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St. Louis Cardinals' Nolan Arenado (28) celebrates his two-run home run that also drove in Paul Goldschmidt (46) during the first inning of a baseball game against the Boston Red Sox, Saturday, June 18, 2022, in Boston.
The Cardinals' Tyler O'Neill celebrates after hitting a solo home run in the sixth inning of a game against the Red Sox on Saturday, June 18, 2022, in Boston.
BOSTON — There are many methods a manager will use to write a lineup, from mining data for the right matchups to placing hitters for protection to pulling names out of a hat, as Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol joked this weekend he might do. (He didn’t.)
The best remains when performance guides the pen, and a lineup reveals itself.
That’s what led to Tommy Edman returning to leadoff this season, what crystallized as Tyler O’Neill thrived at the No. 3 spot last season, and what’s happening now as the Cardinals’ lineup looks different than designed but its production looks like they imagined. A show of force early followed by sustained pressure late lifted the Cardinals to a 11-2 victory Saturday night against Boston at Fenway Park. The Cardinals got three homers from the middle of the order, three hits each from two outfielders, and a six-run sixth inning.
Marmol wrote out the same lineup two consecutive games at Fenway, and in their past 10 innings against the Red Sox that group has scored 16 runs.
“I think that’s our best lineup,” Marmol said.
Back at the cleanup spot, Nolan Arenado homered for the second consecutive game and had three RBIs on Saturday. Nolan Gorman and Tyler O’Neill followed with home runs to dead-center field, batting fifth and sixth, respectively. All three are in different lineup spots than when they started this season. What’s helped unlock this look of the lineup is rookie Brendan Donovan’s movement to No. 2, stacking one more hitter with a knack for getting on base ahead of Paul Goldschmidt and Arenado.
From there the lineup’s evolution radiates to Gorman at fifth and O’Neill at sixth, giving the Cardinals a left-right combo of a light-tower power when they connect. Combined, they had 850 feet of home runs Saturday to the view-askew seats in center at Fenway. Length follows with switch-hitter Dylan Carlson and, hitting eighth or ninth, Harrison Bader. He saw 20 pitches in his five at-bats, connected on three of them for hits.
“Guys earn their spot, where they are,” assistant hitting coach Turner Ward said late Saturday at Fenway. “When the offense is starting to click together and run on all cylinders, making pitchers work – really that’s what you want to do. Hits are hard. But wearing them down, fighting off good pitches, battling. That’s been a common (theme). We want to make those pitchers earn every pitch and I see us getting better and better at that.
“Lineups start building character on their own.”
The Cardinals began the game with the fifth-most runs in the majors and a top six offense by other measures, such as on-base percentage and average. They had the second-lowest strikeout rate in the majors. Goldschmidt was the engine that drove the offense to those heights, but to stay there they'll need to depth peeking through the box scores from Boston.
The newest look for the lineup was clear Friday afternoon when Arenado took the field with a tighter, shorter haircut. He let the flow go. It was too hot and uncomfortable in the near-100-degree temps in St. Louis, so he buzzed it. All that’s heating up now is his swing. Frustrated by his June and enthusiastic in his praise for teammate Goldschmidt, who won the league’s Player of the Month award in June, Arenado has gone green in back-to-back games at Fenway. He launched a home run that would have left the ballpark completely if not for a billboard rising above the Green Monster.
In the first inning Saturday, Goldschmidt laced a two-out single and Arenado followed with a two-run homer – again over the 37-foot tall wall in left field.
Carlson added an RBI double in the second inning for the first of five runs scored by the back half of the Cardinals’ lineup. And in the fourth, Gorman led off with a home run against Red Sox starter Kutter Crawford. The bolt left Gorman’s bat at 107 mph, cleared the 17-foot wall in center, and traveled an estimated 440 feet from home plate.
“You don’t see that a whole lot,” Ward said. “I can remember the last time I saw a ball out there. It was John Olerud off of Roger Clemens. You just don’t see that often. It’s rare to go out there. To go up there up there up there – that is a feat.”
Said Arenado: “Gorman has got juice.”
The win was the first time both Nolans homered in the same game and a gave as sense of how they’ve gravitated toward being back-to-back in the lineup. Arenado has been candid as a Cardinal about his preference hitting cleanup, and the offense had its late-season surge in 2021 when he returned to cleanup and O’Neill found a home bookended between Goldschmidt and Arenado. Marmol could plant Gorman at No. 2 and get him more at-bats against right-handed pitching because teams will be reluctant to use a lefty with a three-batter minimum that assures either Edman or Goldschmidt get a swing.
But with Donovan batting .326 after going zero-for-five Saturday and starting the day with as many walks (22) as strikeouts (22) in the majors, the Cardinals want him to get as many chances ahead of Goldschmidt as possible.
That puts Gorman in the spot to clear the table, not set it.
“As a guy in the five hole,” the rookie said, “you’re going to have some pop.”
In the past two games, the Cardinals have had innings of five and six runs, and combined they featured a solo home run. The Cardinals’ five-run rally in the ninth inning Friday fell shy of tying the game, but all of the runs and all four extra-base hits came with two outs. Edman and Donovan atop the lineup had back-to-back doubles and three RBIs. In the sixth inning, Saturday the Cardinals exploited three walks and one error to send 12 batters the plate.
Eight had a run or an RBI.
O’Neill got both with his 410-foot mash to center field. But the back end of the lineup kindled the runs to come with two walks and Bader’s infield single. Edman, Goldschmidt, and Arenado followed with RBI singles, widening the Cardinals lead from two runs to eight.
“That is the depth that we talked about,” Marmol said. “A lot of the guys are putting it together at the right time.”
The burst of offense came immediately after Dakota Hudson finished his fifth and final inning. The Cardinals’ right-hander allowed a season-high five walks, three of them going to the bottom three batters in Boston’s lineup to load the bases. Hudson teed up the football for the Red Sox to kick off a rally – and then yanked it back. He had walked two batters on four pitches, three in the span of 16 pitches before landing a sinker to get an inning-ending groundout.
By the end of the sixth inning, every spot in the Cardinals lineup had scored at least a run.
Andrew Knizner drove home O’Neill with a ground-rule double in the ninth to give O’Neill three runs in the game and seven spots in the order at least one RBI.
The 11 runs were the most a Cardinals team scored in a regular-season game at Fenway, one shy of the dozen the Swifties scored in Game 4 of the 1946 World Series. That game was the first in a World Series that three teammates had at least four hits each. Stan Musial was not one of them. That’s some depth.
“It’s good to see it come together,” Arenado said. “We have great baserunning – not just steals, but turning bases, the little things. We have a little bit of power, not as much power as all teams, some of the really good teams, like the Yankees. We’re starting to have those really quality at-bats, working counts, making pitchers work a little harder, and we do that with the pitching and defense we have – that’s a really good team.”
St. Louis Cardinals' Nolan Arenado (28) celebrates his two-run home run that also drove in Paul Goldschmidt (46) during the first inning of a baseball game against the Boston Red Sox, Saturday, June 18, 2022, in Boston.
St. Louis Cardinals' Dakota Hudson pitches during the first inning of a baseball game against the Boston Red Sox, Saturday, June 18, 2022, in Boston. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)
Boston Red Sox's Kutter Crawford pitches during the first inning of a baseball game against the St. Louis Cardinals, Saturday, June 18, 2022, in Boston. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)
Boston Red Sox's Franchy Cordero stands in front of the scoreboard during the sixth inning of a baseball game against the St. Louis Cardinals, Saturday, June 18, 2022, in Boston.
The Cardinals' Albert Pujols, right, hugs former Red Sox player David Ortiz while being honored during a ceremony before a game, Saturday, June 18, 2022, in Boston.
St. Louis Cardinals' Dakota Hudson tosses to first base on a groundout by Boston Red Sox's Rafael Devers during the first inning of a baseball game, Saturday, June 18, 2022, in Boston.
Boston Red Sox's Rafael Devers (11) and former Red Sox player David Ortiz, left, honor St. Louis Cardinals' Albert Pujols, second from right, on the mound before a baseball game, Saturday, June 18, 2022, in Boston.
Boston Red Sox's Xander Bogaerts, right, celebrates with Kevin Plawecki (25) after scoring on a single by Bobby Dalbec during the second inning of a baseball game against the St. Louis Cardinals, Saturday, June 18, 2022, in Boston.
St. Louis Cardinals' Brendan Donovan (33), Harrison Bader (48), Tommy Edman (19) and Tyler O'Neill (27) celebrate after defeating the Boston Red Sox in a baseball game, Saturday, June 18, 2022, in Boston.
Boston Red Sox's Bobby Dalbec, right, runs on his RBI-single in front of St. Louis Cardinals' Andrew Knizner during the second inning of a baseball game, Saturday, June 18, 2022, in Boston.
St. Louis Cardinals' Tommy Edman throws to first base for the double play on Boston Red Sox's Jackie Bradley Jr. during the second inning of a baseball game, Saturday, June 18, 2022, in Boston.
Boston Red Sox's Xander Bogaerts throws to first base on the ground out by St. Louis Cardinals' Tommy Edman during the second inning of a baseball game, Saturday, June 18, 2022, in Boston.
Boston Red Sox's Rafael Devers reacts after flying out during the third inning of a baseball game against the St. Louis Cardinals, Saturday, June 18, 2022, in Boston.
St. Louis Cardinals' Albert Pujols comes up to bat during the eighth inning of a baseball game against the Boston Red Sox, Saturday, June 18, 2022, in Boston. Pujols struck out on a foul tip.
St. Louis Cardinals' Paul Goldschmidt hits a two-run single during the sixth inning of a baseball game against the Boston Red Sox, Saturday, June 18, 2022, in Boston.
St. Louis Cardinals' Tyler O'Neill celebrates after his solo home run during the sixth inning of a baseball game against the Boston Red Sox, Saturday, June 18, 2022, in Boston.
St. Louis Cardinals' Nolan Gorman scores on his solo home run during the fourth inning of a baseball game against the Boston Red Sox, Saturday, June 18, 2022, in Boston.
Former Boston Red Sox David Ortiz, center right, hugs St. Louis Cardinals' Albert Pujols (5) as Red Sox's Xander Bogaerts, left, Michael Wacha, second from right, and Rafael Devers, right, look on during a ceremony honoring Pujols before a baseball game, Saturday, June 18, 2022, in Boston.
St. Louis Cardinals' Harrison Bader makes the catch on the fly out by Boston Red Sox's Rafael Devers during the third inning of a baseball game, Saturday, June 18, 2022, in Boston.
St. Louis Cardinals' Albert Pujols (5) talks with Boston Red Sox's Kevin Plawecki as he comes to bat during the eighth inning of a baseball game, Saturday, June 18, 2022, in Boston. Pujols struck out on a foul tip.
Keep up with the latest Cardinals coverage from our award-winning team of reporters and columnists.
Derrick Goold is the lead Cardinals beat writer for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and past president of the Baseball Writers' Association of America.
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St. Louis Cardinals' Nolan Arenado (28) celebrates his two-run home run that also drove in Paul Goldschmidt (46) during the first inning of a baseball game against the Boston Red Sox, Saturday, June 18, 2022, in Boston.
The Cardinals' Tyler O'Neill celebrates after hitting a solo home run in the sixth inning of a game against the Red Sox on Saturday, June 18, 2022, in Boston.
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