MILWAUKEE -- After swinging and missing badly at Trevor Megill’s first pitch of the ninth inning -- an 87.7 mph knuckle-curve – star third baseman Nolan Arenado didn’t like his chances of starting a Cardinals rally.
Ten pitches later, however, Arenado was still at the plate and fighting to stay alive against the Brewers’ hard-throwing closer. In between that first swing and his 105.5 mph single back up the middle, Arenado gamely fouled off eight pitches and even made a bat change before turning around a 100.4 mph four-seam fastball.
That 12-pitch at-bat, as dramatic and impressive as it was by a potential Hall of Fame player, was indicative of a lost weekend for the Cardinals against their NL Central rivals. It simply wasn’t enough to propel the Cards to a win.
“You know, we’re in it, but we’re just not getting over the hump,” Arenado said after the Cardinals lost, 3-2, to the Brewers on Sunday afternoon at American Family Field for their third defeat in the four-game series and their seventh loss in the past eight games. “Luckily enough, I was able to get [a hit in the ninth], but it wasn’t good enough. And at the end of the day, we just weren’t good enough in this series.”
Nolan Gorman followed Arenado’s stirring at-bat with a surprising bunt single to put the Cardinals in position to potentially tie the game or take the lead. However, three members of the Cardinals’ young core – Jordan Walker, Victor Scott II and Masyn Winn – all struck out to end the threat.
Despite the results of those at-bats, Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol liked the three young players hitting in those tense spots -- something that should benefit them down the road, he said.
“The more opportunities you can give them in those types of games and in this environment, I think you can create a database of mentally being there before,” Marmol said.
Arenado, 34, had definitely been in big spots like the one he faced in the ninth, and it showed. He got into an 0-2 hole and then laid off a knuckle-curve. Then he gamely fouled off seven of the next eight pitches -- one of them coming with his bat unknowingly cracked from the previous pitch.
Even Brewers manager Pat Murphy -- a longtime Arenado admirer who once tried to recruit the third baseman to play for him at Arizona State University -- was in awe.
“I guess if anyone's considering whether or not Arenado is a Hall of Famer, that at-bat in the ninth, that's special,” Murphy raved. “That's special. That was a tremendous at-bat. That'd give you chills thinking about, in baseball, to have that, facing 100 [mph] with a breaking ball that's pretty good. …
“That's a different level. Anybody can have a 12-pitch at-bat -- I say anybody, there's a lot of 12-pitch at-bats -- but to do it against that kind of stuff and then come up with a missile up the middle, yeah, that was tough.”
Cardinals pitcher Miles Mikolas, who crafted a quality start by giving up just two earned runs over six innings with a season-high seven strikeouts, was on the training table in the clubhouse when Arenado was battling against Megill. Because of the seven-second delay on the TV, Mikolas was hoping to hear a roar from the crowd before the action played out on the clubhouse TV.
“I’m in here on the training table with needles in my arm, trying not to move and mostly just screaming and listening for the crowd through the ceiling,” said Mikolas. “It was exciting. That’s an at-bat that defines us as a team.”
The Cardinals knew this stretch of the schedule – 13 games in 14 days – was going to be difficult, and that has proven true as they have limped to a 4-9 record against the Royals, Dodgers, Blue Jays and rival Brewers. Arenado knows the Cards must turn that around to stay in the race.
“Last month was a great month, and this month has been a tough month so far,” said Arenado, who has hit .283 with two homers and nine RBIs in June. “Obviously, with no days off, that makes it even tougher, but there are no excuses because everyone has to go through it.
“But the attitude is the same as when we were playing well, and that’s great. There’s no doubt when we play division rivals, we’ve got to win those series. We’ve just got to find a way to get over that hump.”