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Nolan Arenado Makes Honest Admission Amidst Cardinals-Cubs Series

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Henry Edgeller | Last updated Jun 25, 2025 2:38 PM ET

The St. Louis Cardinals are riding quite a wave that very few saw coming. They have won 6 of their last 7 games and took the first two games of a four-game set with the NL central-leading Chicago Cubs.

One of the great stories in this MLB season is the Cardinals’ surprising success, after many wrote them off coming into the season in a competitive division.

Nolan Arenado made his thoughts clear on the Cardinals run, siding with the minds of most fans.

“I didn’t expect us to be winning like this, at this point,” Arenado told MLB.com beat writer John Denton after Tuesday night’s win, “I expected us to play hard, I thought we were going to be good defensively and I thought our pitching would be fine. … Just seeing everyone one-through-nine contributing, I mean I like playing baseball like this … against the Cubs … where games matter.”

Almost everyone contributed on the offensive side in the Cardinals electric 8-7 victory; all but Arenado, who went 0-for-4. but that said, his defense still helped guide the team to the win and sent the fans home with as much hope as ever.

It means more to the veteran to play at a highly competitive level of baseball this deep into the season. It has him feeling that they may have a shot at playing for high stakes on the big stage.

“As you get older, that’s what you want. You don’t want to play games just to play games. Individually, I’ve accomplished some things in this game and I want to accomplish something team-oriented and special and win a World Series. Games like this, it’s easy to wake up for. This is the most excited [that] I’ve come to the ballpark for – this series – in about two years.”

Despite playing in his 13^th season, Arenado has not seen too much of the postseason. He played in the NLDS with the Colorado Rockies in 2018, but he has not seen past the wild card round in his time with the Cardinals.

As the league stands with under a week until July, the Cardinals are eight games above .500 and just 2.5 games out of first place with 82 games to go.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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