Cardinals stars back embattled Oliver Marmol amid losing skid - ESPN

The St. Louis Cardinals' disappointing season may have hit a low point with Wednesday's stunning loss to the San Francisco Giants.

But the Cardinals' two biggest stars both emphasized their support for embattled manager Oliver Marmol, who has come under fire amid St. Louis' latest swoon.

First baseman Paul Goldschmidt, last year's National League MVP, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that his confidence in Marmol is «as high as it's ever been.»

«It's pretty simple: we have to play better,» Goldschmidt told the Post-Dispatch. «We haven't played good enough to win, and that's why we are losing games. You can't blame the coaching staff when we don't perform.

»We are the ones out there playing. We have not performed as good as we need to. We have not played better than the teams we are playing against. It hasn't been good enough, and they have beaten us. We are the ones out there playing, and we haven't done a good enough job."

Nolan Arenado echoed Goldschmidt's sentiments, telling reporters that Marmol and the coaching staff «work their asses off» and blaming the last-place Cardinals' struggles solely on the players.

«We just don't execute,» the 10-time All-Star third baseman said, according to the Post-Dispatch. «That's just what it comes down to — we don't execute. I can see why that's a topic, because it's easy to blame (Marmol and the staff) — easy to blame them.

»I can't think of a coaching staff that tries to get us more prepared, all of them. They work their butts off and we just don't execute. I think it's the players. You can pinpoint the coaches all you want, but it's the players. It's us as a group. We don't execute."

Marmol told reporters that he did not plan to hold a team meeting after Wednesday's loss to the