Arenado's work ethic pays off again

This story was excerpted from John Denton's Cardinals Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

NEW YORK -- What the 43,110 fans at Citi Field and hundreds of thousands of Cardinals fans watching on TV saw on Sunday afternoon was superstar Nolan Arenado smashing two home runs that lifted St. Louis to an 8-7 victory over the Mets for the club’s first series victory in nearly a month.

What those same awestruck fans didn’t see before the pivotal moments of the Cardinals’ most thrilling victory of the season was that, while numerous teammates ran for the postgame buses to get a start on a couple of weekend nights in New York City, Arenado remained behind Friday and Saturday to pound balls in the batting cage.

Oh, teammate Paul Goldschmidt was there too, as he often is when Arenado is talking, thinking and obsessing over hitting -- which is just about any time he’s awake.

Arenado didn’t like how his finely tuned swing felt after the off-day on Thursday, as he went 0-for-4 on Friday and 0-for-5 on Saturday. So, he wasn’t ready to leave the stadium until he found something he could put into play on Sunday.

“After that day off, physically I felt good, but swing-wise -- I wouldn’t say I lost it -- but it was raining [on Friday], I couldn’t hit outside or get the juices flowing, so I wanted that work,” Arenado said after the win on Sunday. “I had terrible at-bats [on Saturday], so I wanted to get into the cage, slow it down and get some feels. Goldy did it [on Friday] and had a good game on Saturday and I did it on Saturday and had a good game today. When I see Goldy putting the work in, I know I should put it in, too.”

A funny thing happened when Arenado and Goldschmidt filled the air with violent bat-to-ball sounds during the postgame cooldown on Friday and Saturday: Young Cardinals infielders Brendan Donovan and Nolan Gorman heard the repeating thwack! sounds coming from the batting cages and migrated that way to take in the skull session between two of the game’s greats.

“They care,” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said of the postgame work between two players with a combined 14 All-Star Game appearances. “The game ended, everybody showered, and you’ve got last year’s MVP [finalists] in the cage, still taking swings and trying to figure some things [out] and trying to make sure [they] can help us the next day.

“It sets an example for the rest of the group, and then you have a couple of young guys who stuck around and just watched. It lets them know the dedication and commitment it takes to be great. It’s a great example for everybody in that clubhouse, for sure.”

Rarely is there a time when Arenado is not thinking about hitting. His work is intentional, not accidental. He’s blessed (with talent), but equally obsessed. He’s a great hitter and an even better worker.

Teammates marvel at his consuming obsession with his swing.

Paul DeJong chuckles when he looks over to third base and sees Arenado swinging his glove like a bat between defensive plays. Goldschmidt, his row mate on the team plane, will elbow his buddy when Arenado contorts his body into a hitting stance and swings at air. Other teammates joke with him about taking a bat to the hotel so that he can watch himself swing in the mirror.

Then, there are the glares Arenado gets from his wife, Laura.

“Sometimes I do it in random places, like an elevator, and my wife will tell me, ‘Quit it!’” Arenado said sheepishly. “I think it’s just a habit -- probably a bad habit -- and I shouldn’t be doing those things when I’m away from the field. But it’s just something I’m thinking about all the time, really. That’s probably not a good thing, but I just want to get it right.”