ATLANTA -- To try to illustrate the patience and discipline needed to stick with a struggling reliever -- such as left-hander JoJo Romero or right-hander Ryan Fernandez -- Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol turned to an analogy involving a player at a completely different position.
Then he pointed out how the struggling reliever and the struggling position player metaphorically live in two different worlds in terms of the scrutiny that often follows their woes.
¡°We treat the bullpen arms different than the position players because when it doesn¡¯t go [the reliever¡¯s] way, the game usually flips, and it hurts,¡± Marmol admitted long before his Cardinals lost to the Braves, 4-1, on Wednesday afternoon at Truist Park after Fernandez allowed a three-run homer to Eli White in the decisive eighth inning. ¡°So, [the bullpen] is the hardest area to be patient in.
¡°If we¡¯re going to be as reactive with these bullpen arms [with possible demotions], why not send some of these position players out?¡±
The Cardinals lost for the sixth time in the past seven games and dropped to 2-11 on the road as their bullpen played a central role in their eighth blown-lead loss of the season. St. Louis¡¯ relievers were clearly the strength of its 83-win team last year, but the bullpen has seen its ERA swell to 5.11 (25th in the Majors) in 2025 -- a precipitous jump from the 3.64 ERA (seventh in MLB) it had in ¡®24. The Cards have more blown saves (six) than saves (five), and those six squandered opportunities are tied for the second most in MLB.
Romero, who surrendered a three-run homer to Sean Murphy in Monday¡¯s loss, allowed the first two to reach in the eighth inning on Wednesday and took the loss. Last year, Romero was one of just eight MLB relievers with at least 30 holds, but he has been a victim of the volatile nature of the position in 2025 with a 1-3 record and a 7.27 ERA.
Fernandez, a Rule 5 Draft pickup in 2023 who morphed into one of the feel-good stories of the ¡®24 season, has witnessed similarly sour results. In 8 2/3 innings, Fernandez has allowed 13 runs (11 earned), including two homers, with the second one coming off of White¡¯s bat.
Of issue for Fernandez is the effectiveness of his slider. In 2024, Fernandez held foes to a .182 batting average with the pitch, and he registered 52 strikeouts on at-bats that ended on sliders. He came into Wednesday with batters hitting .500 (9-for-18) with just four strikeouts on sliders.
¡°I didn¡¯t execute that slider that I threw, obviously. I threw that pitch right down the middle, and he hit it out,¡± Fernandez said. ¡°I just didn¡¯t want to put it there. I meant to put it below the zone, and I put it right down the middle.¡±
Fernandez, who has been working for weeks to regain the vertical break on his fastball and the tight spin of his slider from 2024, had to pitch in that spot because the Cardinals used emerging reliever Kyle Leahy to shut down sluggers Austin Riley and Marcell Ozuna in the seventh inning. Also, Phil Maton -- who is still working his way into top form after not signing with the Cards until midway through Spring Training on March 13 -- was unavailable to pitch on Wednesday.
The bullpen¡¯s struggles on Wednesday prevented a fourth straight series win over the Braves and ruined an otherwise stellar start from 36-year-old right-hander Miles Mikolas, who limited Atlanta to six singles over six scoreless innings.
One of the few balls hit hard off Mikolas all day came off the bat of Riley, who hit the first homer of his MLB career against St. Louis in 2019 and has been a noted Cards killer ever since. In the fifth inning, Riley drilled the spinning center-cut curveball from Mikolas 388 feet at 105.2 mph, per Statcast, but a strong cross-field breeze knocked the blast down and Lars Nootbaar hauled it in at the warning track.
¡°I thought if I threw [a curve] right at him, he might take it, and I was wrong and he put a good swing on it,¡± Mikolas said. ¡°Baseball has a weird way of evening out. They had some broken-bat hits and balls that bled through the infield early, so baseball has a way of patting you on the back and saying, ¡®You made some good pitches, and I¡¯ll let you get away with this one.¡¯¡±
Left unsaid in the loss was that the Cardinals mustered just one run and seven hits against Braves starter Bryce Elder and three relievers. That left little margin for error for St. Louis¡¯ struggling relievers.
¡°Being a reliever is one of the toughest jobs out there, because you¡¯re either the hero or the problem a lot of times,¡± Mikolas commiserated. ¡°I did it in the big leagues a little bit early in my career and in the Minor Leagues, and it¡¯s not easy.¡±