Oliver Marmol wanted bread on Saturday morning. This is New York, so it was easy to get hold of. But this is also 2023, and Marmol is running the St. Louis Cardinals. Nothing comes easy.
“It didn’t work,” Marmol said. “The line was outrageous. The doorman at the hotel said to skip the line and get in. I thought about it, maybe that’s a thing. I saw the line and I didn’t think that was the play.”
The way things are going, Marmol said, he may have triggered another customer and ended up in a fight. He didn’t get a black eye, but he didn’t get bread either. Just another slice of satisfaction missing from a season gone awry.
Saturday afternoon was even better for Marmol, whose Cardinals snapped a six-game losing streak with an A.J 5-3 victory Over the Mets at Citi Field. But it was only the Cardinals’ third win in June, and their 28-43 record was the franchise’s worst through 71 games since 1978. The Cardinals (29-43) beat the Mets again Sunday, 8-7, when Nolan Arenado scored their second inning. His home run in the ninth inning to break the tie 7-7.
They have the third-worst record in the National League, percentage points better than the Washington Nationals and Colorado Rockies—a stunning drop for the Tiffany brand. The Cardinals — second to the Yankees in total championships, with 11 — have only had one losing season this century, in 2007, and have reached the playoffs in each of the past four years.
“You see where we are and we’re like, ‘Whoa, you know?'” said Arenado, the star third baseman. “We understand the magnitude of what’s going on because a Cardinal hasn’t lost this bad in almost 70 years. All those things we hear about, we know about and we’re trying to find a way out of it. But it’s definitely hard now. Whenever we think about the past and all that, I think it hurts us.”
The past also rejects the Cardinals. On Saturday, the team announced that David Friese, who won the fans’ vote for election to the team’s Hall of Fame, had declined the honor. Freese, who was named the Cardinals Most Valuable Player in their last World Series win in 2011, said he values the votes but doesn’t deserve a red jacket.
The Cardinals’ last active batter of that era, Adam Wainwright (an 18-year veteran who was injured in 2011), had the longest start of the season on Saturday, working six innings and a third for his 198th career victory.
Wainwright had the usual sharp-turning curveball, which — for Cardinal fans, not Mets fans — always evokes memories of better days. He hopes more will follow.
“Chemistry usually leads to wins, and these guys here, we couldn’t get along better,” Wainwright said. “We had a great dinner last night, had great meetings, and our letters are great. I think we let the pressure mount things up a little bit sometimes, with everyone kind of playing hard and being afraid of making mistakes. Sometimes it’s hard to get out of it when you’re in it” .
Wainwright, 41, will retire after this season, a year after he bid farewell to two other Cardinals, Yadier Molina and Albert Pujols. Molina’s absence seemed particularly irritating to the Cardinals, who signed three-time All-Star Wilson Contreras to a five-year, $87.5 million contract, only to pull him out of the starting role in early May.
The move seemed reckless, as if the team was blaming the new guy for his poor start. Contreras turned into the designated hitter and even took fly balls in the outfield, but he never played a game there. He returned as the starting catcher after 10 games.
However, Contreras was one of many underperforming hitters. 198 on Thursday when he received a pep talk from his mentor, retired football player Víctor Martinez, also a former All-Star catcher from Venezuela. Martinez called Contreras for support.
“He’s like my second dad,” Contreras said. “Whatever he says, I’m all ears. If I had any doubts or questions, I could call him anytime and he’d pick up the phone. We text each other about every week, but that was the biggest thing. I needed to talk to someone.”
Contreras, who missed the World Baseball Classic in March to learn a new staff, continued his drive effort. In Friday’s game, he met reliever Genesis Cabrera on the mound, trying to boost Cabrera’s confidence while the pitcher was warming up to a backup. He did something similar with painkillers on Saturday.
“In my seat, if I think about how to get out of this shit, we’re going to come to certain pieces to get to where they start doing what we think they’re capable of,” Marmol said. And yesterday, Wilson was a part of that.
Marmol, who at 36 is baseball’s youngest coach, met one-on-one with nine players on Friday, urged them to tune out negativity and, he said, “make them understand what’s possible for them.” He added that these lessons may not take hold immediately, but they must be taught.
In the short term, Marmol’s biggest concern is the team’s weak defense. Injuries to outfielders Lars Neutebar and Tyler O’Neal forced St. Louis to move Tommy Edman—the Gold Glove second baseman—to center, prompting the others out of position and damaging low-striking grounders.
“When you have one of your best defenders playing the field who has to play second, it affects a lot of other things, including our style of play,” said Marmul. “It’s a real thing. That part of it is tough because it goes hand in hand with a pitching team that never misses the bat. You have a lot of balls to play with, and that’s a bigger deal.”
Through Friday, the Cardinals’ outfield ranked last in converting fly balls, according to Sports Info Solutions, which ranked the Cardinals 27th in overall defense, ahead of only Kansas City, Oakland and Washington. Accordingly, the Cardinals are tied with the A’s and Colorado Rockies for most hits allowed per nine innings pitched, with 9.6.
It’s annoying that it’s a perennial contender on the lists of rebuilding teams. This is where the Cardinals find themselves, but at least they can find comfort in the arrangement. The Milwaukee Brewers, who lead the NL Central, were three over . 500 games as of Sunday.
“We dug ourselves a hole, but nobody escapes with the band,” said Arenado. So there is still a chance of shocking some people. I think that’s what keeps us motivated.”
The Cardinals’ divisional title Lordly didn’t seem shocking in spring training. Now that that has happened, it puts them in a rare position: underdogs. They are ready to embrace the new identity.
“Absolutely,” said Arenado. “I guess that’s the only way we can think about the season, right? There’s still a chance. It’s just a matter of whether we want to take it.”
“Student. Incurable problem solver. Amateur baconaholic. Introvert. Infuriatingly humble music fanatic.”