Oli Marmol's firm response after Cardinals loss put St. Louis fans in their place

It's been a bumpy start to the 2025 season for the St. Louis Cardinals, and things got even worse on Friday night. After rallying to tie the game in the top of the ninth against the New York Mets, much-maligned reliever Ryan Fernandez tried to send the game to extras ... only to give up a walk-off homer to shortstop Francisco Lindor, touching off a frenzy at Citi Field.

The loss was St. Louis' third in its last four games, a stretch that has dropped the team into fourth in the NL Central at 9-11. Those, struggles, understandably, have Cardinals fans looking for someone to blame. And on Friday night, they focused their efforts on manager Oli Marmol.

Why, exactly? Because of who was on the mound for Lindor's game-winning blast. Fernandez was a pleasant surprise last season, but he's struggled so far in 2025, pitching to a 7.71 ERA entering Friday night. And yet he was the one Marmol turned to against the top of the Mets' order with the game on the line — not All-Star closer Ryan Helsley, much to Cardinals' fans chagrin.

On the surface, that seems like an easy criticism; losing against the opponent's best hitters with your best pitcher still in the bullpen is never a good look. But digging a little deeper makes clear that Marmol isn't the scapegoat St. Louis is looking for, and he had no problem telling fans as much after the game.

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Cardinals fans shouldn't use Oli Marmol as a scapegoat after tough Mets loss

Asked about why Fernandez was on the mound in the ninth rather than Helsley, Marmol was blunt: "No manager in the league brings their closer in on the road in the ninth [in a tie game]," he told Katie Woo of The Athletic.

Which is incontrovertibly true. This has long been a baseball maxim: As the road team, you always have a potential save opportunity to worry about, so you don't want to blow your closer before you actually take a lead that needs protecting. Sure enough, Marmol hasn't used Helsley in that capacity a single time so far this season; the only time he's pitched in a non-save situation on the road was in the 11th inning of an eventual loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates.

And Marmol isn't the only one. To his point, pretty much every other manager in the league — even ones in more analytically inclined organizations — treat their bullpens the same way. Had Helsley been used for the ninth and St. Louis scratched across at least one run in the top of the 10th, Fernandez would've been called on in an even more difficult situation given the ghost runner, and Cardinals fans surely wouldn't have loved that either.

Marmol is hardly above criticism, and you can't blame St. Louis for wanting a change in the dugout. But this is the rare time they missed the mark.