MILWAUKEE — Paul Goldschmidt and Michael Ciani may play different roles for this Cardinals club, but on Sunday, their contributions were equally important for a team that desperately needed a win.
Goldschmidt, the 2022 National League Most Valuable Player in the midst of the worst slump of his career, led off a three-run Cardinals rally to tie the game on Sunday. Then Ciani, a 24-year-old center fielder with 51 games in MLB before Sunday, drilled a ball over the top of the wall in right-center to drive in a run and make it 4-0. 3 Win Cardinals snap a seven game losing streak.
“It’s great to ride in that race, and to do it for my mom on Mother’s Day, that definitely puts her up there,” Ciani said of his mom, Christine. “It’s big for us. We’re all positive here and we’re going to keep going. We all know wins are coming and we’re not putting too much pressure on it.
The Cardinals should have felt the pressure after going 0-6 against the Brewers this season, dropping eight in a row to their NL Central rivals until 2023. With the win on Sunday, the Cardinals were able to get out of town after eight games. Division leader Milwaukee instead of trailing by double digits.
“When you lose X amount of games, and you don’t. [won] After a while, the wins seem more important, but we’ve got to keep it going,” said Goldschmidt, who ended an 0-for-32 skid late in Saturday’s loss and had the lone homer and game-tying RBI on Sunday. “I like the way we won this. It was a team effort with a whole lot of stuff. That’s what it takes. It takes all the effort. The effort wasn’t there, not because it was there, but it’s nice to be rewarded for it.”
With the Cards up 3-1, in the third inning, manager Oliver Marmol and bench coach Daniel Descalso were ejected by home plate umpire Alan Porter after protesting two calls in the first inning. Descalso was the first, then Marmol walked off the field to protest coach Porter’s ejection.
The hot weather seemed to boost the Cardinals, who scored the final four runs of the game to clinch the victory. Inspiration was Marmol’s goal, he said after watching the final six innings from the clubhouse.
“Alan Porter and [first base umpire] Sean Barber is a good referee, and that had something to do with finding something,” Marmol said. “Those guys do a good job, and their job is tough. But, sometimes with a little slip up, you have to find something.
Marmol’s job security has come into question of late as the Cardinals finished in the bottom of the division for the first time in 33 years last year and are currently there. Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak He said a lot on KMOX “You’ve got to have some performance at some level,” he said, referring to Marmol on Sunday in St. Louis. [winning] He doesn’t. [come]people will be responsible.
In the year It’s a truth he’s lived with since he got the Cardinals’ managerial job in 2021 and became MLB’s youngest boss, Marmol said. With 11 World Series championships and a winning streak in every season, he said he will not back down from the expectations of managing a franchise.
“He comes with the job from Day 1,” Marmol said. “I know what that clubhouse is like, and I come in every day and pick my best. I’ll wake up tomorrow and do it all over again. And the next day, do that again.
Ciani, who only made the Opening Day roster after injuries to Tommy Edman and Dylan Carlson, came up inches short of hitting his first MLB home run in the seventh inning of the game. He hit a 96 mph fastball and launched the ball 392 feet to the top of the wall. Coincidentally, Ciani was a few feet away from robbing Rhys Hoskins of a game-winning homer in Milwaukee the night before.
“[Hoskins’ homer] I found a piece of my glove and that was hard because these are. [catches] You want it,” Ciani said. “I want to contribute with the glove and the bat.”