ST. LOUIS — When Bryan Ramos crossed home plate in the top of the seventh inning, he didn’t just score the fourth run of the frame for the Chicago White Sox. He also took what little morale was remaining at Busch Stadium and squashed it flat.
The Cardinals mustered four hits and took just one at-bat with a runner in scoring position in their 5-1 loss to the White Sox, who entered the series on Friday winners of one road game and one series. After a weekend in St. Louis, they tripled the former total and doubled the latter. The Cardinals on the other hand fell four games under .500 and back to last place in the National League Central.
“A day like today, a series like this one, you have to figure out a way to take this series,” manager Oli Marmol said. “We didn’t even give ourselves opportunities to do that today.”
No, the Cardinals did not. In what has become the defining storyline of their season, the offense came up short, leading to a series loss to one of baseball’s worst teams.
The Cardinals lose to the White Sox. The fans at Busch Stadium aren’t having it and boo as the final out is recorded. That’s what happens when you lose a home series to a team that won six games heading into the set.
Final: White Sox 5, Cardinals 1.
— Katie Woo (@katiejwoo) May 5, 2024
While the poor quality of the opponent adds insult to injury, the most exasperating component of losing the series was its familiarity.
“It’d be the same answer if you asked what’s the most frustrating thing about the season,” Marmol answered when asked what was most frustrating about the weekend. “It’s that I think so many things are looking good as far as how we want to play the game, the style of the game, what the pitching is doing, what the bullpen is doing. The offense is struggling and that’s an area that we honestly felt pretty good about coming into the season. Some guys are adjusting to their second, third year in the league and it’s been tough on them. There are no excuses though. The offense is struggling at the moment. We have to find a way out of it.”
Clearly, whatever the Cardinals are doing behind the scenes is not translating to in-game success. Their lineup features seven players who have played at least 20 games and have an OPS lower than .650. The only two regulars with an OPS higher than .700 are Willson Contreras (.937) and Nolan Arenado (.747).
The players they count on to hit for power and drive in runs have fallen short. Paul Goldschmidt (.208 average, .578 OPS), Nolan Gorman (.182 average, .592 OPS) and Lars Nootbaar (.169 average, .537 OPS) have looked lost since their seasons started and Jordan Walker (.155 average, .498 OPS) struggled so mightily he was optioned to minors.
Even the contact hitters have struggled. Brendan Donovan’s on-base percentage sits at .444, but his OPS is .611. Alec Burleson, who has one of the best batted-ball profiles in the organization, has a .635 OPS. Maysn Winn, one of the team’s best hitters in April, has tapered off.
Still, Marmol remains high on hitting coach Turner Ward, assistant hitting coach Brandon Allen and game-planning coach Packy Elkins.
“I like the voices we have, man,” Marmol said. “I can’t speak higher of Turner, (Allen), (Elkins) and what they do in that department. No one’s getting a whole lot of sleep right now, I’ll tell you that. They’re working at it, they’re trying to make sure they’re not missing anything. The communication with the players has been really good.
“It sucks. Bottom line, it just does.”
The @WhiteSox win two straight and the series! pic.twitter.com/4YvazhYdvu
— MLB (@MLB) May 5, 2024
Throughout the season’s first month, players remained even-keeled despite the severe underperformance. But they’re growing weary as the team-wide drought drags on.
“(Frustration) is high,” Arenado said after Saturday’s loss when St. Louis had the bases loaded with zero outs in the bottom of the 10th inning but failed to score. “It should be high. I mean, guys shouldn’t be OK with what’s going on. I know we’ve got a lot of games left, but that’s an ongoing excuse. We can’t continue to use that.
“We just have to continue to push. I don’t know what else to say.”
Perhaps most concerning about the Cardinals’ power outage is that there doesn’t seem to be any feasible solution other than hoping hitters start feeling better soon. Ward and his staff are backed by the organization, at least for now. The team already shook up the roster once when they demoted Walker to Triple A. Dylan Carlson’s activation off the injured list before Sunday’s game should help with the outfield’s offensive production and Matt Carpenter (strained left oblique) could return to the club in the next few days. But other than that, there isn’t a player in Triple A that warrants a call-up, even temporarily.
Bottom line: If the Cardinals want to succeed this year, the players they count on to hit need to do so.
“These are the players we’re going to win with,” Marmol said. “We have to get them going.”
(Photo of Willson Contreras celebrating a home run: Jeff Curry / USA Today)
