Oli Marmol shouldn't be alone in blame for season-opening loss to Dodgers

The St. Louis Cardinals were given an incredibly tough task to begin the 2024 campaign as they had to head to Los Angeles and take on the Los Angeles Dodgers. Sure, they would've had to go to Dodger Stadium at some point, but did they really have to be the team to face the Dodgers for Shohei Ohtani's Dodger Stadium debut? All eyes were on them, and they, for the most part, didn't come through.

The Cardinals lost three of four to the Dodgers to begin their season after a devastating loss on Sunday Night Baseball. St. Louis was up 4-2 after six innings thanks to a strong start from Steven Matz but the bullpen fell apart in the eighth inning and the Dodgers won it 5-4.

With the bullpen collapsing, manager Oli Marmol is an easy man to blame. While Marmol was far from perfect in the opening series, he's far from the only person who deserves blame in this Cardinals organization for the team's rough start.

Oli Marmol isn't the only person to blame for the Cardinals' disappointing series loss vs. Dodgers

Outside of a brutal first game, the Cardinals played the Dodgers fairly tough. They only won one game but lost two of the last three by a combined score of 11-7. With a better pitching staff, perhaps St. Louis would've at the very least split the series.

Not a single Cardinals starter recorded a quality start in the four-game series. That puts a tremendous strain on a bullpen that isn't super deep to begin with. Lance Lynn might have, but his start was ended prematurely thanks to the first rain delay at Dodger Stadium in nearly a decade.

This Cardinals team was built in a very specific way. They expect their starting pitchers to eat innings. Guys like Lance Lynn, Kyle Gibson, and Miles Mikolas aren't expected to throw consistent zeroes, but they are expected to last six or seven innings per start. Again, not a single Cardinals starter completed six innings. Rain and a Steven Matz pitch count played a role, but Cardinals starters didn't do their jobs.

Cardinals relievers consistently having to go four innings or more made it tough for Oli Marmol to navigate. That's what forced him to use guys like Andre Pallante and John King in big spots on Sunday. A blown save from Ryan Helsley, the team's best reliever, on Saturday certainly didn't help either, as it forced them to use Giovanny Gallegos for a second straight day, knocking him out for Sunday.

This Cardinals team is also built expecting its offense to carry them. The bats, with the exception of Paul Goldschmidt, simply didn't show up. St. Louis scored 14 runs in the four games, averaging less than four runs per contest. They'll rarely win games by scoring three runs. Their offense has to be among the National League's elite for them to be in postseason contention, and they were subpar in Los Angeles.

This comes down to players they expect to perform not coming through (the offense) and John Mozeilak not providing Marmol with enough quality depth in the bullpen. The Cardinals have four or five solid relievers, but they need more than that to seriously compete in a 162-game marathon.

Marmol refusing to use Rule-5 pick Ryan Fernandez was a choice tough to comprehend, but also says a lot about what he thinks of the player Mozeilak has forced onto his roster. Fernandez, as a Rule-5 pick, cannot be removed from the roster unless he is injured.

Again, Marmol was and is far from perfect, but he's also not the only person to blame. Had the Cardinals bats and good arms shown up and had Mozeilak supplied the team with enough quality bullpen depth, we wouldn't be having this conversation.