MILWAUKEE -- Somewhat lost in the shuffle of Jon Lester reaching career win No. 200 on Monday night was Nolan Arenado’s early-inning heroics.
With two outs and Tyler O’Neill on first base, Arenado unloaded on a first-pitch fastball from Brewers starter Freddy Peralta and sent it a Statcast-projected 389 feet over the wall in left field. The home run officially put Arenado at 101 RBIs on the year, giving him at least 30 homers (he has 33) and 100 RBIs for the sixth time in his career.
“It means everything,” Arenado said after the Cardinals’ 5-2 win over the Brewers. “You always see the great players in the game, they always hit 30 and 100, and that's all I want to be is a good player. That's all I'm trying to do.”
The individual accomplishment puts Arenado only behind Mike Schmidt (nine) and Alex Rodriguez (seven) for the most such seasons by a primary third baseman, but he also accomplished something that surprisingly, no Cardinals hitter had done in some time.
Arenado became the first Cardinal to pass the 100-RBI threshold since Matt Holliday drove in 102 runs in 2012. That nine-year stretch might seem surprising, considering some of the names that have played in St. Louis over the last decade, but that kind of production is exactly what the Cardinals were picturing when they acquired him in February.
“I know that, analytically, they say it's not a metric that has value, but you go play every day and you don't have a group of guys that are driving in runs, you ain't winning many games. Pretty simple as that,” manager Mike Shildt said. “So run producers are important, and having a guy like Nolan in the middle of the lineup that can produce runs that you have to game plan for, that helps the guys around him. That's a big part of a good team offense, and so it's nice to have.”
“He's a true asset, obviously, in the league,” O’Neill said. “We're just happy to have him at the corner for us.”
Even better for the Cardinals is that Arenado’s latest accomplishment, like Lester’s, wasn’t an empty stat. Arenado’s homer in the top of the first made sure the Brewers never led in the series opener, so his contributions have remained crucial as St. Louis tries to hang on to the second National League Wild Card spot.
“I think that's the best part of all of it, the fact [of] how unselfish these guys are,” outfielder Dylan Carlson said of both Arenado and Lester’s feats contributing to wins. “They care more about winning than the personal achievements that are, obviously, pretty incredible. ... I think it just speaks to what we have in that clubhouse, as far as guys that are unselfish and are all about the team. It really helps, especially at this time of the year.”
Lester’s former catcher sends his congrats
While Lester’s phone was buzzing nonstop following his 200th career win on Monday, he hadn’t checked to see if his old batterymate had sent him a text yet.
“I'm sure that I'll get a text, either tonight or tomorrow, from him,” Lester said when asked if David Ross, the current Cubs manager and Lester’s former personal catcher, had reached out. “As I'm sitting here, my phone is continually buzzing, so I'm sure he's probably one of those.”
Turns out, Ross was sending Lester a more publicly available message.
Because the Cubs were off on Monday, Ross got the chance to watch Lester reach another personal milestone. And even though No. 200 came with the Redbirds, Ross was still elated to see an old teammate check another accomplishment off the list.
“I rooted for the red team yesterday, and that felt really strange. But I'm really happy for Jon,” Ross told the Cubs’ media Tuesday afternoon. “That was special. A lot of the coaches and the group that's known him and been around here, everybody's been following his progression to 200. ... I'm happy for him. Very happy.”