The St. Louis Cardinals, Arizona Diamondbacks and New York Mets bounced back from brutal beginnings to their 2024 MLB season, but only two of those teams are currently in a playoff position. The Cards (59-57) have yet to ascend to the next level.
And who knows if they even will. St. Louis is starting to plateau, as its momentum continues to fluctuate during the second half of the campaign.
It grabbed two games from the Atlanta Braves coming out of All-Star break but then proceeded to drop two games each to the Pittsburgh Pirates and Washington Nationals. While a series win versus the Texas Rangers was a necessary response, a miserable trip to Wrigley Field punched fans in the gut. And yet, the Cardinals brought them back up to their feet after holding off the Tampa Bay Rays in back-to-back nights.
But back down they go. Despite overcoming a 2-0 deficit in the first inning and carrying a two-run lead into the seventh inning, the ballclub dropped the final game of the series, 6-4. A lead-off walk by relief pitcher Kyle Leahy gave way to a Yandy Diaz sacrifice fly and was eventually followed by a Brandon Lowe two-run, go-ahead home run (surrendered by JoJo Romero). A missed opportunity in the bottom half of the seventh solidified Busch Stadium's melancholy.
Such a loss is difficult for everyone to shake. “This is a frustrating one,” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said postgame, via ESPN. “I feel like we played a pretty clean game. We took some really good at-bats, especially giving up two in the first and then coming right back. Sometimes baseball just happens.”
Cardinals need to seize their opportunities
Fans were itching to bring out the brooms, especially since the Diamondbacks and Braves both lost on Thursday. Instead of making headway in the National League Wild Card standings, St. Louis sees another game slip through its fingers.
Marmol is not entirely wrong in his John Sterling-like “that's baseball, Suzyn” explanation. This is as unpredictable as any sport, but the problem is that this group is suffering too many of those instances. Moreover, it should have the talent to combat a high number of flukes.
Can Paul Goldschmidt, St. Louis turn it around?
In the seventh inning, 2022 NL MVP and seven-time All-Star Paul Goldschmidt came to the plate with runners on first and second and one out. The Redbirds were trailing just 5-4 at the time and could have feasibly tied or taken the lead in this spot. Alas, he grounded into a double play in one of the game's defining moments.
Goldschmidt did drive in two RBIs, so he cannot be held largely responsible for the team's stinging defeat. That being said, Marmol needs him to return to being a trustworthy contributor. The 36-year-old is clearly in the twilight of a tremendously successful MLB career and cannot be expected to produce big numbers, but he is only two years removed from his best season. One would hope that he can still be competent in the batter's box.
But that has not been the case for most of 2024 (.228 batting average and .672 OPS). Goldschmidt is far from the only underachiever, though. Nolan Arenado has only 11 homers and is no longer as defensively elite as he was for the first decade of his big league run. More is also needed from outfielder Lars Nootbaar, slugger Nolan Gorman and the starting pitching rotation, among others.
Oliver Marmol must light a fire under his guys, otherwise they will run out of time. The Cardinals are just two and a half games out of the final Wild Card slot and can certainly catch the competition. They have to win these type of games, though.
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