Oli Marmol's feisty comments top off a nightmare game for the Cardinals

I typically defend St. Louis Cardinals' manager Oliver Marmol from the backlash he receives from fans but his response to St. Louis Post-Dispatch writer Derrick Goold just put the cherry on top of a nightmare day for the Cardinals.

Early in the clip, Goold asked about the error, stolen bases, and just lack of attention to detail, and Marmol seemed to fixate on the "attention to detail" and strongly disagreed with the errors and attention to detail being related.

Goold asked about the 6th inning and how the Cardinals gave up some runs to the Rockies via an error, were then gifted the lead thanks to a horrible error, but were unable to add much else on and later gave the lead back to the Rockies.

Goold then followed up by asking about how much they need the middle of the order to produce in order for the offense to get going, which Marmol seemed to take exception to, and then after kind of answering the question, directed this comment over at Goold.

"I'm not trying to push back, it's just yesterday things go well, we find ways to make some moves that work, you're on the third row no questions, today a couple of things don't go well, you're in the first row like a kid in the candy shop."

Oli Marmol

As always, I highly recommend listening to the press conference first before making too many conclusions, but as someone who defends Marmol routinely, this was just a bad look, plain and simple. Goold is one of the best in the business and he asked really fair questions that I would expect reporters in that room to ask, and he was met with hostility from Marmol in a way that seemed out of line.

To me, the exchange seems to highlight the frustration Marmol has with their play right now. Marmol has been pushing the right buttons lately with this club, especially with how he has managed the bullpen, but the questioning of their preparation seemed to strike a nerve with them. Fundamental baseball often gets a manager heated when asked about it, and that was certainly the case with Marmol today.

John Denton asked a fair question earlier in the presser about Andrew Kittredge's poor outing and if he may be used too much lately, which Marmol seemed irked by as well and asked back if it's "Just because he gave it up today?"

Look, it was a really bad game. They mustered up just five hits and struck out twelve times against a mediocre starter and below-average bullpen. They then made matters worse by continuing to have miscues in the field. It's pretty easy to call a spade a spade here and say it has to be better than that, so for Marmol to act that way toward reporters who were asking really fair questions is just beyond me.

Marmol did his weekly spot with Tom Ackerman on KMOX today, and seemed to stick to his guns with his frustration. It's worth catching the full interview on whatever platform you listen to podcasts.

I get Marmol wants to stick up for his guys, and he does that all the time, but this was more personal than it was covering for his players or coaches. It's okay to say we had a bad day today and things have to be better, but instead, he chose to die on a weird hill of the reporters coming after him, and it's not playing well with fans.