The Cardinals were three outs from salvaging a rubber match against the Braves when the whole thing came apart in about 5 minutes. JoJo Romero hit Michael Harris II with a two-strike pitch with two outs in the ninth, St. Louis challenged the call, and the review came back exactly the way umpire Adam Beck had it. That was the trigger. Oli Marmol came out, got tossed, and the Cardinals never recovered.
Cardinals manager Oli Marmol was ejected after his challenge on this ninth inning hit by pitch call was unsuccessful One batter later the Braves would score the go-ahead run on a throwing error by the Cardinals
It's not just that Marmol got heated over a hit-by-pitch review going against him, it's the timing. One batter later, Mauricio Dubón hit a routine grounder to short, and Masyn Winn, last year's Gold Glove winner at the position, sailed the throw to first. Ozzie Albies came around to score the go-ahead run, and the Braves held on for a 4-3 win to avoid getting swept.
For Marmol, this wasn't some one-off blow-up. It was reportedly his 23rd career ejection, which ties him with Whitey Herzog and Roger Bresnahan for second all-time among Cardinals managers. Only Tony La Russa, at 39, has been run more. That's the kind of company that tells you Marmol runs hot when he thinks he's getting squeezed, and Sunday he clearly thought he was.
Umpire: Adam Beck Final: Braves 4, Cardinals 3 #BravesCountry // #STLCards #ATLvsSTL // #STLvsATL More stats for this ump 👇 t.co/rdThNYH1j8
Umpire accountability accounts have turned into their own cottage industry in baseball over the last few years, and Beck getting name-checked here is part of that trend. Every blown call, or every call that just looks blown in real time, gets run through a public grading system now, whether the umpire likes it or not. Marmol's challenge failing doesn't mean the review process failed him, but it's the kind of moment those accounts exist to relitigate.
The bigger story for St. Louis is that a game they were in position to win got handed away by their own defense right after their manager lost his composure. Winn's error is the kind of mistake that happens once in a while to even elite defenders, but it landed at the worst possible time, with the manager already ejected and unable to do anything about it from the dugout.
The Cardinals at least avoided the sweep from the other side, since Atlanta needed the ninth-inning gift to escape with the finale. For St. Louis, the takeaway isn't really about Beck or the strike zone, it's about a bullpen and infield that couldn't close it out clean, and a manager who's now tied for second on the franchise's ejection list with a lot of season left to add to it.