Before the slider spun too far and the ball found the left-field seats, before the bullpen blew yet another tightrope lead, Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol sat alone in the visiting manager’s office at Truist Park. He wasn’t sketching lineups or replaying matchups in his head. He was reckoning with a truth that every struggling team eventually has to face — when the same thing keeps going wrong, patience becomes both a strategy and a burden.

The Cardinals were hours from dropping yet another game they could’ve won. Another game they should’ve won. Their 1-6 road trip was littered with near-misses and late-inning collapses. And yet, despite the damage, the plan hasn’t changed. They’re sticking with the young arms. Even if it hurts. Especially when it hurts.

“We treat relievers differently than position players,” Marmol said, “because whenever it doesn’t go their way, the game flips. It hurts. That is the hardest area to be patient in, for me.”

Let’s call it what it is — the Cardinals are riding a bullpen rollercoaster with no seatbelts. Ryan Fernandez, once a promising weapon, now headlines back-to-back disasters. His 1-1 slider to Eli White on Wednesday was supposed to dive below the zone. Instead, it floated, and White crushed it for his first homer of the year. Tie game, gone. So was the Cardinals’ shot at salvaging a road trip. So was their grip on any early-season optimism.

And while fans might be screaming for change, Marmol made one thing brutally clear: no help is coming. No wave of reinforcements from Triple-A. No blockbuster bullpen addition. “This is who we’ve got,” he said flatly. “We’ve got to get them back on track.” Translation? Buckle up — the relievers are going to keep pitching, even if the game keeps flipping on their watch.

The pain isn’t just in the numbers, though those are ugly. A 2-11 road record. Worst 13-game road start since 1960. Four bullpen losses in six games. An ERA north of 11 in late innings. But this isn’t just about data. It’s about the isolation of a young arm standing on a mound, one mistake from being the reason why the game was lost.

Contrast that with Jordan Walker, who went 1-for-23 on the road trip and struck out nine times. He gets another at-bat, another game. Fernandez? He gets a headline. A loss. A moment that changes the mood of an entire team.

And that’s the thing about being a reliever, as Miles Mikolas put it: “You’re the hero or the opposite of the hero.”

Lately, the Cardinals know too well what the opposite feels like.

Pressure builds: Can the Cardinals’ young talent withstand the weight?

There’s no denying it — the pressure is mounting on the Cardinals’ young talent. The games are tight, the stakes are high, and each blown opportunity is magnified under the unforgiving lights of a major league season. Players like Ryan Fernandez see every pitch as an opportunity to make a game-changing move. The challenging part? This pressure isn’t an obstacle, it’s a reality for young athletes in professional baseball leagues who are expected to deliver standout performances while under scrutiny. It’s not a matter of if they will slip up on the field, but a question of when they will face challenges and make mistakes.

For these young players, it’s sink or swim. And while it may seem harsh, it’s also an opportunity to shape their futures. The tough losses and failed outings? They’re not just setbacks, they’re lessons. The pressure is part of the process, and for the Cardinals, it’s a test of whether their young core can endure. It’s one thing to say you’ve got the talent; it’s another to prove you can weather the storm when it feels like the weight of the world is on your shoulders.

Only time will tell if these rising stars will rise to the challenge or if the pressure will break them.