Cardinals’ Marmol benches O’Neill after ‘unacceptable’ play

St. Louis Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol wasn’t pleased with the effort of outfielder Tyler O’Neill after he was thrown out at the plate in Tuesday’s 4-1 loss to the Atlanta Braves and left O’Neill out of the starting lineup Wednesday.

“That’s not our style of play as far as the effort of rounding the bag there,” Marmol said, per KMOV’s Bryan Kennedy. “It’s unacceptable.”

O’Neill was thrown out by Ronald Acuna Jr. during the seventh inning after it looked like he slowed down while coming around third base.

“He was pretty blunt about it. He didn’t think I gave the best effort,” O’Neill said Tuesday, according to The Athletic’s Katie Woo.

“You know, I’m out here every day grinding my ass off. … Those are pretty strong words from him. So that’s good to know.”

On Wednesday, O’Neill was held out of the Cardinals’ starting lineup. Marmol instead elected to put rookie Alec Burleson in left field, batting second, while playing Dylan Carlson in center for the second time this year.

“I don’t think it should’ve been handled that way,” O’Neill added Wednesday when asked about how public the dispute has become, according to Katie Woo of The Athletic. “I think if there’s internal issues, they should be handled internally. We should have each other’s backs out there.”

O’Neill, a two-time Gold Glover who received downballot MVP votes in 2021, is hitting .294/.333/.471 with five hits, one home run, and two RBIs for a crowded Cardinals outfield corps that includes Burleson, Carlson, Jordan Walker, and the injured Lars Nootbaar.

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