Cardinals’ recent surge tests balance between patience and pressure
The first sign that this season may be less of a competitive struggle for the St. Louis Cardinals than the team’s leadership was braced for came in the opening weekend. Sweeping the Minnesota Twins, and the manner in which that series played out, immediately raised the floor to a crisp, competitive style that was borne out through the season’s opening weeks, even as they struggled to win on the road and tumbled toward the bottom of the National League Central.
Now, winners of 11 of their last 12 games , after a 10-3 win over the Kansas City Royals at Kauffman Stadium on Friday, the question is somewhat different. If the team is good – actually good, with a chance to be better than that – it stands to reason that there’s a risk of pushing too hard, too fast, rather than just letting things play out.
“I think the only reason we’ve won a couple games is because we’re committed to that process,” manager Oli Marmol said. “You’re not looking to go on a streak. Each guy’s looking to be better than they were last week, in specific areas. Some of that’s baserunning, some of it’s defense, some guys offensively. Put it all together and you win a couple ballgames, but I don’t think it changes at all.”
Marmol has long professed to avoid looking at the standings on a daily basis, and he is as sincere and believable in that pronouncement as any manager is capable of being. That comes in part from a coaching mindset that is continually pushing to teach and improve, and for whom direct control of the results on the field is somewhat out of his hands.
That instead falls to players, as does the risk – the opportunity – to look over the hill at an onrushing opportunity and reach arms out to grab it, rather than moving along the predetermined path.
“I don’t think any of us are that concerned with the record of it right now,” outfielder Lars Nootbaar said. “Obviously the vibes in the clubhouse and everything, it feels great when you’re winning, but I think it’s more important how we’re getting there. I think making sure everybody individually is doing what they’re doing every single day, staying consistent with that, that’s kind of the key to the greater good of winning ball games.”
That is ultimately the peculiarity in the structure of baseball which both draws people in and can, from time to time, be maddening. The outcome of each game is determined by a sequence of individual performances and matchups, some of which can’t be anticipated or softened by teammates. And yet it is the collective effort of that group which comes to the aggregate of a win or loss.
And it cuts the other way; winning makes individual struggles a great deal easier to absorb.
It’s all of the winning in May which has given the Cardinals the leeway to paper over Nolan Gorman starting the month in a 3-for-22 spin without an extra base hit. Jordan Walker entered play Friday in a slightly deeper hole this month, just 2-for-25. They are the two players on whom so much of the expectations for growth over the duration of the season were hung, and the results thus far have not been encouraging.
Marmol, though, chalked up some of the team’s improved defensive play to the confidence those players, among others, have in knowing they aren’t walking a narrow line to avoid being sent to the minors. Whether or not the time comes this season when the Cardinals decide their vaunted runway has reached its end is yet to be determined. The calls to expedite that process, though, would be a great deal louder if the team collectively hadn’t climbed the standings in a way that makes those failings easier to ignore.
“It’s giving them enough playing time that allows them to just find consistency with their skillset,” Marmol said of the team’s developing players in a broad sense. “I think time’s gonna allow for that. They’re gonna go through some ups and downs.
“I think they’re starting to figure out what the league’s trying to do, and they’re combating it sooner, which is kind of fun to watch.”
Still, in a results-based business, it’s impossible not to feel the desire to push. During Friday’s warmups, the scoreboard at Kauffman Stadium cycled repeatedly through a graphic which compared and contrasted Nootbaar’s numbers with those of Bobby Witt, Jr., last year’s American League MVP runner-up.
It’s because Nootbaar has stayed healthy to date and turned projection into production that the comparison can be made at all. His production is scarcely early, arguably slightly late, but it’s one of many things that are all clicking into place as the Cardinals approach Memorial Day in a much stronger position than they may have anticipated.
Whether they change their own expectations will seemingly have a hand in whether they change any in the front office, and in what kind of season the heavily-disclaimed 2025 turns out to be. The Royals figure to be a good test on something resembling even footing; now, heads have to stay down for the team to move up.
“Not everyone’s going to stay exactly the same,” Nootbaar said. “It’s just making sure you have a consistent routine, have a plan, and then understanding why you’re individually having success, which will lead to the team’s success.”
