Play of the year? Nootbaar’s leaping double play has the Cardinals soaring into a weekend date with the Cubs (2024)

Published: May. 23, 2024 at 11:41 AM CDT

ST. LOUIS, Mo. (First Alert 4) - For a moment in time, just about everyone was in disbelief over what Lars Nootbaar had done.

On for the save as the Cardinals sought to close out their first sweep of the season Wednesday, Ryan Fernandez had endured some tough batted ball luck to begin the ninth inning of St. Louis’ final game of the day.

Fernandez drew the opportunity after Oli Marmol had deployed Andrew Kittredge, JoJo Romero and Ryan Helsley earlier in the day. The Cardinals’ reliable relief triumvirate tidied up the final innings of the game that was suspended due to rain in the sixth the night before, so Fernandez was called upon in Game 2 for the first big-league save of his career.

Two seeing-eye singles through the hole at second weren’t what he envisioned as he angled to protect a two-run lead, so something had to give if the Cardinals were going to survive the inning to hand the Orioles their first sweep in about two calendar years.

Enter Air Noot.

It wasn’t a lack of faith in Nootbaar’s ability to track down a fly ball in front of the right field wall, but a trick on the eyes that had some folks—including the Cardinals’ television broadcast crew—thinking Kyle Stowers had just swung the Orioles back into Wednesday afternoon’s game.

But with the signature move of the tongue dangling from his open mouth, entrenched in concentration, Nootbaar snared what could go down as one of the most significant plays of the Cardinals season.

With the bases empty in a one-run game, Fernandez got Gunnar Henderson to ground out to end it, securing Nootbaar’s play as a game-changing one.

Clearly, Baltimore outfielder Cedric Mullins didn’t think there was much of a chance that Nootbaar would come up with the leaping grab. He began the play on first base and was forced to retreat, in vain, after rounding the second base bag. Nootbaar had the presence of mind to immediately fire the ball back toward first baseman Alec Burleson to ensure the Cardinals could take full advantage of Mullins’ presumptuous jaunt.

Cardinals shortstop Masyn Winn may have had the best seat in the house to witness all the chaos that unfolded in a matter of moments.

“To be honest, I thought it was a game-tying double,” Masyn Winn told Bally Sports Midwest. “He went up, ball kind of disappeared. There was a white sign behind him. But I saw him catch it, I turned to my right and I saw Cedric Mullins rounding second base. I started jumping and screaming. Man, that was an unbelievable play. I got a pretty nice angle of it so I was pretty impressed. And then to make the throw to first base, too? That was nice.”

Before a reporter even got the full question out of his mouth about Nootbaar’s game-changing play, Marmol responded with an audible exhale and a smile.

“Heckuva play there,” Marmol said. “And then to get the double play was obviously a big part of that game. Incredible play.”

Nootbaar was at the center of the action all series as he was ejected early in Tuesday’s game (which was suspended and concluded early Wednesday) for arguing balls and strikes.

With Nootbaar eligible to rejoin the festivities for the series finale Wednesday, he was called out on strikes in the early going by home plate umpire Charlie Ramos, leading to the ejection of the Cardinals manager after Oli Marmol received confirmation from the video room that Orioles starter John Means actually hadn’t put a single pitch over the plate during the Nootbaar at-bat.

It was Marmol’s second ejection of the season—and the second time the Cardinals rallied to win following their manager’s dismissal.

After the Orioles went 106 straight regular season series without being swept, the 2024 Cardinals became the first team to do it in that span on Wednesday. Just like that, the Redbirds have won eight of their last 10 and are playing their way back into the mix in the National League standings. St. Louis has vaulted up to third place and is just a game-and-a-half out of a wild card spot at the start of play Thursday.

“It’s coming together. It really is,” Marmol said after Wednesday’s sweep. “We’ve talked a lot about the pitching and rightfully so. Starters are doing their job. Bullpen has been phenomenal. Hitters are putting together some really tough at-bats right now, one through nine, different guys contributing. And when you put all of it together, it leads to some wins.”

The Cardinals will enjoy the off-day Thursday before welcoming the rival Cubs to town for the most high-profile weekend series to date as St. Louis looks to prove it’s on the cusp of a comeback in the NL Central race.

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