ST. LOUIS – Behind a 10-19 record, the St. Louis Cardinals ended April with the second-worst record in the National League, fifth-worst in Major League Baseball and the franchise’s slowest start in half a century.
How do they turn it around? There are plenty of theories, but one of the team’s biggest bats wants to hold himself accountable.
Third baseman Nolan Arenado finished April with a modest .231 batting average, 2 home runs and 11 RBI, well below his monthly norms over his first 10 MLB seasons. During a lengthy West Coast road trip, on in which the Cardinals fared just 2-8, Arenado went just 5-for-42 (.119 batting average) with one RBI and no extra-base hits.
“I think if we were winning, I wouldn’t be worried about it so much,” said Arenado on Tuesday. “But the fact that we’re losing, it feels a lot worse because I’m not playing my part.”
Arenado says he feels mechanically disconnected and needs to adjust his timing.
“I expect to fix it,” said Arenado. “I’m working hard on it. Hopefully today’s a good day.”
The Cardinals, meanwhile, find themselves 10 games behind the Pittsburgh Pirates for first place in the NL Central. As for the team’s tough start, Arenado offered this perspective:
“We got five months left. Sometimes it feels like life or death out here because the expectations are so high. There’s so much season left. It’s hard to comprehend why people are reacting the way they are reacting. I get it, we’re 10 games out, that’s a big fall. We have five months left, we have a long season left. We feel really good about who we have in this clubhouse.”
Cardinals outfielder Lars Nootbaar echoed a similar sentiment:
“It’s one month, and unfortunately it came in the first month for us. … I just think we have to move forward and not really not worry about that. That’s all in the past. … I think we’re all confident we can bounce back from this, it’s just a matter of time.”
The Cardinals open May with a six-game homestand against two interleague opponents in the Los Angeles Angels and Detroit Tigers.
