"We have to be better"- Cardinals skipper Oli Marmol dishes out his assessment as their offense slumps against Reds
The St. Louis Cardinals dropped yet another game due to their offensive woes, which continued on Tuesday against the Cincinnati Reds. Their offense could only muster one run, leading to a 4-1 loss at the Great American Ball Park.
After the game, Cardinals manager Oli Marmol gave a strict assessment of their offense, which he hopes will do better in coming games. While he acknowledged the Reds' pitching was on point, he needs his team's offense to come through.
"Yeah, we just have to own it. I mean, at the end of the day, no one's going to feel sorry for us. We got to own the fact that we haven't come through in certain situations. And today's a tough pitcher. You have to grind out at bats. And moving forward, we just have to be better. I mean, bottom line," Marmol said (00:35 onwards).
Upon being asked on how the offense can improve, Marmol said:
"Depends on the guy. Some guys, they start to feel it when they start taking their walks. Be quite honest with you, your Donovans and Newts, they take their walks and they start controlling the strikes and better," Marmol added.
"So it really depends on the guy. There's not a blanket statement for the club, everybody together. Different things for different guys."
Marmol's Cardinals have now lost the first two games in their three-game set against the Reds, scoring just one run in each game.
Oli Marmol marvels at Hunter Greene's pitching vs. Cardinals
Reds starter Hunter Greene was on top of his game, cruising through Cardinals hitters with ease. He pitched seven innings, only allowing one run while striking out eight. The Cards' lone run against him was a home run by Nolan Arenado in the seventh inning.
Marmol was all praise for Greene in his post-game comments.
"He's got power stuff, man. But you have to beat those types of guys, and he's created problems for a lot of teams over his last stretch. He's done a really nice job. It doesn't matter if you're a righty or a lefty—there's not a whole lot of production against him, and he continued that tonight," Marmol said after the game.
"He gave us trouble. His fastball was electric, and the other stuff played off it well. He's a tough at-bat, even for lefties, to be quite honest. There were even more punch-outs against him as well. But yeah, he was on tonight. He was good."
After losing three games in a row and four of their last five, the Cardinals are now 60-60 on the season, 3.5 games back in the NL wild card race. If they want to improve their odds of making the postseason, they better get started and give more consistent effort moving forward.