The St. Louis Cardinals’ 2025 season has had a rough start, and Friday night made it worse. Much-maligned reliever Ryan Fernandez attempted to force extras after recovering to tie the game against the New York Mets in the top of the ninth, but he gave up a walk-off homer to shortstop Francisco Lindor, setting off a frenzy at Citi Field.
The loss was St. Louis’ third in its previous four games, a stretch that has knocked the team into fourth in the NL Central at 9-11. Those, problems, obviously, have Cardinals supporters looking for someone to blame. Additionally, they concentrated on manager Oli Marmol on Friday night.
Specifically, why? Because of Lindor’s game-winning bomb and who was on the mound. Despite being a pleasant surprise the previous season, Fernandez has had a difficult 2025 season thus far, pitching to a 7.71 ERA going into Friday night. To the dismay of Cardinals fans, Marmol relied on him rather than All-Star closer Ryan Helsley when the game was on the line against the top of the Mets’ order.
That seems like a simple criticism at first glance; it’s never a good look to lose to the best hitters on the other team while your best pitcher is still in the bullpen. However, a closer look reveals that Marmol is not the scapegoat St. Louis is seeking, and he had no trouble informing fans of this following the game.
Cardinals fans shouldn’t use Oli Marmol as a scapegoat after tough Mets loss
“No manager in the league brings their closer in on the road in the ninth [in a tie game],” Marmol told Katie Woo of The Athletic when asked why Fernandez was on the mound in the ninth instead of Helsley.
which is absolutely true. As the road team, you always have a potential save opportunity to worry about, therefore you don’t want to blow your closer before you actually gain a lead that needs to be protected. This has long been a baseball maxim. As it turns out, Marmol hasn’t utilized Helsley in that role once this season; the only time he’s thrown on the road in a non-save scenario was in the eleventh inning of a game that ended in a loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates.
