4 Cardinals not named Oli Marmol to blame for weekend sweep from Brewers

Despite some uneven play to begin their season, the St. Louis Cardinals entered this past weekend's home series against the Milwaukee Brewers sitting at 9-10 with a prime opportunity to end the weekend at or over .500.

Sure, the Brewers have gotten off to a strong start, but this Cardinals team, at least on paper, should have been able to hang with them. Or so we thought. You'd think that Kyle Gibson and Sonny Gray combining to allow just three runs in 12 innings in their two starts would help the Cardinals win at least one game. Well, that's not how it played out.

The Brewers came to St. Louis and swept the Cardinals on the road for the first time since September of 2018. Those three losses caused the Cardinals to fall to 9-13 on the year, and things don't get easier with the defending NL Champion Diamondbacks coming to town. The Cardinals had to show that they could compete with a team like the Brewers on their home turf and failed to do so.

Oli Marmol has been an easy scapegoat for Cardinals fans, but he can't be blamed for this debacle. These four players deserve to be blamed for their crushing losses against their division rival.

4. Miles Mikolas failed to come through in the one game that the Cardinals offense showed up

The lack of offense is the story not only from this past weekend, but for the Cardinals season thus far. This team is built with the idea of their offense being among the league's best, yet it has been among the league's worst so far in 2024. Still, the lack of offense doesn't mean that the pitching is blameless.

In fact, while the Cardinals bats were asleep in two of the three games from this series they were awake in the middle game of the weekend set. Unfortunately, that was the game that Miles Mikolas started.

Mikolas immediately put the Cardinals in a 2-0 hole before they even stepped up to the plate, yielding a Rhys Hoskins two-run home run, but then their bats went to work. By the end of the second inning, the Cardinals had not only rallied to tie the game, but they had a 4-2 lead. Their offense gave Mikolas a chance to help lead them to a win, but the 35-year-old failed to deliver.

The Brewers scored three runs in the top of the fourth inning and never looked back. Mikolas, despite being armed with an early two-run lead, couldn't get out of the fifth inning. The bullpen then took them completely out of the game and the Brewers won this game handily with a final score of 12-5.

Mikolas is not to blame for the 'pen implosion, but he was given a lead and couldn't maintain it or give length. He deserves a lot of the blame for their Game 2 loss.

3. Nolan Gorman continued to struggle in the series vs. the Brewers

It's been a rough go of it for most Cardinals position players, and Nolan Gorman is no exception. He entered the series vs. the Brewers hitting just .191 with a .624 OPS, and it only got worse from there.

The 23-year-old who broke out last season by hitting 27 home runs and solidifying himself as St. Louis' primary second baseman went hitless in his nine at-bats this series, striking out six times in those at-bats. What makes matters worse is that the Cardinals managed to have their best offensive performance when he was on the bench.

Gorman had plenty of chances to make his mark on this series. In the first game, he came up with the bases loaded and two outs in a 1-0 game in the bottom of the sixth inning. He struck out. In the tenth inning, with the Brewers ahead 2-1, Milwaukee opted to intentionally walk Willson Contreras to face Gorman. Contreras stole second, making the situation runners at second and third with two outs. A single would've tied or won the game for the Cardinals. Gorman struck out. That was his fourth time striking out that night.

The finale of the series saw more chances for Gorman to come through. In the second inning, he came up to bat after a leadoff double. He grounded out. In the ninth inning, Gorman led off the game with the opportunity to get on base and send up the tying run. He struck out.

Gorman was dropped to seventh in the order in the final game of the series, and there's a good chance he'll stick there for a little while until he breaks out. There's every reason to believe he'll eventually bounce back, but Gorman's struggles continue to hurt this team.

2. Paul Goldschmidt continues to look like a shell of himself

Perhaps no Cardinal has been more disappointing in 2024 than Paul Goldschmidt. The 2022 NL MVP winner looked great on Opening Day, recording three hits including a home run, but he has done practically nothing since. He entered this weekend's series hitting .182 with a .517 OPS, and both figures took a slight dip.

Goldschmidt hit second in each of the first two games of the series and had just one hit in nine at-bats with three strikeouts. He did drive in a run, but that came on a softly hit ground ball that resulted in an out anyway.

The Cardinals finally moved Goldschmidt out of the No. 2 spot for the first time this season in the series finale, and he recorded a hit and a walk, but again, he failed to come through when the team needed him.

In the first inning, Goldschmidt came up with the bases loaded and one out. He had the chance to, at the bare minimum, give the Cardinals an early lead. He failed to do so, flying out. He got on base in each of his last two at-bats, giving the Cardinals chances to score and hopefully giving himself some momentum heading into the next series, but again, he failed. He is now hitting .179 with a .507 OPS. This team is going nowhere unless he wakes up.

1. The Cardinals needed more out of Brendan Donovan

Brendan Donovan has been the player that the Cardinals have relied on to lead off for them. He has hit first in each of the 21 games he has appeared in. He had done a decent job entering this past weekend's series, as his .354 OBP showed that he was getting on base a good amount even with his low batting average. This weekend against the Brewers, however, was a different story.

Donovan started and hit first in all three games, but got on base just twice in his 15 plate appearances. The one hit he had wasn't even a clean hit, he bunted for a hit to lead off the final game.

Donovan does deserve some credit for driving in the only run that they scored in Friday's game and driving in another run on Saturday, but again, reaching base just twice in 15 tries when his main job is to set the table for the team's big bats is unacceptable.

The 27-year-old doesn't deserve as much blame for their season-long problems offensively because he had been getting on base before this series, but the Cardinals have to hope this was just a short cold stretch and that he'll get back to being a solid table setter.