STL Cardinals manager issues scary thought ahead of series opener with Atlanta Braves

As much as the St. Louis Cardinals flexed their muscles in the opening series against the Toronto Blue Jays, manager Oliver Marmol still believes his team can hit another level when the Atlanta Braves start a three-game series on Monday night.

Sure, it’s only three games into the season, but the St. Louis Cardinals are sitting on top of Major League Baseball’s leaderboard in terms of team batting average (.373) and OPS+ (190). Their 41 hits are the most for any team that’s only played three games so far as well.

The offense is certainly clicking heading into Monday’s early-season showdown with Atlanta, a team with a combined 2.42 ERA/3.56 FIP/1.192 WHIP after two wins in three games in Washington against the Nationals. Atlanta brings a talented group of pitchers into Busch Stadium for the three-game set, but the Cardinals had their way with Toronto’s Alek Manoah and Chris Bassitt, all while scratching across three unearned runs against Kevin Gausman in Saturday’s 4-1 victory.

Cardinals: Oli Marmol calls lineup ‘scary’ for any team to face

Marmol certainly liked what he saw from his offense against the Blue Jays, referring to his batting order as “scary” in what they’re showing early in the season.

“We’re hitting a lot of balls hard. Guys are taking really tough at-bats. They’re not leaving the zone. They’re making hard contact. Our outs are hard,” Marmol said after Sunday’s win. “Overall in our approach, we’re using the whole field to do damage.

“It’s a pretty scary lineup. You can give guys a day off, and it doesn’t matter because the guys that are coming in and very productive as well. We feel good about where we’re at.”

Brendan Donovan, slashing .357/.333/.786 with a pair of homers in his first 14 at-bats of 2023, is liking the new-look Cardinals lineup that includes catcher Willson Contreras, talented rookie Jordan Walker, and a seemingly rejuvenated Nolan Gorman slotting in as the team’s designated hitter.

“There are no breaks,” Donovan said, talking about the depth of the St. Louis lineup. “That’s the biggest thing. There are no breaks for the opposing pitchers. We also have a team mentality so when someone gets on, the next guy can move them over, and then the next guy can do that as well. You just keep passing the baton back and that’s an awesome thing about this lineup.”

While the Cardinals looked every bit like a team ready to exorcise the demons of last season’s October dud behind them, Marmol also hinted that there is still room to grow for this star-stacked Cardinals roster.

“There’s definitely some areas of improvement and some stuff on the bases that we could’ve taken advantage of and didn’t. There’s some stuff defensively we have talked about but didn’t get picked up,” Marmol said. “We’ve talked about if they give us an edge, we take it and there were several that we didn’t take. There are some things that we continue to improve on for sure.”