Cardinals have hit another snag after getting blanked over three games in Milwaukee and losing to the Brewers on Wednesday in gut-punch fashion. Dead ahead is a nine-game homestand – starting with a three-game series against the rival Cubs on Friday night – and Marmol’s expectations are the same as before when the Cardinals dug their way out of a bad stretch.
“Going in, you know this is going to be a season that has games that look like (Thursday’s 2-1 loss to Milwaukee), where there are games where you feel like you’re supposed to win and it slips away,” Marmol said while echoing a mindset he’s been preaching since Spring Training. “Based on what we’re trying to do with a bunch of young guys and what we’re trying to build, (losing close games) is going to be a reality.
“In spring, we had to create some framework for how we wanted this group to operate mentally. What we built into that framework was not caring about those gut-punch losses and don’t let them last longer than a night. Did I wake up in a great mood? No, but I knew that by the time I got (to Busch Stadium), I had to have high energy and be ready to go. There’s been a lot of conversations since spring about what this (rebuild) needs to look like, how we’re going to bounce back and how we’re going to hold each other accountable and call those things out. You see that happening quite a bit here.”
One of the best surprise stories in baseball most of the season, a Cardinals club that traded away veterans Nolan Arenado, Sonny Gray, Willson Contreras and Brendan Donovan in the offseason and was supposed to be in rebuilding mode has shown tremendous resolve by thriving in the face of doubts. Even after their season-worst four-game skid, the Cardinals (29-25) sit in a virtual tie with the streaky Cubs (30-26) and they are ahead of the Reds (29-26) and Pirates (29-27). The Cards have outplayed the computers’ projections, which have them with an expected record of 26-28 by thriving against plus-.500 clubs (17-13), on the road (16-12) and in extra-inning games (7-2).
A gray May for Cards so far
To continue their surprising play of the first third of games, the Cardinals will need to try and shake out of their worst offensive slump of the season. In May, the Cardinals rank 14th in the National League in runs scored (80). They have fallen into a tie for 12th in hits (184) and homers (19) in the NL in May. Meanwhile, their team batting average (10th), on base percentage (ninth), slugging (11th) and OPS (11th) have fallen into the bottom third of teams in the NL in May.
Nolan Gorman (.208, 25 strikeouts), JJ Wetherholt (.205, 19 strikeouts), Masyn Winn (.203, 17 strikeouts) and Pedro Pages (.163, 14 strikeouts) have fallen of their early paces. Even with Jordan Walker (.322, six homers, 19 RBI), Ivan Herrera (.293, two homers, 12 RBI), and Alec Burleson (.287, three homers, 10 RBI) continuing to produce in May, they’ve largely been able to balance out an offense that has fallen into a rut.
Still, the Cardinals did not have a hit with runners in scoring position (0 for 17) and stranded 17 runners in the three-game sweep against the surging Brewers.
Marmol was asked recently if it’s been easier to motivate this Cardinals team because of the youth up and down the roster, and he said the answer is more complex than one might think. Yes, there’s a youthful energy, but there’s also a savvy veteran-like resolve that lies just below the surface, he insisted. He also pointed to the players policing one another and building the type of accountability culture that the club looked to build when Spring Training was just starting out in February and March.
“It’s worked this well this year, but I don’t know that it’s easier; it’s more about us having the right personalities in that room and that makes it different,” Marmol said. “There’s this youthful energy and they’re all trying to prove that they belong up here and they just end up bouncing back and showing that they can do it here. It’s not easier, but different.
“If you see a guy not bringing the same energy levels because of a rough night before, who is going to call him out for that?” Marmol asked. “How do we get this group collectively on the same page before the first pitch regardless of what happened the night before? You see that happening quite a bit around here now. Sometimes, it’s staff to player, but what is really cool is that it’s been player to play a lot of times, too,” he added.
Marmol said regardless of what happens in the Cardinals upcoming series against the rival Cubs or in the nine-game homestand, it won’t be because of a lingering hangover the from the frustration-filled road trip where the Cards dropped four in a row and lost 2-1 in gut-punch fashion to the Brewers on Wednesday despite Dustin May throwing seven no-hit innings.
“What happens (in the next game or next series), I have no idea, but I can tell you what won’t happen,” Marmol predicted. “We won’t have guys going out there sulking and giving away games. They’re not going to let yesterday’s loss affect them and they’re going to give you their best shot. Whether it’s good enough or not, we don’t know. But it’s not going to be because we didn’t give our best shot.”
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