Oli Marmol takes beating for Cardinals blowing lead but he was right to pull Sonny Gray

The St. Louis Cardinals clawed their way back to .500 after taking two of three from the reeling Chicago Cubs over the weekend. They had a chance to get back over .500 for the first time since they improved to 5-4 on April 6 when they began their series against the Miami Marlins.

Considering the fact that the Marlins entered the game with the worst record in the National League and Sonny Gray was on the mound for St. Louis, it felt that their odds of getting the win were very good. Gray was pitching like the ace that he is for much of the night, steamrolling through the weak Miami lineup with remarkable efficiency.

With St. Louis up 4-1 in the bottom of the eighth, Oli Marmol was facing a tough decision.

The Marlins had a man on and two outs, but Gray's toughest out of the night, Jazz Chisholm Jr., was due up. Rather than stick with his ace, Marmol pulled Gray in favor of JoJo Romero. The Cardinals reliever wound up allowing Miami to tie the game on a Bryan De La Cruz three-run homer.

As frustrating as blowing that lead is for Cardinals fans, Marmol should not be blamed for the decision he made.

Oli Marmol deserves none of the blame for Cardinals blown lead

There are several reasons why Marmol opted to pull Gray. First, Chisholm, Miami's best hitter, had gotten on base all three times he faced Gray including a pair of hits, one of which was a triple. No, he wasn't the tying run, but letting Chisholm potentially get on base again against Gray would've brought the tying run to the plate, which is exactly what Marmol was trying to avoid.

Gray was at 84 pitches, which is something that Cardinals fans were frustrated by, but that's been the norm for Gray all season. The right-hander came into the night averaging 84.4 pitches per appearance this season entering the night, and he threw exactly 84 in this outing. It's not as if Marmol pulled him at 65 or 70 pitches. Clearly, limiting Gray has been a strategy all season, and given his sub-3.00 ERA, it's working.

Had Marmol not had a strong and rested back end of the bullpen available, that would've been a reason to push Gray further even against Chisholm, but that was not the case. Marmol turned to JoJo Romero, who has been nothing short of dominant all season.

Romero last pitched three days prior against the Cubs and threw a total of four pitches. He was well-rested. He entered the night with a 1.89 ERA in 32 appearances and 33.1 innings of work. He had recorded 20 holds, a save, and only two blown saves.

Most importantly, he had held left-handed hitters to a .154/.214/.154 slash line in 42 plate appearances. Romero held lefties to a .368 OPS with a total of zero extra-base hits entering the night. In his career, Chisholm has a .633 OPS against lefties compared to a .803 mark against righties. He's been a bit better against lefties this season, but has been better against righties as always.

Romero wound up walking Chisholm to allow De La Cruz to come up as the tying run. That matchup was less promising for Romero, but even De La Cruz has reverse splits, performing better against righties than lefties this season and in his career despite being a right-handed hitter.

It didn't work, and that stinks, but it's very hard to blame Marmol and not Romero here. He pulled Gray at an opportune time, and his usually dominant reliever failed to come through. Did anyone seriously expect Romero to completely unravel there?

Sometimes, players have to produce. Managers can only do so much. Marmol is far from perfect as a manager and deserves blame more often than not, but if the Cardinals lose this game it's not on him.