51ºÚÁÏ

TAMPA, Fla. — The recipe, practiced every previous All-Star break he’s had in the majors, is designed to get him cooking coming out of July.

Lars Nootbaar returns home to Southern California, finds a batting cage, and swings his way into the second half. He shakes off whatever funk or gunk has gummed up his offense by just swinging a bat, for hours at a time. He joked that he “goes home and takes a lot of swings.� He’s known to take batting practice in the middle of the night at Nolan Arenado’s training facility or after watching the Home Run Derby at Dodger Stadium. It comes at a good time, he’s said.

Except for this time.

On the eve of this past month’s All-Star break, Nootbaar went on the injured list with a ribcage injury that meant no starts, no at-bats, and absolutely no swings.

Well, no swings to take.

Nootbaar found another way to fill his All-Star break with the usual swings — instead of taking them, he watched them. He couldn’t swing, so he talked with trusted friends about his swing. No late-night sessions in the batting cage, but plenty of them scrutinizing video, breaking down his bat path. He couldn’t take “a lot of swings,� but there was something he could learn.

“A lot of things,� he said late Thursday night.

Nootbaar reached base four times and had his fifth consecutive multihit game. That is the longest streak by a Cardinal since Tommy Edman had seven consecutive in September 2019. At one point in the Cardinals’ 7-4 victory against Tampa Bay at George Steinbrenner Field on Thursday, Nootbaar was 2 for 2, raising his road trip average to .500 (8 for 16). He had an RBI double in the midst of a five-run second inning that seized on mistakes by the Rays and turned them into a victory, the Cardinals’ third in four days.

Since returning from the break with a swing in his mind and leaving the injured list with a chance to put that swing to work, Nootbaar has hit .339 with a .475 slugging percentage.

“It’s important for him to finish strong,� manager Oli Marmol said recently. “He’s always going to take his craft seriously. He hopes the second half and these last several weeks play into that. … I’d like to see it more consistently and start to close that gap on what his ceiling is.�

An injury to Brendan Donovan has opened up leadoff for Nootbaar — where he’s hit for all of the five consecutive multihit games — and avoiding an injury is also a factor in the lineup.

A reason Marmol gave late Thursday night in his office for describing this as an “important� stretch for Nootbaar was the amount of playing time the outfielder is scheduled to get — both to show his ability to stay healthy and his ability to enhance his production. In four major-league seasons, Nootbaar has only twice previously had extended stretches of at least 50 consecutive games. When asked following the IL stint in July if he had enough time to evaluate and learn about where Nootbaar fits into the Cardinals’ future plans, Marmol said “not completely. I mean, not completely because it’s been interrupted by injuries.�

In an effort to avoid those, Marmol plans on being judicious with Nootbaar’s starts in center field during the closing weeks of the season. The priority is to keep him in the field.

“He’s swinging the bat well, and I like the (bat) path right now,� Marmol said. “He’s able to pull the ball when needed. He’s going the other way. He’s doing a little bit of everything. He’s in a good spot. We need to continue that.�

In the second inning Thursday, the Rays botched a potential triple play with an errant throw into right field. That put in motion the Cardinals’ five-run rally that included a walk, a wild pitch, and a hit batter. Nootbaar handled the damage. He drilled an RBI double toward the center-field wall at Steinbrenner that scored Pedro Pages to break a 1-1 tie and slingshot the Cardinals to a longer rally. Nootbaar took third on the wild pitch that scored a third run. Nootbaar then scored on Alec Burleson’s two-run single to right field.

Nootbaar followed two innings later with a single that also led to a run.

This month, he’s batting .367 against fastballs with a .433 slugging percentage. His average exit velocity on fastballs and breaking pitches are as high as they’ve been for any month this season.

“I like the style of hits,� Marmol said. “There have been some well-impacted balls pull-side. There’s been some line drives to left field, line drives to center, doubles to center, homers. There’s been a combination of at-bats there that show he’s doing a little bit of everything. That’s a good spot to be in.�

And then there are the walks.

Or, rather, the lack thereof.

One of the top hitters in the majors when it comes to controlling the strike zone and taking his walks, Nootbaar led off Thursday’s game with a walk and finished his evening with a walk in the eighth inning. Those were his first walks of the month — and his first since spending the break mining video to improve his swing. Nootbaar conceded that he’s being more aggressive, and he noted that pitchers are allowing him to be challenging him more often in the zone.

“A little bit, yeah,� Nootbaar said when asked if it was a conscious choice to be more aggressive. “But I think I’m getting attacked. You want to do what you can. Really want to be ready, want to be on time, and if I can do some damage, I want to do that.�

Before Thursday’s 2-for-3 with an RBI and a run scored, Nootbaar had a career average of .260 in the second half of seasons with a .824 OPS. In was Nootbaar’s second half in 2022 that launched him into the Cardinals’ plans and into text messages from other teams asking about a trade. That summer, he was so inspired by the derby and teammate Albert Pujols’ showing that night at Dodger Stadium, that he went right to a cage. There were swings to take, and what followed was a .480 slugging percentage, 10 of his 14 homers, and a .846 OPS. The tradition of break-swings had started — and it continued despite not being able to swing this season.

Call it the break of the swing breakdown, and it sets him up to do in the second half what he could not during the season’s midsummer pause.

Swing.

“Don’t think too much about it,� Nootbaar said. “Take it day by day. Take advantage of every opportunity possible. That’s basically it.�