Put up or shut up: 3 Cardinals who can save their season and Oli Marmol's job

What a roller coaster ride this season has been for the St. Louis Cardinals. It felt as if their season was over in mid-May, then they proceeded to go on a big run to get back into the postseason race and buy at the trade deadline, but now, at 61-63, the Cardinals' season is close to being on life support.

As of this writing, the Cardinals sit 5.0 games back of the third Wild Card spot, and have a tough schedule upcoming. FanGraphs gives them skinny 4.3 percent odds to make it to the postseason, and with how they've played lately, that might be a bit generous.

The Cardinals will need a miracle to play meaningful October baseball, and potentially keep Oli Marmol's job. Chances are, if the team misses out on the postseason again, changes will be made, and Marmol is the easiest one to let go of. In order to avoid back-to-back seasons of no postseason baseball and to keep Marmol in the dugout, these three Cardinals players are going to have to step up.

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3) Miles Mikolas has to show why Oli Marmol trusts him so much

Remember when Miles Mikolas challenged the Cardinals to play better after losing a series at Wrigley Field? He's made two starts since, allowing ten earned runs in 9.2 innings of work. He was handed a 4-2 lead his last time out against the Los Angeles Dodgers after five innings, but proceeded to allow the Dodgers to re-take the lead, leading to a disheartening Cardinals loss.

Overall, Mikolas has a 5.41 ERA in 25 starts and 138 innings of work this season, but he has a 6.71 ERA in his last 10 starts. Things have only been getting worse for him, yet Marmol continues to start him every fifth day.

Mikolas struggling like this has been even more disappointing because the Cardinals rotation has surprisingly exceeded expectations for much of the year. Steven Matz's looming return should mark the end of Mikolas as a starter this season, but chances are, Marmol will continue to keep him in the rotation.

If that's the case, it's time for Mikolas to prove himself. Not only did he call his teammates out saying that everyone needed to play better, but he needs to show why Marmol, for whatever reason, trusts him so much. If the Cardinals want to win his starts, he can't be allowing four or five runs every time out.

2) Sonny Gray has to pitch like the ace he was expected to be

The Cardinals signed Sonny Gray this offseason expecting him to lead their rotation, and for the first part of the season, he did. He missed the first couple of weeks of the season, but had a sub-3.00 ERA in his first 15 starts of the season after returning. The Cardinals went 10-5 in those starts.

Unfortunately, since the calendar turned to July, Gray has been a different guy. The right-hander has a 5.63 ERA in his last eight starts, and the Cardinals are unsurprisingly 3-5 in those outings. He has allowed five or more runs in four of those eight appearances, which is unacceptable.

Gray is the best pitcher on this staff by far. He has to pitch like it down the stretch for the Cardinals to have any sort of shot. He's allowed two earned runs in three of his four starts in August, so he's trending in the right direction. Can that continue? Cardinals fans sure hope so.

1) Can Paul Goldschmidt turn his season around?

This Cardinals team was built around its offense, but they have underperformed in that department virtually all season long. They've gotten solid production from their younger players like Masyn Winn and Alec Burleson, but the veterans, with Paul Goldschmidt as the biggest culprit, have really let the team down.

Goldschmidt enters Tuesday's action slashing .230/.290/.392 with 19 home runs and 49 RBI in 119 games played. Goldschmidt having a sub-.700 OPS in late August is really hard to fathom when he's been healthy all year, yet here we are.

The month of August has been slightly better for the 36-year-old who has a .709 OPS in his last 15 games, but the Cardinals need more. A lot more. I mean, this guy just won the MVP award only two seasons ago!

Does Goldschmidt have anything left in the tank? We're about to find out. He's a major piece for this team, and it's hard to envision the Cardinals going on a run if he doesn't get things going offensively.