LONDON — As the Cardinals readied for their first regular-season game on another continent, manager Oliver Marmol met with an assembly of media that included reporters from St. Louis, Chicago, Italy, London, London, London and more London, and a gentlemen who introduced himself as a writer from Hungary.
He asked a question Marmol had faced before but with a new twist.
The Hungarian journalist asked how Marmol planned to “solve the problem” facing the Cardinals — and he meant of course the biggest problem of them all.
Being in last place in the National League.
“It’s a good thing you play 162 games,” Marmol said. “You have the ability to make up ground and still take care of business — which is what we’re looking forward to doing, right now. If you look at our seasons as a whole it wasn’t very good. April wasn’t good. Did a little bit better in May. And then June started off a little rocky. We’re playing a lot better baseball as of late. And our group is committed to getting it back to the playoffs.
“To your point,” Marmol said, addressing the reporter, “yes, we are in last right now in our division. That’s something that will change, and we look forward to changing.”
He paused.
A question from another reporter began, but Marmol had something to add.
“Appreciate being reminded of that in London,” he said with a wry grin.
The Cardinals rallied from a four-run deficit Sunday to win 7-5 against the Cubs and split the two-game visit to London Stadium and the United Kingdom. The series sent the Cardinals back to St. Louis after a 5-3 transatlantic road trip — a quality road trip, regardless of the exchange rate. It featured two series wins, one split and the emergence of Jordan Hicks at closer with his four saves in chances. And yet despite all the miles traveled from New York to Washington to London, the Cardinals did not budge an inch in the standings.
The Cardinals began their eight-game trip 8½ back of the first-place Pittsburgh Pirates and finished the trip 8½ back of the first-place Cincinnati Reds. They crossed the pond only to tread water. The Cardinals leave the country for a few days and return to find the Reds a genuine phenomenon.
Awaiting the Cardinals after Monday’s off day is one more rigorous stretch of games. A six-game home stand against American League foes begins with the Houston Astros (42-37) and continues with the New York Yankees (43-75) before traveling again, this time to Miami, where the Marlins and manager Skip Schumaker await.
And Schumaker’s club has the best record of the three, at 45-34.
“If we won every series for the rest of the year, we’ll probably be OK,” starter Adam Wainwright said Saturday after his loss in the first game of the London Series.
The “probably” in that comment is doing the heavy math. Playing at a series-series pace means taking roughly 67% of the remaining games. The Cardinals, at 32-45, have 85 games remaining, and taking every series would mean winning 57 to finish 89-73. That might be enough win the National League Central given the ebbs and flows of the five teams this season. But that’s a level of play the Cardinals have not sustained this year. They would have to win 49 of their remaining games — a .576 winning pace — to finish .500.
“The truth is we need to do all of that to make the playoffs,” first baseman Paul Goldschmidt said. “But I don’t feel like we’re feeling pressure in a bad way. The truth behind it is where we are we have to play well. It’s not every series, it’s not sweeping (series), but you have to play well. ... It’s a split of a series, and you move on.”
The Cardinals left London Stadium on Sunday afternoon for their charter flight back to St. Louis. They felt buoyed by the comeback win, by the solid road trip.
But it’s gilded.
The Cardinals hit .258 as a team on the road trip, slugged .436, and did hit more home runs (12) than they allowed (nine) despite not hitting one at London Stadium. They averaged 4.88 runs per game. The issue? They allowed 5.25.
Despite the winning record, the Cardinals were upside down on run differential (minus-3). Their pitchers on their trip had a 4.63 ERA. The defense committed two errors in the first inning Sunday, three in London, and led to six unearned runs overall on the road trip.
“We do believe we have a chance at this,” Marmol said, back at the same podium Sunday where he answered the question from the Hungarian reporter on Friday. “But in reality, if we’re talking about what’s attainable, we’re going to have to pitch better, and we’re going to have to continue to do what we do offensively.”
Pitching better begins with scheduling their pitching.
The Cardinals did not expect to know whether Jack Flaherty can make a start this week until reporting to Busch Stadium on Tuesday. Flaherty had his start in London cancelled due to hip tightness that limited his ability to drive off the pitching rubber and generate power. Neither of the Cardinals’ starters in London, Wainwright and rookie Matthew Liberatore, got an out in the fourth inning, so that meant the bullpen pitched the bulk of the series. Jake Woodford impressed with four scoreless innings that likely leave him unavailable for a few days.
Jordan Montgomery and Miles Mikolas are both available to start Tuesday and, thus, twice in the home stand. The Cardinals have made choices already this season to maximize the number of starts from Mikolas.
Montgomery is no longer just pitching for the Cardinals. As a pending free agent, like Hicks and Flaherty, their outings will also be scrutinized by teams looking to improve their pitching or their depth at the trade deadline. That adds a new wrinkle to the coming weeks for the Cardinals, who are weighing multiple avenues to take at the deadline. They want their destination to be an addition that helps now and for 2024, if not beyond. The route they take there could include moving a pitcher like Montgomery or, as president baseball operations John Mozeliak said this past weekend in London, a “reshuffle” of the roster.
What he and others hoped to see in London was a galvanizing event spurred by the first Cardinals appearance in the United Kingdom and the long, winning trip. That only will be clear in hindsight. If the spark was the comeback against the Cubs or that night on the River Thames when Wainwright borrowed a guitar from the band and serenaded his teammates as Marmol held the microphone, they’ll know if the standings say so a few weeks from now, if it’s finally their turn for the run the Pirates, Cubs, and Reds have all had.
It’s just the same old refrain if the record doesn’t change.
“It’s no secret we haven’t played the way we have hoped,” Mozeliak said. “We still believe in this roster, still believe in the players that we have. We also understand that at some point you have to get it going. If this type of trip helps springboard us to more success, that’s awesome.”
