If Cardinals followers squint really hard at their club on running the bases, well, Alec Burleson, Brendan Donovan and Pedro Pages still don’t look anything like Willie McGee, Lonnie Smith and Ozzie Smith.
Yet the current edition of the Cardinals, playing with a No. 24 patch on their sleeves in honor of recently deceased Hall of Fame manager Whitey Herzog and the innovator of “Whiteyball,†has become defined this season by tight games and an offense reliant on manufacturing runs and aggressive play on the bases with its two cornerstone sluggers — Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado — not having put up their typical power production thus far.
After having a day off, the Cardinals resume play Tuesday in Pittsburgh while standing three games above .500 (43-40) and in second place in the National League Central Division, six games behind the Milwaukee Brewers (50-35). The Cardinals passed the midpoint of the 162-game season over the weekend.
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They played 28 games in June, 16 of which were decided by two runs or fewer. So far this season, more than half of their games have been decided by a margin of two runs or fewer (26 one-run games, 18 two-run games).
“I’m OK with winning by more once in a while,†Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said with a smirk following Sunday’s 2-0 win over Cincinnati. “But it does allow you to learn how to play in those games and understand the rhythm of being down two and still clawing back late in the game or being able to hold a one-run lead like the other day from the third inning on.
“There’s a mentality to that. That’s not easy to do. You’ve got to stay locked in. Every pitch matters. Literally a pitch can change the game, and when you play enough of those games it becomes normal. Some teams panic in those situations. We play so many of them, it’s our norm right now. I think that’s a good thing.â€
The Cardinals salvaged a split of their four-game series with the Reds on Sunday. They scored just two runs, but that was enough behind starting pitcher Lance Lynn and the bullpen. That ’pen is anchored by major league saves leader Ryan Helsley (30) as well as setup men JoJo Romero and Andrew Kittredge, who rank first and second, respectively, in the majors in holds.
Pages, the backup catcher, had three of the Cardinals’ seven hits and chugged home from second on a one-out RBI single on the ground to right field by Burleson in the fifth inning.
“We don’t want to give any out away. We don’t want to give any at-bats away,†Pages said of the approach while always playing close games. “It’s just more making that pitcher on the other side work for it. If we do that, we’re going to be in a good place.
“The at-bats are going to come along. We’re going to score more runs. We have the offense to do it. Us grinding out at-bats and making the other pitchers work definitely helps us.â€
Aggression on bases
In the previous weekend’s series finale against the San Francisco Giants, Pages and Cardinals designated hitter/outfielder Burleson combined for three stolen bases. Slugging second baseman Nolan Gorman also swiped a bag to bring the team total to four in the game.
Burleson’s first steal put him in position to advance to third base on a deep fly out and then score the game’s first run on a two-out hit by Donovan. That started a three-run inning. The next inning, Pages singled and stole second base. Burleson’s two-out single on the ground up the middle scored Pages from second base.
Stolen bases contributed to the club scoring two of the first four runs in a game they won 5-3.
A day later against Atlanta, a club that has had the Cardinals’ number in recent seasons, a four-run third inning by the Cardinals proved the difference in a 4-3 series-opening win. All four runs scored with two outs, and Burleson’s RBI double that drove in the game’s first run was the lone extra-base hit during that frame.
The fourth run, and ultimately the deciding run in the game, scored on a two-out, two-strike count delayed steal with Gorman on third base and Donovan at first base. Donovan broke for second and drew a throw from catcher Sean Murphy. Donovan got in a rundown long enough for Gorman to score from third.
In Thursday night’s series-opening 1-0 win against the Reds, the run scored when speedy center fielder Michael Siani tagged up and was sent home by third base coach Ron “Pop†Warner on a fly ball hit into shallow center field and caught by Reds shortstop Elly De La Cruz.
“I think that’s kind of our offense,†Donovan said. “We’re always looking to take the extra base, take advantage. We just try to keep pressure on them. We know our bullpen is going to keep us in it. We know our starters are going to get us length. They’re going to keep us in the game. So we can pick those spots, and we can be aggressive in those situations.â€
Last season, the Cardinals ranked among the bottom third in the majors in percentage of extra bases taken (23rd out of 30 teams) and base running runs above average (23rd of 30).
Entering Monday, the Cardinals ranked among the top third of the league in extra-base taken percentage (10th) and base running runs above average (ninth).
Asked about that difference this season, Marmol insists the pregame scouting work remained diligent last year and this year to identify and recognize openings to exploit.
He pointed to the difference in game situations. Last year’s team regularly played from behind by multiple runs. The Cardinals lost 27 games by five runs or more. The risk of running into outs or running themselves out of an inning when trailing by multiple runs often outweighed the potential reward of an aggressive base running play.
“It’s harder to do some of the things we’ve done when you’re down three to four runs,†Marmol said. “You just don’t take those chances. So the opportunities have been there, and we’ve also been in a position to take advantage of it. That combination helps.â€
Making up for power outage
This season, the Cardinals haven’t had the luxury of relying on slugging and hitting the ball out of the ballpark. They’re tied for 21st in home runs hit this season. Their slugging percentage (.376) is below the league average (.393). They rank 28th of 30 teams in percentage of runs scored as a result of a batter’s play (not necessarily an RBI).
Goldschmidt, who has a career slugging percentage of .512, has scuffled. He’s batted .225 with a .361 slugging percentage and a .294 on-base percentage. He’s on pace for his lowest home run total as a Cardinal in a full-length season. He has scored a team-high 39 runs.
Arenado also has scuffled with his power production, despite batting .262. With a career slugging percentage of .520 and seven 30-home run seasons under his belt, Arenado has slugged .315 with just seven home runs so far this year.
Last year’s leading slugger Gorman, who hit 27 home runs and slugged .478, does have 16 home runs this season. His slash line of .187/.268/.397 has carried a strikeout rate of 36.5%.
Rookie shortstop Masyn Winn has stepped into the leadoff spot in the batting order and served as an offensive catalyst with a team-leading .286 batting average. Winn ranks second on the club in both doubles (16, behind Donovan’s 18) and stolen bases (eight, behind Siani’s nine).
“It’s huge, especially whenever we’re not slugging the ball around the ballpark,†Winn said of the aggressive mindset on the bases. “Getting every run we can, moving up the extra base is huge. Pedro (Pages) being sent today. We need stuff like that. He’s the slowest guy on the team, but we needed him to get it up in high gear and get there.â€
Pages, whose locker is only two stalls away, overheard the comment about his lack of speed, smiled and yelled toward a group of reporters, “He ain’t lying.â€
Burleson, who has moved up to the No. 2 spot in the batting order behind Winn in recent weeks, has become a major run producer for the club of late. He’s batting .278 and slugging .456 this season with 12 home runs.
In June, Burleson batted .271 and slugged .514 with seven home runs, 20 RBIs and 18 runs scored in 28 games.
“I think you look at different games and different guys, one through nine, are contributing,†Burleson said. “Some days it’s me and Masyn at the top. Some days, it’s Petey and Siani in the eight and nine-hole. It’s just when one guy is not going or one guy is not seeing the ball well or whatever it might be, somebody else is picking them up.
“I think just being able to have each other’s backs in the lineup is something that has allowed us to maintain when we’re not feeling great. I think last year when we weren’t feeling great, we weren’t feeling great one through nine. And it was terrible, and it didn’t look good. This year, we’re having guys step up and fill different roles.â€