3 STL Cardinals to thank for reigniting the season
By Josh Wilson
Players to thank for STL Cardinals turnaround: Nolan Arenado, 3B
Nolan Arenado looked like he forgot how to play baseball to start the year.
Since, he’s back to his old ways, with 16 RBI over the last 10 games including six home runs. In the first 34 games of the year, he batted in 18 runs and hit just three out of the park.
Over the last 10 Cardinals games, he’s struck out just six times in 41 plate appearances, a 14.66% rate, a massive improvement from his 20.81% prior to the most recent 10-game STL stretch. Last year he was in the top 3% of the league in K% at 11.6%, so this could be an indication he’s on his way back to what we’ve become accustomed to.
Importantly, he’s hitting .450 on fastballs in this recent stretch, previously he was hitting .172. His average exit velocity has increased from 86.6 MPH to 91.0 MPH.
Arenado’s OPS is 1.334 over the last 10, it was a measly .608 in the 34 games prior.
That’s a lot of numbers to simply say this: Nolan Arenado looks a lot more like Nolan Arenado these days than he did to start the season.
As the typical cleanup man, Arenado’s bat being right is a massive key to the Cardinals’ continued success. St. Louis is the fifth-worst team in runners left on base, but Arenado can help change that.