Nolan Arenado joins golden group bronzed in baseball Hall

CHICAGO — With a swing of his bat, Nolan Arenado joined an exclusive and illustrious group also known for their gloves.

As part of a back-to-back set of home runs in the evening half of Thursday’s doubleheader, Arenado hit the 350th home run of his career. He is one of seven players in major league history with at least 350 homers and at least 10 Rawlings Gold Glove Awards, and he and Hall of Famer Mike Schmidt are the only infielders in the group.

The Cardinals held a clubhouse gathering after their doubleheader sweep Thursday to celebrate Arenado’s accomplishment as a group.

“It’s a great accomplishment,” Arenado said after late Thursday after the game. “I thank God that I’ve been healthy enough to play and post and go out there and accomplish it. It’s a really cool thing. As I was running the bases, I was actually thinking about Albert (Pujols’) 700th home run and how insane that is that he he was able to do that. This is my road. And I’m thankful for my teammates, for anyone who has helped me accomplish it.”

In the first game of the doubleheader — a 5-4 win by the Cardinals — Arenado tagged a ball that was caught at the left field wall. In his second at-bat of the second game, he jumped on a sweeper and sent it 385 feet into the seats. Arenado’s ninth homer of the season was a solo shot that followed Alec Burleson’s three-run shot in the third inning. In the 10th, Arenado’s RBI single brought home the deciding run in an 8-6 win to sweep the series.

Arenado joins Stan Musial, Albert Pujols, Jim Edmonds and his former teammate Paul Goldschmidt as the only five players to hit their Nos. 250, 300 and 350 career homers while wearing a Cardinals jersey.

The other five players with at least 10 Gold Gloves and 350 home runs are: catcher Johnny Bench and outfielders Willie Mays, Ken Griffey Jr., Al Kaline and Andruw Jones. All of them save for Jones have been inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. And if voting trends hold for Jones, he’ll be elected imminently, possibly as early as this offseason. Jones received 66.2% of the vote this past year and needs 75% for induction.

After the game, outfielder Lars Nootbaar read the list of players Arenado joined to Arenado.

“When you realize the name you hear about it’s pretty crazy,” Arenado said. “It hasn’t hit me quite yet.”

Arenado is the 11th everyday third baseman to reach 350 home runs.

An eight-time All-Star, Arenado is the only player other than Ichiro Suzuki to win 10 Gold Gloves in his first 10 years. Winning an 11th at third base would vault Arenado ahead of Schmidt and behind only Hall of Famer Brooks Robinson, who has 16.

With two more doubles, Arenado will reach 400 in his career and join a group of third baseman with 350 homers and 400 doubles that only includes Hall of Famers Chipper Jones, Schmidt, Adrian Beltre and also Aramis Ramirez and former Cardinal Gary Gaetti.

Two more home runs would put Arenado in the top 100 all time.

The Cardinals opted to nudge Sonny Gray’s scheduled start against the White Sox back several days due to the right-hander’s routine, and deep into it he got Wednesday before the official postponement.

Instead of against the White Sox, Gray will start Saturday against Cincinnati, and the rotation will shift around him. The assignment assures Gray will get home starts against the Reds and Cubs in the next week, and it also freed him up for a bullpen session Thursday morning at Rate Field. Giving him Saturday’s game instead of Friday’s series opener allowed the bullpen session.

“The way he ramps up,” Marmol said, “pushing him is not ideal.”

Andre Pallante will remain on turn to start Friday’s game. Miles Mikolas will shift to Sunday. That puts Matthew Liberatore and Erick Fedde as the first two starts for the Cubs’ four-game visit. The Cardinals have planned to use sixth starter Michael McGreevy on June 24, but Gray’s shifting schedule may adjust that too.

McGreevy started the evening game Thursday as the Cardinals’ 27th man.

With four strikeouts in the sixth inning of Thursday’s afternoon game, Steven Matz pulled off a feat done only once before by a Cardinals pitcher on the road.

Hall of Famer Bob Gibson struck out four batters in the fourth inning of a game at Pittsburgh on June 7, 1966. Gibson struck out 12 total that day in seven innings of a loss to the Pirates. In an eventful fourth inning, Gibson struck out the first two batters. He walked Donn Clendenon, then struck out Bill Mazeroski, but because of a wild pitch, the inning wasn’t over and two Bucs were on base. The inning would also feature two steals.

Gibson struck out Don Cardwell to end the inning without giving up a run.

Matz struck out the first batter of the inning, but when a wild pitch got away, that put a leadoff runner on. Matz did not get a strike call on Michael A. Taylor before allowing a two-run homer to him, meaning the lefty arguably struck out five in the inning. Matz then spun the final two batters of the inning to end it.

“It’s a cool thing to have,” starter Erick Fedde said between halves of the doubleheader. “It’s fun to say. When we’re all done playing, we’ll look back on things, and he’ll say, ‘Yeah, I struck out four people in an inning.’”

The rainout Wednesday meant more time for the Cardinals at the team’s downtown hotel, where they had unlikely neighbors — the Milwaukee Brewers. Fresh off their four-game series against each other in Wisconsin, the Brewers and Cardinals each bused to Chicago to face the Cubs and White Sox, respectively. That put the division rivals in the same hotel for three days, including one with no games due to rainouts.

The Contreras brothers, Willson and William, were in the same hotel, and several Cardinals said they did see the Brewers around.

On the final day of the road trip, closer Ryan Helsley had his sharpest outing in weeks. Helsley pitched a perfect ninth on 10 pitches in Game 1 of the doubleheader to secure his 14th save of the season. He returns to Busch for this weekend series having blown three saves during the previous homestand. Helsley whipsawed through the ninth Thursday in familiar fashion — throwing his slider more often than his fastball and elevating the fastball to 101 mph when needed.

He struck out one and got two groundouts.

“He knows what gives him success, and there are some outings he’s gotten beat and then there’s some randomness,” Marmol said. “What we saw is that quick (outing): did what he wanted with the ball, was able to spin it when needed, attack with the fastball. Good to see.”

The Cardinals have played in six of the 17 total doubleheaders in the majors this season and no other team has played in more than three.

• They are the third team in the past four decades to play six doubleheaders before the 75th game of the season, joining the 2022 Guardians and 2021 Mets, according to research by Elias.
• The last time the Cardinals and White Sox played a doubleheader was August 15, 2020 — a significant date in recent Cardinals history. That was their return to play from a 17-day quarantine during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Cardinals swept the doubleheader, and making their major league debuts that day were Dylan Carlson, Max Schrock and Jake Woodford.