Cardinals Oli Marmol proves he's a questionable manager but a really good psychic

The St. Louis Cardinals had done a nice job getting out of their early-season hole and entered Tuesday's series opener against the Pittsburgh Pirates with a 43-40 record. They were in sole possession of the third Wild Card spot.

The Cardinals put together a strong 16-12 June despite the fact that their starting second baseman, Nolan Gorman provided next to nothing for most of the month. He had been struggling so mightily to the point where Cardinals fans could legitimately wonder why manager Oli Marmol continued to put him into the starting lineup.

Despite his struggles, Marmol kept his faith in Gorman and had him penciled into the Cardinals' starting lineup on Tuesday against Mitch Keller and the Pirates. He said this before the game:

“I really do believe Gorman will get out of this here soon and will help us in a very, very meaningful way,” Marmol said.

It's safe to say his faith in his second baseman finally paid off.

Oli Marmol proved himself right by sticking with Nolan Gorman

Gorman unsurprisingly struck out in his first trip to the plate, but was given a tremendous opportunity to come through in his second at-bat. The Cardinals were already leading 2-0 and had Keller on the ropes, loading the bases with nobody out and Gorman due up.

Gorman took a sweeper that actually ended up in a pretty decent location the other way and hit it a long way. It cleared the wall for a back-breaking grand slam to give St. Louis a commanding 6-0 lead that they would not relinquish. Boy, did Gorman need that.

Gorman had entered Monday's action with five hits in his last 73 at-bats. I'm not kidding. All five of those hits were singles. He went almost an entire month playing regularly without recording a single extra-base hit. He was hitting .069 in that span.

What's even worse is that Gorman struck out 35 times. Nearly half of his at-bats resulted in a strikeout. He had six games of three or more strikeouts in that 21-game span. That feels impossible, yet it happened. He needed this big swing in the worst way and got it.

It's safe to say Gorman helped them in a meaningful way on Tuesday, as Marmol predicted. If his past has given us any indication, the Cardinals might be getting a big Gorman power surge for a little while. The 24-year-old can be frustratingly streaky, but when he's hot, few second basemen in the National League are better. Marmol knows that, and while he might not be the best manager, he deserves some credit for sticking with Gorman through his struggles.