Oli Marmol sat at his postgame spot at Busch Stadium, his chair pulled up to a table in the media work room/dining area across the hall from the Cardinals clubhouse, and answered questions that must have felt very familiar.
“It sucks. We lost again,” the Cardinals manager said. “But I believe in this group and the way they’re going about it. I really do.”
Marmol said this after an 11-3 loss to the Giants on June 13, but the message was one that has been relayed over and over in that media room this season. The Cardinals enjoyed a huge home-field advantage last year, going 53-28 at Busch Stadium — the Albert Pujols Effect was real — but they are just 13-21 so far in 2023.
“We lost again” has been a reality of the frustrating year for Marmol and his crew. A club that started the season with World Series aspirations has spent too many days with the worst record in the entire National League.
But maybe, just maybe, things are starting to turn around. They won four in a row — all on the road — before falling to the Nationals on Wednesday, and are finally playing good baseball just in time for the eyes of the baseball-loving world to turn their direction.
Rookie Jordan Walker is batting .400 with four homers and eight RBIs during his current 13-game hitting streak, and reliever Jordan Hicks has been brilliant lately, with saves on back-to-back-to-back days this week.
The Cardinals are playing the rival Chicago Cubs this weekend in the London Series, only the second time regular-season Major League Baseball games have been played in Europe. The first London Series was in 2019, between the Yankees and Red Sox. The Cardinals and Cubs were originally slated to play in 2020, but the global pandemic scrapped those plans. MLB has committed to regular-season games in London in 2023, 2024 and 2026, and the league is reportedly working on games in Paris in 2025.
But back to this weekend. Probably safe to say MLB didn’t expect the Cardinals to be 11 games under .500 heading into this signature event.
The Cubs are in a somewhat similar situation. Their preseason expectations weren’t quite as high as those in St. Louis, but a strong start to the season — 11-6 — gave hope that something special might have been brewing. Those hopes took a hit over the next couple months, as the Cubs went just 15-30 over their next 45 games. In the 14-game stretch from May 25 to June 8, the Cubs scored 0, 1 or 2 runs nine times and went 4-10.
MLB MOCK DRAFT: LSU players go Nos. 1 and 2
“As a whole, we've got to be a little bit more accountable to our at-bats,” Ross said, as reported by MLB.com after a 3-1 loss to the Angels on June 8. “I don't have the answer sitting in my seat. I think just as a collective we've just got to produce some more runs, find a way to produce runs. Our pitchers have thrown good enough to win baseball games.”
Living in the Midwest, I can tell you very few days went by without either “Oli Marmol” or “David Ross” showing up on my Twitter trending topics section. To say the fan bases of both franchises — intense, and often way over the top — were not happy with the performances of their favorite teams was an understatement. And most of the ire was directed at the managers, because if you read any of the comments, neither knew anything at all about baseball, especially bullpen management.
But suddenly, Ross’ Cubs are playing better ball, too. They took two of three in San Francisco — the Giants have won nine in a row since losing the second one to the Cubs, btw — and then swept the Pirates at home and took two of three from Baltimore at Wrigley. That was only the fifth series all year the Orioles failed to win.
Then the Cubs went into Pittsburgh and took the first two games of the series by a combined score of 12-0. Overall, they're 10-2 in their past dozen games.
The Cubs are the only NL Central team with a positive run differential. Starters Marcus Stroman (2.28 ERA) and Justin Steele (2.71) deserve spots on the NL All-Star team, while Drew Smyly (3.38 ERA) has been very reliable, and Kyle Hendricks has a 2.60 ERA in his six starts off the IL.
Both the Cardinals (31-44) and Cubs (36-38) would love to use this opportunity to step into the spotlight to springboard themselves back into contention for the division title. And, hey, in the NL Central, that’s still entirely possible, with three months and change left in the regular season.
Assuming, of course, the Reds eventually lose again.