ÁńÁ«ÊÓÆ”

The Cardinals won’t have starting pitcher Steven Matz at least until the middle of May, and it remains to be seen how they’ll chose to fill the void in their rotation.

Matz, who dealt with “soreness” in his lower back in most recent start, went on the 15-day injured list with lower back strain Friday. His IL stint was backdated to May 1. The Cardinals recalled right-handed reliever Kyle Leahy in a corresponding roster move to take Matz’s place on the active roster.

The Cardinals (14-17) begin a three-game series against the Chicago White Sox (6-25) at Busch Stadium on Friday night. The White Sox enter the weekend with the worst record in the majors.

Thursday’s off day on the schedule allowed the Cardinals to rearrange their starting rotation after both right-hander Kyle Gibson and Matz started games in Tuesday’s doubleheader in Detroit. Matz (1-2, 6.18 ERA) had originally been slated to pitch Monday, but rain forced a postponement of that game.

Cardinals ace Sonny Gray will start Friday night’s series opener, while Lance Lynn will start on Saturday followed by Gibson on Sunday. Matz had preceded Gibson in the rotation up until the doubleheader.

Leahy provides depth in the bullpen for the time being, and the Cardinals can push Matz’s spot in the rotation off until Tuesday. Miles Mikolas would remain on regular rest if he starts on Monday.

Options to step into Matz’s rotation spot likely include prospect Sem Robberse, a right-handed prospect currently in the rotation for Triple-A Memphis. Robberse pitched on Thursday night and could be on turn for Tuesday.

Acquired last summer as part of the trade that sent Jordan Hicks to the Toronto Blue Jays, Robberse is already on the Cardinals’ 40-man roster. He has gotten off to an impressive start this season with a 4-0 record, a 1.77 ERA and 35 strikeouts in 35 2/3 innings in six starts for Memphis.

BenFred: Talking Cardinals baseball with Adam Wainwright as his TV analyst debut at Busch nears

Wainwright will be the Fox analyst when the Cardinals host the Cubs on May 25

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As the schedule relents, the Cardinals have fought temptation to trade defense for offense, and it's kept them steady, but they need hits, and fast, to really pop.

Busch Stadium needs renovations. Should St. Louis taxpayers kick in?

Cardinals president Bill DeWitt III is adamant that the team isn't seeking public subsidy right now. But if it did, he said, it would have a strong case to make.

ST. LOUIS — Cardinals President Bill DeWitt III is beginning to talk about a massive refresh of Busch Stadium.

He says the organization has been pouring money each year into the ballpark, the foundation of the franchise and a centerpiece of downtown St. Louis. But the stadium is nearing its 20th birthday and could soon need hundreds of millions of dollars more in upgrades, from new seats to new floors to a new clubhouse.

And yes, DeWitt said in an interview with the Post-Dispatch, the club could seek taxpayer help to get it done.

But he insisted that subsidies the Cardinals have received in the past have paid off for the region — and that any new ones would pay off too.

The improvements themselves are not optional, he said, if the team wants to keep the park attractive and enjoyable for the next 20 years — and the next 80.

“We don’t want to have to start talking about a new ballpark for a long, long time — literally generations — because of so much investment we have, not only here but also Ballpark Village,” DeWitt said. “The idea of trying to move somewhere else just doesn’t make any sense to us. So let’s keep it up.”

Outside of the players, the stadium is the Cardinals’ most cherished asset and the driver of its most important revenue source: the more than 3 million tickets it sells each season.

And that’s especially important now. The economics of Major League Baseball are in flux. Teams are scrambling to figure out the future of cable television fees in a world of cord-cutters. ÁńÁ«ÊÓÆ” gambling has been widely legalized — and ballclubs are rushing toward sponsorships and partnerships with bookmakers. New owners with deep pockets have bought into the league and started spending, pushing the salaries of the best players into the stratosphere.

The DeWitts are pursuing new revenue streams of their own. They are studying how to stream their games online, directly to consumers. They’re backing a petition drive to put sports betting on the Missouri ballot this fall.

Now they need to figure out how to fund an update of the ballpark too.

DeWitt says he is not “fishing” for public money now. He might in the next few years. The club, he says, is just starting to study the stadium’s needs.

If the Cardinals ask for taxpayer help, however, it could be a fight. New leaders have taken over City Hall, vowing to do more for the poor and neglected. They are pushing to improve services for the homeless, rebuild north St. Louis and dig into longstanding inequalities. They have begun to take a harder line on subsidies for developers, forcing some concessions to city schools, affordable housing and workers.

Stadium subsidies already are getting more scrutiny across the country. Kansas City voters, for instance, rejected subsidies for baseball’s Royals and football’s Chiefs a few weeks ago.

“This just went down in flames,” said Aldermanic President Megan Green. “I don’t know why we keep going back to (public money for ballparks)."

Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, a leading candidate to be the state’s next governor, is not big on subsidies for professional sports stadiums either, campaign adviser Jason Roe said.

But a good deal could change things, Roe said. “As in anything,” he said, “the details matter.”

Representatives for Mayor Tishaura O. Jones, St. Louis County Executive Sam Page and current Gov. Mike Parson said it’s difficult to judge a proposal before it’s made.

But Jared Boyd, Jones’ chief of staff, said when that happens, the administration “will make sure St. Louis City residents can have their voice heard.”

Never-ending construction at Busch Stadium

Busch Stadium, which takes up four city blocks off Clark Avenue, is a red-brick monument to the national pastime and St. Louis’ place in it. There’s the cheering sea of red on game days. The World Series banners fluttering over the right-field scoreboard. The legends on the left-field wall. Bob Gibson. Ozzie Smith. Stan Musial.

It is also a never-ending construction project. City records show the Cardinals have pulled hundreds of building permits over the past 18 years. Sometimes they’re replacing a couple of toilets. Other times they’re replacing a scoreboard, redoing suites or wiring the whole place for Wi-Fi.

DeWitt said the club has put in new fire sprinklers throughout the building. They’ve replaced all of the TVs in the stadium since it opened, and $2 million in speakers. A few years back, the Cardinals upgraded security around the park, adding new cameras and barriers seen at entry points and outside the backlot, where backup generators and other sensitive equipment reside.

City estimates put the annual cost of work at $3.2 million per year. DeWitt said the real number is even higher, in the range of $8 million to $10 million per year. The city estimates may not account for all the improvements to the field, for instance. They also don’t include new baseball equipment, like a high-speed camera that can track just how fast a pitcher’s curveball spins.

But the work is worth it, DeWitt said. His family, which leads the team’s ownership group, considers the stadium part of a legacy they’re building in the heart of the city. And they plan to be around for a while.

DeWitt’s father, the team’s 82-year-old chairman, is in good health, DeWitt said. And arrangements have been made to maintain control when he isn’t. “We have a plan to remain committed, long-term owners of Cardinals,” DeWitt said.

And he hopes their legacy will last as long as Chicago’s Wrigley Field and Boston’s Fenway Park, the sport’s century-old classics.

“I don’t see any reason we couldn’t be similar to that,” he said. “Why can’t we be here for 100 years?”

But right now, the 45,000 seats are nearing the end of their expected lifespans, and there are cooler, more comfortable options available. Some of the all-inclusive clubs, which generate outsized revenue, need a reset. The clubhouse may need an upgrade to keep players comfortable and keep pace with advances in technology helping players train and recover from games and injuries.

There are also huge, aging systems that hide out of sight, like the electrical system and the chillers that power the air conditioning. The flooring may need an update, too.

“The building has 1.5 million square feet,” he said. “So when you go, ‘Oh, let’s put some tile down,’ it’s, ‘What’s the cost of that, times 1.5 million?’

“Anything you do that sort of services the whole building tends to be a big number.”

DeWitt cautioned that Cardinals staffers are just beginning to formally study the stadium’s needs, a process he said would take a year to complete. Some renovations could be put off for years. But they can’t wait too long or the costs will become overwhelming.

DeWitt said he’s seen other teams make that mistake, though he wouldn’t say who.

But the Milwaukee Brewers, one of the Cardinals’ National League Central Division rivals, waited so long to renovate publicly-owned American Family Field that . MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred came to town last year and warned local officials they were headed in the same direction as Oakland, which is losing its team because the league says its stadium is not viable. Several months later, the state of Wisconsin and local governments approved plans to put $600 million to update the park, roughly $100 million of which will come from the team.

In his interview with the Post-Dispatch, DeWitt emphasized that the Cardinals don’t yet know how much Busch renovations will cost and haven’t begun to seek taxpayer help.

But, DeWitt argued, the team would have a compelling case to make to public officials — thanks to the deal that built the new Busch 20 years ago.

Asking for public money?

“The new ballpark was incredible policy by the city and the state,” DeWitt said.

For starters, he said, the Cardinals borrowed most of the roughly $400 million for the project from private sources.

They rounded out financing with a $45 million loan from St. Louis County, $30 million in state tax credits and a $12 million contribution from the state transportation department in the form of a relocated highway access ramp. The city also agreed to freeze property taxes for the stadium at 2000 levels and eliminate an entertainment tax on Cardinals tickets that brought in about $5 million in its final fiscal year.

But in most of the years since the new stadium opened in 2006, the Cardinals have generated more tax revenue for the city despite the tax abatements. Excluding 2020, when the pandemic forced the team to play in an empty stadium, its tax payments to the city, adjusted for inflation, have averaged $16.4 million since the stadium opened. That’s a half-million dollars better than the average from 1997-2005.

They have also paid more to the state, averaging $26.8 million in remittances since the stadium opened compared to $18.8 million, adjusted for inflation, in the nine years before the ballpark opened.

“That’s having your cake and eating it, too,” DeWitt said.

St. Louis County, for its part, has been paying off the bonds it sold to make the $45 million loan — which, when paid off, will have cost the county more than $75 million. The payments come from taxes paid by visitors staying in county hotels, the same revenue that paid for The Dome at America’s Center, where the NFL Rams played.

But the county expects to be repaid by the Cardinals once the bonds are paid off, which could happen sometime next decade, said budget director Paul Kreidler.

David Stokes, the municipal policy director at the libertarian Show-Me Institute, which like many economists regularly lambastes such subsidies, said DeWitt had a point about the 2003 deal.

“By the standards of stadium deals, it’s far from the worst,” he said.

It’s possible the Cardinals could repeat the feat. A special tax on sales at the stadium — like those imposed on customers at St. Louis City SC’s CityPark to help pay for that stadium — would be bad but not an abomination, Stokes said.

But a broader tax increase or abatement would be bad news, he said.

“We’re going to have to see what they propose,” he said.

Green, the aldermanic president, is already drawing that line.

“Anything would have to come from money that’s generated within the stadium,” she said. “We cannot burden taxpayers or anyone who is not using the ballpark.”

‘Wide-eyed about the consequences’

DeWitt said the team, for now, has no specific subsidy in mind.

And its efforts to find new revenue streams are progressing.

A coalition of Missouri sports teams led by the Cardinals filed petition signatures Thursday in Jefferson City to put sports betting on the ballot in November. A win would bring in new revenue through partnerships with gambling companies. It would help engage younger fans, which than older cohorts. And it would help the team catch up with other teams, including all four of the Cardinals’ division rivals, already cashing in.

“We shouldn’t shy away from it,” DeWitt said. “If we’re trying to compete with these other teams on the field, it’s also a competition for revenue, because ultimately that’s what drives payrolls.”

The team is also preparing for the possibility that it may get its television rights back from its cable partner, Diamond ÁńÁ«ÊÓÆ” Group, which is in bankruptcy court. The team could create its own channel, like the Chicago Cubs and the New York Yankees, work with the Blues on a shared channel, or partner with other Diamond teams to find a new distributor. The team is also scrambling for a way to stream its games directly to customers regardless of what happens. They need it to reconnect with all the fans who have stopped paying for cable.

“At some point, we will solve this problem,” DeWitt said. “We just gotta get through the bankruptcy and other legal entanglements so that we can provide better access to our product, to our fans.”

The Cardinals are also scrambling to keep people buying tickets, hot dogs and beer as the team struggles on the field. Staffers have scheduled more theme nights, giveaways and other promotions. For three Fridays next month, they’re selling special tickets that include your first beer.

But DeWitt noted that the Cardinals compete in a league where ballparks regularly receive subsidies: In the 18 years since Busch opened, seven other teams have built stadiums, each with even more taxpayer help — $4.2 billion in total.

And the Cardinals have to compete with those teams on the field and in the front office. It’s a cutthroat business, DeWitt said.

“So you can play that game or not,” he said, “but you have to be wide-eyed about the consequences.”

He said if the team does seek another subsidy for its stadium, it would aim to make the deal with area governments as good as the last one.

“I’m not trying to ‘win’ against the city,” he said, “because I’m also a citizen.”

Derrick Goold of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.

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The Cardinals begin a six-game homestand Friday with the first of three against the woeful White Sox. First pitch is set for 7:15 p.m.

Chicago has the worst winning percentage (.194), the fewest wins (six) and the worst run differential in baseball (minus-84).

The game matches two of baseball's worst offenses. Both have the fewest runs in their respective league and the second-lowest batting average. The Cardinals have 21 homers, last in baseball, while the White Sox rank one spot better with 22.

Right-hander Sonny Gray (3-1, 1.16) will take the mound in the opener for the Cardinals. With the exception of his pitch-limited first outing, all of his four Cardinal starts have been quality. Last time out, he allowed his first homer of the season. Four runs scored against him in that game, but only one was earned.

Curiously, batters are hitting .400-plus vs. two of his most-thrown pitches, the four-seamer and the cutter.

The White Sox will counter with right-hander Brad Keller (0-0, 0.00), a 28-year-old who spent his entire career in Kansas City before signing a minor league deal with Chicago in the offseason.

He was called up from Triple-A on Sunday. Last season, his groundball rate was in the top 5% of the league.

Chicago's starting pitchers have a collective ERA of 5.46, worst in the American League.

Earlier Friday, the Cardinals placed Steven Matz on the 15-day injured list with back soreness. They recalled right-handed reliever Kyle Leahy in a corresponding roster move.

The Cardinals are 14-17, fourth in the NL Central. They've scored two or fewer runs in three of four.

The White Sox are 6-25, last in the AL Central. They've lost three straight.

Several former Cardinals are included on the White Sox roster: pitchers John Brebbia and Dominic Leone, shortstop Paul DeJong and outfielder Tommy Pham.

Lineups

CARDINALS

1. Brendan Donovan, LF

2. Willson Contreras, C

3. Paul Goldschmidt, 1B

4. Nolan Arenado, 3B

5. Alec Burleson, DH

6. Masyn Winn, SS

7. Lars Nootbaar, RF

8. Nolan Gorman, 2B

9. Michael Siani, CF

P: Sonny Gray, RHP

WHITE SOX

1. Nicky Lopez, 2B

2. Tommy Pham, CF

3. Eloy Jiménez, DH

4. Gavin Sheets, RF

5. Andrew Vaughn, 1B

6. Andrew Benintendi, LF

7. Danny Mendick, 3B

8. Paul DeJong, SS

9. MartĂ­n Maldonado, C

P: Brad Keller, RHP

Injury report

Steven Matz (lower back stiffness): The lefty went on the 15-day injured list on Friday with a lower back injury. Matz began experiencing soreness following his start this past week, and during his start Tuesday he had a sag in velocity and effectiveness. Manager Oliver Marmol indicated the team thought it would be a shorter IL stint. Updated May 3

Tommy Edman (wrist surgery): On the 10-day IL, Edman took swings off a tee from both sides of the plate last week. He had been limited to hitting only from the right side, but recently advanced without any soreness. His hitting progression will be per usual (coach pitch, then a pitching machine) as tolerated. Updated April 29

Matt Carpenter (oblique strain): Headed for a rehab assignment Thursday with Class AA Springfield in Tulsa. He will play first base and designated hitter in an attempt to build up at-bats over the weekend before returning to bench role in the majors. Placed on the 10-day injured list, backdated to April 2 after feeling discomfort in his torso pregame. Updated May 1

Riley O'Brien (flexor tendon): Placed on the 15-day injured list on March 31 retroactive to March 29, O'Brien's right arm tightened up after his opening day appearance. The initial diagnosis is strain of the flexor tendon; scans showed no structural damage. He began his throwing progression April 23. Updated April 29

Dylan Carlson (sprained shoulder): Began a rehab assignment on Tuesday in Charlotte with Class AAA Memphis. He has advanced from designated hitter to full games in center field. He'll be evaluated for a return to the majors during this home stand. At some point, his return will be a baseball decision not a health decision. Updated May 3

Keynan Middleton (forearm strain): On the 15-day IL, Middleton will throw off a mound in the coming days and could throw his first bullpen session since injury later in the week. Updated April 29

Drew Rom (biceps tendinitis): He was scheduled to seek an additional opinion with an in-person visit Tuesday to determine what could be the reason behind his stalled recovery from an injury that took place late in spring training and has stopped the lefty from throwing since then. Updated April 29

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While talking ball with Adam Wainwright on Thursday, the sounds heard in the background said plenty about the current state of the retired starter’s schedule.

Retired? Hardly.

Wainwright was in an airport. He had just grabbed his bag. Staying busy would be an understatement.

He’s coaching his kids’ baseball and softball teams. Hopefully other parents realize volunteer coach Wainwright would be coveted by some MLB teams as a pitching coach.

He’s playing live country music shows after dropping his first album last month. He recently took the iconic stage at the Grand Ole Opry. His in-progress schedule includes an upcoming stop at Hammons Field in Springfield, Mo., on May 31.

And then there’s Wainwright’s growing TV game.

On Saturday during a game between the Mets and Rays he will make his regular-season debut as a Fox MLB analyst on a game that is to be shown to 82% of the nation. Wainwright, for the record, disagrees with the debut label here. He’s already been a regular on Fox postseason broadcasts, even before his 200-win career wrapped with his 2023 retirement.

“Playoff stats don’t count for the regular season, so I guess I am,” he said.

It’s really just his latest TV step forward. He’s received great reviews during regular visits to MLB Network’s studio. He will be on the broadcast for this season’s London Series between the Phillies and Mets.

Another big game looms. On Saturday May 25, Wainwright will be the analyst for the Fox broadcast of Cardinals versus Cubs at Busch Stadium. That one’s circled on his crammed calendar.

“It won’t be like just invading John Rooney’s booth during the game, like I’ve done a couple times,” Wainwright said. “This will be different. I’m excited about it. I’ll be able to offer some insight into our team. And those Cubs guys. I’ve faced those guys a lot.”

Wainwright, the analyst, has picked the brains of former players turned Cardinals broadcasters Ricky Horton and Brad Thompson. He’s leaned on personal advice given to him by the late Vin Scully and Bob Uecker. Both encouraged him to be honest and candid about player performance without making things personal. Wainwright’s finding his line.

“For me, at some point, during the last five or six seasons, I started paying attention to a broadcaster’s job and a journalist’s job, and understanding that,” he said. “Because sometimes, as a player, you want to hold a grudge when somebody says something bad about you or your team, or whatever. But at some point I understand, y’all had a job to do. That’s what I’ll do. I’ll go and try to be unbiased.”

Even when it’s Cardinals-Cubs?

“That’s not going to happen,” he admitted. “I’m going to probably say, ‘Yeah!’ or ‘Oh, no!’ But I’ll call the game as I see it.”

Wainwright watches most of the Cardinals’ games. It’s his preferred way of keeping up on the league. That, and he’s still invested. He doesn’t hide it.

“I still feel kind of like I’m part of the team,” he said. “It feels like I’m on the injured list or something. Because I know all those guys so well in there.”

He’s watching the games. He knows the team. So, what does Waino, the analyst, make of this fourth-place bunch that, so far, just can’t seem to slug?

“I was up at MLB Network on opening day, and everybody’s concern from a broadcaster and analyst side was the pitching staff,” he said. “I talked until I was blue in the face that the pitching staff was going to be fine. And no one believed me. I said, ‘They’re better than you think, man. These veteran guys, they stay in there. They throw the innings. They keep the team in the game. If we hit, we are going to win.’ And they were like, ‘You’re crazy, your team is going to score tons of runs, and give up tons of runs, and it’s going to be a total crapshoot.’ And I just didn’t believe that.”

Score one for Wainwright there. He spent years trying to recruit both Sonny Gray and Kyle Gibson to St. Louis. He said he never wanted Lance Lynn to leave. He was one of the few national voices squarely in the corner of Gibson entering his age-36 season. Gibson’s ERA (3.79) is nearly as low right now as it was when he was a Rangers All-Star in 2021.

“Gibby is a Cardinal,” Wainwright said. “He’s always been a Cardinals player to me. I couldn’t figure out for one second why he wasn’t with us the last five years. It’s so fun to watch him pitch good, because I knew he would.”

But not even Wainwright’s optimism, as much a part of his arsenal as his trusty curveball used to be, can shed much sunlight on the current state of the offense, except to say good hitters usually shake out of slumps so bad.

“I did think we were going to hit a little better coming out of the chute than we have,” Wainwright said.

You can say that again.

Before they begin a series against the lowly White Sox (6-25) on Friday, the Cardinals’ home run total of 21 ranked dead last in baseball. Their .338 slugging percentage trailed only the Pirates in the National League. The Pirates have three wins in their last 16 games. So far this season the MLB average for on-base plus slugging percentage is .699. The Cardinals have only three hitters above that mark, and none of them are named Nolan Arenado (.681), Paul Goldschmidt (.630) or last year’s home-run leader Nolan Gorman (.607).

“I don’t think I’m concerned for the long-term season whether Goldy, Nado and Gorman will hit for power,” Wainwright said. “Those guys are going to start driving the ball real soon. I mean, the veteran pitchers are doing what they need to do to be in first place in that division. When those guys in the order come around, when we get Tommy Edman and Dylan Carlson back, and everything feels normal again, then I think you will see a team that takes off a little bit.”

Wainwright wanted to make one point, specifically about the searching Goldschmidt. When Goldschmidt won his first and only National League MVP with the Cardinals in 2022, he entered that May with one home run in 78 at-bats and a slugging percentage of .372. Then he averaged .342 with a .430 on-base percentage and a .666 slugging percentage until September’s start.

“There are players who have strong springs and horrible Aprils,” Wainwright said. “It happens a lot. Some people have horrible springs and Aprils. Adam LaRoche was always the worst player I’ve ever seen in April and spring training. Then he would turn around and end up hitting close to 30 home runs with a .270 average. The last couple of years, Goldy has done that. With Nado, you can tell he’s working through his swing a little bit. No denying it. But he’s still getting on base, driving in runs, getting his knocks. When great players are struggling and they still find ways to get knocks, that’s a really good sign.”

I’ll say this about Wainwright, the analyst. Considering the current heightened state of angst in Cardinal Nation, he’s not afraid to go against the grain. He was right about Gibson. Let’s see if he’s right about the Cardinals finding their slug, hopefully before he slides into his broadcast booth at Busch.

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BenFred: Talking Cardinals baseball with Adam Wainwright as his TV analyst debut at Busch nears

Wainwright will be the Fox analyst when the Cardinals host the Cubs on May 25

“Ack” is back, and so is “Waino,” this weekend.

Tom Ackerman, who broadcast eight Cardinals games last season for Bally ÁńÁ«ÊÓÆ” Midwest in a fill-in role for lead play-by-play announcer Chip Caray, is set to call the team’s three-game series at home against the Chicago White Sox that starts at 7:15 p.m. Friday.

Then on Saturday former Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright is scheduled to make his regular-season Fox ÁńÁ«ÊÓÆ” broadcast debut as a game analyst for the Mets-Rays game.

Before last season Ackerman had called numerous Cards spring training games that were on radio or exclusively streamed, but he never had done a big-league regular-season contest.

So calling major-league games that count certainly was memorable. Not surprisingly the first one was the biggest for Ackerman, the sports director at Cardinals Radio Network flagship station KMOX (1120 AM).

“I talked to (partner) Jim Edmonds before the first pitch about what a great moment it was, but how calm I felt,” Ackerman said. “It was so special calling a game in my home ballpark, of a team I have been covering for a long time and in my hometown. ... I really enjoyed calling it.”

Ackerman, 48, said during that first game Edmonds asked him if his family was there. When Ackerman said yes, “he said that they should come up to the booth to share the moment,” and said, “I’ll arrange it.”

Edmonds did that, and it was quite an entourage that arrived — Ackerman’s wife, two daughters, mom, stepfather, mother-in-law and a couple of family friends.

“They all stood and watched (me broadcasting) and took pictures,” Ackerman said. “It was really great of him to arrange that.”

BSM has been breaking him in with some of the team’s most low-profile games on its schedule, not exactly marquee matchups with the Cubs or Dodgers. His debut came in a contest against Detroit, which finished six games under .500, and the Cards’ foes in the two other series he called, against Kansas City and Oakland, finished in last place. So did the Cardinals.

This weekend he’ll have another series featuring struggling clubs. The White Sox (6-25) have the worst record in the majors and the Cards (14-17) are only a half-game ahead of Pittsburgh at the bottom of the National League Central Division standings.

But Ackerman is ecstatic just to be calling big-league games and said he looks at his schedule “the other way around.”

“If the Cardinals are the superior team in the series, I may have some fun things to call ... and make it as exciting as possible,” he said.

BSM began using Ackerman last year in order to groom a potential fill-in just in case Caray had an unexpected absence as well as giving him an occasional break. That’s after his predecessor, Dan McLaughlin, was an ironman when he was the full-time Cardinals television play-by-play announcer from 2016-2022.

“It’s important for our broadcasters to have a chance to rest and refresh and important to have depth ready to fill in,” Bally ÁńÁ«ÊÓÆ” Midwest general manager Jack Donovan said then.

Ackerman has no BSM games scheduled beyond this weekend but said he’ll be ready if called again.

“Chip has been so supportive,” Ackerman said. “I’m just here for when he needs some time off.”

Wainwright resurfaces

Wainwright has been busy since retiring from baseball at the end of last season, dabbling in broadcasting and doing a lot more than dabbling with a blossoming career as a country musician.

He has released an album and has had some tour dates to support that, including one recently in St. Louis as he opened for the Zac Brown Band and is set to be appear June 2 as part of the Confluence Music Festival, which is associated with the NASCAR weekend at World Wide Technology Raceway in Madison.

But it’s has been back to baseball this week. Wainwright has pulled some shifts as a studio analyst on MLB Network as part of his deal for occasional appearances there, then makes his season debut as a Fox game analyst Saturday when he works alongside play-by-play announcer Adam Amin. They have been together before, as Wainwright has called a postseason series for Fox in 2020, 2021 and 2023 after the Cardinals were done playing.

Fox has two games Saturday, with Wainwright’s Mets-Rays game being sent to 82% of the country — including St. Louis affiliate KTVI (Channel 2) — at 6:15 p.m. The Mariners-Astros game will go to the rest of the nation.

It’s the first of about 15 games Wainwright is expected to call this season for Fox/FS1, including the Cardinals-Cubs contest on May 25 at Busch Stadium.

Even after their rock-ribbed commitment to field a better defensive team absorbed a series of hits during spring training and could have veered entirely due to a collision in the outfield, the Cardinals have mostly fought any temptation to shift from running down outs to chasing runs.

They know, firsthand, that was a losing endeavor.

They believe being surehanded is a better place to start.

“I think the key when we left spring is in order for us to get where we want to get to, we have to play good defense,” manager Oliver Marmol reaffirmed this past week in Detroit. “It’s not easy (when) you’re struggling on offense and you want to put out your best offensive lineup. But you are giving up something when you do that. If you’re committing to defense, then the guys who are in that lineup and you would expect to be offensive you have to be patient until they are. Because, if not, and you chase offense and that doesn’t click and you’re giving up things defensively you’re not in any of these games.”

He paused.

The Cardinals’ 24 games decided by three runs or fewer had already mentioned, their 6-10 record in those games when they score three or fewer runs only referenced.

“We’ve seen that,” he said. “And the teams that have been good for us in St. Louis have pitched well and they’ve played good defense. 
 (Offense) improves and the others hold, and you’re in a pretty good position.”

The Cardinals spent most of the first full month of this season exactly where they ended on the final day of this past season — in last place in the National League Central. They return home Friday having clawed their way into fourth, at 14-17, and avoided an utter lack of offense undermining them during what could have been an overwhelming schedule. Pitching and that devotion to defense gave their tripod two steadier legs as the offense wobbled. It was the other way around — two wobbly legs, one steady — a year ago as they reached the same point in the season at 10-21, their contending days over and 10 games out.

If they’re going to capitalize on the foundation they insist they have to launch back into contention after a challenging schedule and a listless lineup, it’s got to be May.

“I think the vibe is strong, for the young kids out there,” Miles Mikolas said.

The Cardinals return to Busch Stadium for their first home stand of the month with a team average of .220, a .300 on-base percentage, and a .338 slugging percentage. Only one team in the majors is performing worse in all three slash-line categories. As if on cue, that team happens to be their opponent for the weekend. The Chicago White Sox are batting .212/.276/.327 as a team, and they complement that with the second-highest ERA in the game, at 5.15. Former Cardinal Tommy Pham recently joined the Sox, and they won as many games in his first three games (3) as they won in their previous 25 (3).

The Sox’s arrival signals a shift in the Cardinals schedule. Five of their next 12 series are against teams in fourth or fifth place in a division, half of those series are against teams with .500 or losing records as of Thursday. Between now and the All-Star break, the Cardinals have only four road series against winning teams. According to FanGraphs playoff projections, the Cardinals have a 30% chance of reaching October in part because they’re predicted to have the best winning percentage in the NL Central from here. The schedule is accommodating.

Through the first 31 games of the season, the Cardinals played the second-most road games in the majors with 19 and already knocked off two West Coast trips. The Cardinals have played more games in the Pacific Time Zone than their home Central Time Zone, 13 to 12. The first-place Milwaukee Brewers have yet to go west and won’t until late June.

The Cardinals have also played the most day games in the National League.

The miles logged, the time zones crossed, and those night-day turnarounds influenced the Cardinals’ preemptive lineup choices and scheduled days off for players like rookie Masyn Winn as he dealt with back stiffness. The lineups drew criticism from fans and pundits and questions from reporters. But Marmol and his staff stuck to a plan. A strong start was important; a healthy finish could be essential. As injury lists throughout baseball swell with new names, Marmol calls that “the game within the game.”

“It’s interesting,” Marmol said. “You can go extremely hard and then you’re trying to find off days, whereas if you just pace yourself a little bit then you try to get a guy a day off before his body is screaming for it.”

Added John Mozeliak, president of baseball operations: “I think when you look at the race — meaning the 162 (games) over 187 (days) — health is definitely a major part of that.”

The Cardinals felt that pain before Day 1.

In conversations this past week about the first full month of the season, Cardinals officials traced back to what they felt was an early turning point for their season. In Arizona, on the eve of opening day and during an exhibition game against the Cubs, Dylan Carlson separated his shoulder in a collision with Jordan Walker. Carlson won the center field job when the named starter, Tommy Edman, had setbacks following wrist surgery. Carlson, a strong defensive option at center, would join Edman on the IL.

The Cardinals had their first test of this commitment to defense before the season started. There would be others.

They promoted slick-fielding rookie Victor Scott II to start in center, and after he struggled offensively the Cardinals turned to deft fielder Michael Siani.

At the same time, the Cardinals’ offense wheezed. Their overall average is among the lowest for the team to start the season in decades. They have the fewest homers and fewest runs off homers in the majors. With runners in scoring position they’re hitting .202 and slugging a meager .326. For context, Atlanta is batting .316 with runners in scoring position. The Cardinals have made some recent, limited concessions to offense — when chasing the Tigers on the scoreboard this past week, Lars Nootbaar played center to upgrade the offense — but remain defense first, Marmol underscored.

The numbers suggest more than just outs would slip through their fingers otherwise.

At the same point last year, the Cardinals averaged a Âœ run more per game, 4.00 to 3.52. They slugged .409 to this year’s .338. ÁńÁ«ÊÓÆ” were 3% better than the league average when creating runs vs. 14% worse this season. Their run differential is worse, minus-23 to minus-30. Yet, they are outperforming that through defense and pitching, specifically the bullpen. A minus-5 Defensive Runs Saved in the outfield a year ago at this time, they’re a minus-1 and up overall on defense from 18th to top 12. The Cardinals’ ERA is a half-run better this season, 4.62 to 4.10.

They have four more wins and, not coincidentally, four fewer blown saves.

Last year’s record plunged over the precipice because of poor pitching and ragged defense. This year’s record has yet to topple, so far, due to the good hands and better grip of defense and pitching — which has held on as long as it can for the offense to arrive.

On a rehab assignment with Class AAA Memphis, Carlson could return to center by the end of this home stand. It’s a return to form from others in the lineup that will determine if the offense can carry its weight. History suggests this is the month. Nolan Arenado has slugged .539 in May for his career with a .901 OPS. Paul Goldschmidt has slugged .545 in May with an OPS of .936. The only month he’s been more productive in his career? June. The defense and pitching bought time. The lineup decisions tried to avoid wear.

The Cardinals now balance on the edge of an axiom.

Time for April showers to yield May powers.

“I really like our club: It’s a tough team, and they’re not going to give it, at all,” Marmol said. “We’ve played some really tough games, a lot of close games, and I like the overall personality and demeanor of our club. You look at what we’ve done over 30 days with our offense being where it’s been, and I don’t think that’s going to be a lasting theme.”

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