CINCINNATI — If it wasn’t clear before they stared into the 99 mph blowtorch coming at them from the mound Tuesday night, it took one of the best pitchers in the division to underscore what will dictate where the Cardinals go from here, stuck in a rut back at .500.
They’ll go only as far as their offense awakes to drive them.
“There is no doubt about that,” manager Oliver Marmol said when presented the theory the Cardinals’ postseason aspirations will be guided by the offense. “That’s why I use the word 'ownership.' We’ve got to take ownership over this, needs to get right or it’s going to be more difficult to get to where we want to get to. It’s frustrating. But it’s not for lack of effort or something you can point to that’s not up to par other than in game (it’s not) coming to fruition. That’s been the part that is frustration.”
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Cincinnati Reds ascending ace Hunter Greene became the latest pitcher to quell the Cardinals lineup, but few have done it as swiftly or as fast.
It took Greene & Co. 119 minutes to subdue the Cardinals 4-1 on Tuesday night at Great American Ball Park. The one run came on Nolan Arenado’s solo homer. Greene blitzed the Cardinals with a fastball that touched 100 mph and was on cruise control at 99 mph. He struck out eight, got 16 swings and misses, and when the Cardinals opened the sixth inning with a leadoff double, Greene struck out two batters at the top of the lineup, each of them on sliders that whisked away from their bats.
For a team struggling to find its rhythm offensively for 120 games and counting now, it was the opposite of what they needed — like a rock climber losing grip being handed a stick of butter.
“You don’t get right against Greene,” Marmol said.
They need to get right — now.
The loss dropped the Cardinals to 60-60 with 42 games remaining. For the first time in 46 games, they’re back at even, back on the brink of a losing record. Cincinnati can tie them in the standings with a series sweep and root them closer to last place in the National League Central than they are to a National League playoff berth. Since the All-Star break, the second-place Cardinals have lost seven of nine games to the three division foes directly beneath them in the standings.
They’ve yet to play the first-place Brewers in the second half. They’re due in town next week after the 71-win Dodgers but before the hard-charging Padres.
“There is no doubt it’s not going to get any easier from here probably,” Arenado said. “We have to find a way to keep pushing.”
That way, increasingly, appears to be jump-starting the offense.
An issue all season long, what could have been the Cardinals’ strength has been a drag on their consistency and a grind on their bullpen. With 120 games chronicled, the tell-tale traits of the 2024 Cardinals are well known. They play an absurdly high amount of close games (80 decided by three runs or fewer). They have the lowest slugging percentage and fewest home runs hit with runners in scoring position of any team in the majors. Their cornerstone hitters have struggled; two of their rising young power prospects have not blossomed.
Since the trade deadline, when the Cardinals acquired starter Erick Fedde and reunited with outfielder Tommy Pham, the Cardinals have lost eight of 13.
It’s the offense.
In August, against a run of solid pitchers, they’re batting .233 with a .371 slugging percentage. They’re averaging 3.33 runs per game and eight strikeouts per game. Greene (9-4) held them to one run through his seven innings and handled those eight strikeouts on his own. They struck out 11 times total on Tuesday. The Cardinals finished Tuesday’s game 0 for 5 against Greene with runners in scoring position and dropped to 13 for 89 in their past 12 games with runners in scoring position.
That’s a .146 average.
“We just have to own it,” Marmol said. “At the end of the day, no one is going to feel sorry for us. We’ve got to own the fact that we haven’t come through in certain situations, and today is a tough pitcher. You have to grind out at-bats. Moving forward, we just have to be better. That’s the bottom line.”
Marmol sided with platoon splits over specific hitters against Greene. That meant starting Nolan Gorman as a left-handed hitter vs. Greene instead of Jordan Walker, who has limited looks at Greene but some success. Back from Class AAA Memphis on Monday, Walker is 4 for 7 in his career against Greene with three singles and a well-struck double. Gorman entered the game 1 for 11 with eight strikeouts vs. Greene, and Paul Goldschmidt entered 2 for 15 with six strikeouts against Greene.
Those trends persisted.
In the fifth inning, Greene vomited into his glove after a walk to Lars Nootbaar. He then threw two wild pitches to put Nootbaar at third base and fell behind 3-0 to Gorman. Greene regained his stomach for the moment and promptly struck out Gorman out. The left-handed batter slipped to 1 for 14 against Greene with 10 strikeouts. Goldschmidt went 0 for 3 against right-hander.
Asked about his lineup choices before the game, Marmol explained the commitment to platoons, the importance of digging into individual success and sending a message of confidence in the bats that will have to provide for them. He also mentioned taking note of who is feeling sharp at the plate.
Both Goldschmidt and Gorman have been searching through stretches this season — and their challenge was dealing with a right-hander who has a 1.03 ERA in his past 43⅔ innings.
“When you don’t feel right and then you’ve got a guy like Hunter Greene on the mound, it makes it tougher because there’s not a whole lot of mistakes that are going to be made today,” Arenado said. “But that’s the league now. It is what it is. We know what we’re up against. We’ve beat good pitchers before. We’ve just got to continue to grind it out.
“When a guy like him is on, those times he makes mistakes, you’ve got to make him pay.”
Arenado spoke from experience.
In the bottom of the sixth, the Cardinals could not turn a double play to end the inning and set up starter Fedde to face Jeimer Candelario with a runner on base for the third time in the game. In past at-bats, Fedde relied on his cutter — his best pitch — to challenge Candelario in that same spot. He went back to the cutter maybe one too many times, Fedde said after the game, and Candelario drilled one for a two-run homer that doubled the Reds lead.
“A two-run lead feels very unsafe,” Fedde said. “We joke in here about a bloop and a blast — one of those things (and it’s) 2-2. It hurt even more after Nado was able to hit the home run and got us closer. Frustrating to give up the extra run there.”
In the inning immediately after that frustration ...
Immediately after the frustration of not turning a double play ...
Immediately after the frustration of a misplaced cutter to Candelario ...
Immediately after the frustration of the Reds’ widening lead ...
Arenado appeared to channel some of it into the next immediate pitch.
Greene’s first pitch of the seventh inning was a slider that Arenado drilled for a solo homer. His bolt traveled 400 feet and clanged into the advertising board along the lip of left field’s upper deck. Arenado’s 12th homer of the season was a spark that didn’t carry elsewhere in the lineup.
Marmol was asked what would rev the lineup.
“Depends on the guy,” Marmol said. “Some guys, they start to feel it when they start taking their walks. They take their walks and start controlling the strike zone better, therefore they start swinging at pitches they can do more with. Nado — when he takes a swing like he took today, it just gets him on track with the direction he wants to go from a swing-plane standpoint. There are other guys who are still trying to grind it out and not getting a reward.”
Of that group, the one who produced a run was Arenado.
Idling at .500, if the Cardinals are going to go only as far as the offense takes them, maybe how far Arenado sent his homer is instructive. He let some of his frustration out.
“We know as an offense we’re better than what we’re doing,” Arenado said. “We’ve just got to continue to push. Guys are obviously not happy. That can be a good thing also.”