Nolan Arenado does it again, homers in his fifth straight game Tuesday

ST. LOUIS, Mo. (KMOV) - Nolan Arenado’s early-season struggles are decidedly a thing of the past.

The puzzling start to the 2023 season that saw the Cardinals’ perennial MVP candidate slump to a season-low .590 OPS as of May 2 is officially in the rearview mirror for Arenado. The 32-year-old third baseman has caught fire of late and continued his torrid pace Tuesday, slugging a home run for the fifth consecutive game

In the second inning of the Cardinals’ contest against the Brewers at Busch Stadium, Arenado turned around the second pitch he saw from Milwaukee lefty Wade Miley. He sent a fastball screaming 103.8 mph off the bat toward the left-field foul pole, guiding the baseball fair by a matter of feet as it disappeared beneath the Big Mac Land awning.

Although April was not kind to the seven-time All-Star, Arenado entered Tuesday with a .320 batting average and 1.044 OPS in the month of May before adding to those robust numbers with another big fly. Arenado is up to 17 RBIs with eight extra-base hits on the month.

After his season OPS sat below .600 two weeks ago, Arenado has increased that number beyond .750 with his recent run of success. While Arenado’s at-bats had gradually been looking better in the days leading up to it, the weekend series at Fenway seemed to jumpstart Arenado--it’s like he viewed the Green Monster as a bullseye for that patented powerful pull swing.

“I love that field, first of all,” Arenado said Monday. “Fenway, that’s a beautiful park. The energy there is unbelievable. But I love hitting there. I think I love hitting there because it’s not that far and you don’t have to do a lot to make something happen. I like that feeling. I’m just trying to carry that over here.”

The dimensions at Busch Stadium, obviously, present a different challenge. But with the Cardinals back home this week, Arenado has clearly maintained a similar approach over the first two games of the Milwaukee series, pulling both home runs in his quintessential fashion.

“Here, you have to hit the ball hard,” Arenado said. “You’re not going to get lucky like you can at Fenway. Just trying to create that good approach because when I don’t try to do too much, good things happen.”

Arenado’s career-long homer streak is six games in a row, coming back in 2015 with Colorado. He will likely get a chance to match that mark against Milwaukee ace Corbin Burnes on Wednesday.

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