Colorado Rockies: St. Louis Cardinals third baseman Nolan Arenado comes up short again in postseason

In the 2021 National League Wild Card Game on Wednesday, former Colorado Rockies third baseman and current St. Louis Cardinals third baseman Nolan Arenado did what he often did in a Rockies uniform in the postseason: come up short at the plate in a postseason loss.

Arenado, 30, has been known to be an absolute beast on both offense and defense in the regular season, especially for the Colorado Rockies when they made the postseason in 2017 and 2018.

St. Louis Cardinals third baseman Nolan Arenado did what he did with the Colorado Rockies: Play well in the regular season and do a 180 in the postseason.

In 2017, Arenado had 37 home runs, 130 RBI, a .309 batting average, and a .586 slugging percentage. Those four statistics were 3rd, 2nd, 9th, and 4th in the National League. He also had 187 hits (4th in the NL) including 43 doubles (1st in the NL), 355 total bases (3rd), and seven triples (5th). He also won the first of his four straight Platinum Glove Awards.

In 2018, Nolan Arenado led the National League with 38 home runs, 2nd in the NL in RBI (110), hit .297 (10th in the NL), had a slugging percentage of .561 (3rd), and he was among the top 10 in numerous other categories.

But in each of the seasons, the Colorado Rockies made the postseason. And in each of the seasons, he was not in the postseason.

In 2017, he did have a solo home run in the NL Wild Card Game but did nothing else. He went 1-for-5 with a strikeout and also had a groundout that ended the Rockies 11-8 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks. In 2018, he did something very similar, as he went 1-for-5 with a single in the 11th inning. But the Rockies won by a score of 2-1 in 13 innings.

However, the Rockies were swept by the Milwaukee Brewers in the 2018 NLDS. What did Arenado do?

He went 2-for-11 with five strikeouts in the three games.

This season, against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Wednesday, the St. Louis Cardinals lost by a score of 3-1. The Cardinals only run scored while Arenado was at the plate but it was on a wild pitch in the first inning. Otherwise, he went 0-for-4 and, in his at-bats, he left five runners on base, which was the second-highest number on the Cardinals.

Before the Wild Card Game, Nolan Arenado hit .095/.091/.143 in the regular season against the Dodgers (2-for-21).

That’s not the regular season or postseason numbers that the St. Louis Cardinals are going to be looking for in the ensuing seasons, as Arenado will be a Cardinal for years to come since he has already informed the Cardinals that he will be returning. And the Los Angeles Dodgers will be a foe against the St. Louis Cardinals, Colorado Rockies, and the rest of the National League for the foreseeable future.