Slumping Arenado expresses confidence in struggling Cards

ST. LOUIS -- An integral part of playoff teams with the Cardinals each of the past two seasons, star third baseman Nolan Arenado has known nothing but winning during his time in St. Louis.

However, this season -- one where the Cardinals have gotten off to their worst start in 50 years -- Arenado has been somewhat shocked by the reactions of widespread panic among a fanbase unfamiliar with the Cardinals slumping badly all throughout April and starting May as many games behind in the standings (10) as they have overall victories (10).

“I think sometimes it feels like life or death out here because the expectations are always so high, but there's so much season left,” Arenado said on Tuesday before the Cardinals started slowly and lost 5-1 to the Angels for their fourth straight loss and their 11th defeat in 14 games. “It's hard to really comprehend why people are reacting the way they're reacting. But I get it, we're 10 games out and that's a big fall. But, like I said, we have five months left, and we have a long season left and we really feel good about what we have in this clubhouse.”

For whatever reason, the talent within the Cardinals clubhouse has been unable to find its rhythm early in series so far. The Cards dropped to 0-10 in first games of series, making them MLB’s only team to not to win a series opener. The 1897 St. Louis Browns hold the MLB record for consecutive series openers lost to begin a season at 14.

Since rallying to beat the Blue Jays in the season-opening three-game series, the Cardinals are 1-6-1 in their past eight series. The lone series win came against the rebuilding Rockies.

“We’ve got to make [positive momentum] happen because no one’s feeling sorry for us,” manager Oliver Marmol said. “The league loves watching us fail because we’re good every year. So, there’s not a team out there that’s sitting back and feeling sorry for us. No one’s going to hand us anything. We’re going to have to dig deep and prove everybody wrong and we’re up for the task.”

Struggling starter Steven Matz wasn’t up to the task of shutting down an Angels lineup without a resting Shohei Ohtani on Tuesday, allowing four first-inning runs to put a damper on the night early on. When Matz left a 2-2 changeup in the middle of the plate, Taylor Ward burned him for a three-run homer to the left-field seats. Matz is tied with Oakland’s JP Sears for the most two-strike home runs in baseball with five.

“I don’t know where my curveball’s at right now and when I can get that pitch going it can help me out a lot in two-strike counts,” said Matz, who fell to 0-4 with a 6.39 ERA. “That [pitch to Ward] was a changeup and it was down, but I wanted it away from him and then it was down and in.”

Mistakes on the mound have been hard for the bats to overcome. Take the usually reliable Arenado, who was an MVP finalist last season after hitting .293 with 30 home runs, 103 RBIs and two Player of the Month awards. Arenado came into this season riding two of the game’s most impressive streaks -- 10 straight Gold Gloves and seven straight non-COVID-impacted seasons with at least 30 home runs and 100 RBIs.

However, he entered Tuesday in one of the most baffling slumps of his career. Prior to his 0-for-3 performance -- one that saw him ground into a double play after the first two Cardinals had reached base in the sixth inning -- Arenado was in baseball’s bottom 11th percentile in average exit velocity, bottom 15th percentile in hard-hit rate and bottom 18th percentile in barrel rate.

Currently mired in a 2-for-28 skid, the 32-year-old Arenado has gone 17 games without a homer and 13 without an extra-base hit.

“There are a few things going on,” Arenado admitted. “Obviously, timing is an issue and mechanically I’m a little disconnected. It's unfortunate. I think if we were winning, I wouldn't be worried about it so much, but the fact that we're losing, it feels a lot worse because I'm not playing my part.”

Arenado said he is confident the Cardinals have enough time to save their season. He just hopes Cards fans accustomed to winning don’t totally cave on the club.

“I can see why people are upset; we're all upset, and I'm definitely upset with myself,” he said. “But, it’s April and it's hard to really comprehend [how much season is left]. It feels like the season's over with the way people are reacting and we have a lot of season left. If we're going to have a bad month, we'd rather it be early than late, right? So hopefully that's the case.”