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He knows.

“It (stinks) to use the word …” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said Friday.

The word is, at this point, a “trigger word,” notably on social media such as Twitter/X. And just like certain words ignite the right or the left in politics, this particular word turns St. Louis fans into the angriest versions of themselves (so, Philadelphia fans).

Asked about the Cardinals’ struggling offense, Marmol explained: “I’ve been trying not to use the word ‘patience,’ but there’s no other word to really use, because — this is our group, and they are good. And it’s a matter of time. And no one likes hearing that, but that’s just the reality.”

Cardinals fans have no patience for patience. It’s not simply a noun but an incendiary verbal bomb. On Twitter/X, most Cardinals tweets about failure or frustration are followed by a deluge of comments, sarcastically regarding the patience the team preached. It can be rooted to a quote from John Mozeliak, the club’s president of baseball operations. It was more than a year ago — April 25, 2023 — when “Mo” told Bally ������Ƶ Midwest’s Jim Hayes before a game: “The one thing I’d ask from our fan base right now is a little bit of patience, because we do think that we do have the talent to win.”

That day, the Cardinals lost on Blake Sabol’s walk-off home run — the second-most-painful walk-off homer allowed by the team in San Francisco — and it put the 2023 Cards at 9-15.

The team proceeded to lose nine of its next 10 games … and infamously finished with a 71-91 record.

All season (and during the offseason), references to patience popped up in the comments — as well as many memes featuring “Mo.”

Well, here we are in 2024 and the Cardinals fell to 15-18 with Saturday’s rain-delayed 6-5 loss to the White Sox in 10 innings. And it seems the patience fury somehow is even hotter than last year. Perhaps it’s because fans believed the team would be fixed by now — that they all endured 2023 while believing, in the back of their minds, at least it wouldn’t be bad come 2024. Yet the fourth-place Cardinals entered Saturday with the fewest homers in the National League, the second-lowest batting average and the second-fewest hits per game.

Patience is a virtue, but in St. Louis, it’s vulgarity. And online, it’s virtual vitriol. Some of the tweets wouldn’t even pass standards to get published in this newspaper.

And as I watch the fans tweet anger about being patient, a lot of it is unadulterated infuriation, sure. But some of it, I believe, is also therapeutic venting. It’s a way for fans to blow off steam, 280 characters at a time. And referring to patience, in a way, has become unifying cry for passionate fans (who otherwise might just cry). It’s good to know you’re not alone — there are others suffering through the strikeouts and the popouts (and more strikeouts and popouts and what in the world is he swinging at?).

OK, but what about the validity of patience?

Dare I bring this up?

The Cardinals have one of baseball’s worst offenses, but there still are 130 games remaining. That’s so many games.

Paul Goldschmidt has unleashed some frighteningly bad swings this season. He has a .215 average and .596 OPS, yet that’s a desired benchmark for Lars Nootbaar and his .162 average and .532 OPS (the league average OPS this year, so far, is .694).

But Marmol explained that Goldschmidt and some guys are feeling confident in their swings. And, oh yeah, there are the backs of the baseball cards.

“‘Goldy’ is good,” Marmol said. “And he’s determined and cares. And it’s a matter of time. We have to answer the question that’s obvious, (that) the offense hasn’t produced to the degree that we thought. … But, like, ‘Goldy’ is going to be good. (Nolan) Gorman is going to be good. Nootbaar is going to be good. You can go down that list. And they just will. And the only thing you can do until they are is — be patient. It’s just reality of this.”

That’s the thing. The fans are past patience. Online especially, fans are inside some swirling tornado of impatience and haste. But that’s life as a modern Cardinals fan.

As for the lack of home runs, Marmol said: “Guys aren’t feeling good about their swing, why would you expect them to be driving the baseball everywhere, right? Will they? Yeah, they will. It just hasn’t happened up to this point. And I think I’ve said it enough over the last couple of years — slug is a great thing. Doubles and homers play. We’ll get them. We haven’t up to this point. And there’s no excuse for it because we haven’t, we need to.”

One bit of optimism popped in Saturday’s game. Nolan Arenado had one barreled ball all year (via StatCast), compared to the 34 total he had last season. But he rocketed a 412-foot homer at Busch Stadium against the White Sox (103.4 mph), a ball with an expected batting average of .800. Arenado also hit a ball the opposite way for the second-straight day for a hit — this is a sign that a batter is swinging well. And he tallied two walks, too. He’s put together some good overall stats the past couple weeks, after a weak start.

If only Goldschmidt and Nootbaar could get going … and Gorman and Brendan Donovan … and Jordan Walker returns to form and returns to the Cardinals.

But for now, all we can do is be … um … you know.

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Saturday gave the Cardinals plenty of reasons to walk away soaked and sour.

They fell behind early, rallied to take a lead and then fell in extra innings to the club with the worst record in baseball after a 3-hour and 3-minute rain delay put the game on pause so that they could resume for less than one minute.

Heavy rain and lightning halted play with two outs, the bases loaded and Cardinals second baseman Nolan Gorman at the plate facing reliever John Brebbia, a former Cardinals pitcher, with an 0-1 count. The game stopped at that point and the outcome hung in the balance as rain pummeled the field for the next three hours.

When play resumed, the White Sox turned to left-handed reliever Tanner Banks and the Cardinals countered by pinch-hitting for Gorman with right-handed hitting backup catcher Ivan Herrera.

Already down in the count 0-1, Herrera swung and missed on the first pitch he saw from Banks, then took a borderline pitch for a ball. Herrera fouled off the next pitch, a changeup, but got called out on strike three by home plate umpire CB Bucknor. The called third strike appeared farther off the plate than the borderline pitch called for a ball two pitches earlier.

Herrera's strikeout wrapped up the Cardinals’ 6-5 loss to the White Sox in 10 innings in front of what remained of an announced crowd of 38,559 at Busch Stadium.

The loss sets up a rubber match between the teams at 1:15 p.m. Sunday, and left-hander Matthew Liberatore will make his first start of the season for the Cardinals (15-18).

“You know they only have one guy left,” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said of the way the game unfolded at the delay. “They’re going to go to the lefty. He’s punching out lefties 34 percent of the time. You have a right-handed bat that you feel really good with, Herrera.

“You wait three hours and you want it to be determined between the pitcher and the hitter. That wasn’t the case.”

While Herrera’s at-bat provided the final out of the game, the Cardinals loaded the bases with no outs in the 10th when they needed one run to tie and two to win the game. They struck out three times with the game on the line, including the final out.

Former Cardinal and recent White Sox addition Tommy Pham provided the margin of victory with a one-out RBI single in the top of the 10th inning that drove in the automatic runner/ghost runner. His single came against Cardinals rookie reliever Ryan Fernandez.

Cardinals first baseman Paul Goldschmidt started the bottom of the 10th as the automatic runner on second base, Nolan Arenado singled and Alec Burleson reached on a fielder’s choice when White Sox third baseman Bryan Ramos threw home with Goldschmidt drawing a throw to the plate.

However, Ramos’ throw went in the dirt, White Sox catcher Korey Lee couldn’t field it cleanly and that allowed Goldschmidt to retreat to third base safely.

That loaded the bases with no outs, but Lars Nootbaar struck out and extended his recent slump to 0 for 10 and Masyn Winn struck out and stretched his slump to 0 for 14. That set up the Gorman/Herrera final at-bat.

“The at-bats, obviously, needed to be better,” Marmol said. “������Ƶ were frustrated with it. They obviously wanted to come through there, but we didn’t. We had an opportunity to wrap that up and we missed it.”

The White Sox (7-26) recorded just their second road win of the season. They’re 2-14 away from Guaranteed Rate Field in Chicago.

Arenado continued what has become a breakout series with a 3-for-3 performance that included a three-run home run with two walks. Arenado drove in all three of the team’s runs in Friday night’s win. He’s now batting .296 for the season. The home run was his second this season.

“(The frustration level) is high, and it should be high,” Arenado said. “Guys shouldn’t be OK with what’s going on right now. We’ve got a lot of games left, but that’s just an ongoing excuse. We can’t continue to use that. We know there’s a better feeling there, and we’ve just got to continue to push.”

The Cardinals scored all five of their runs in the fifth inning, and they collected three of their five hits in that same inning.

������Ƶ were 3 for 13 with runners in scoring position, and they left 10 men on base.

Arenado described the offense coming up empty in the bottom of the 10th as “brutal.”

“It stings,” Arenado said. “But if we continue to put ourselves in this position with the tying run on third or no outs — if we continue to do this — good things are going to happen because sooner or later it’s going to flip because we’re going to feel really good and we’re going to be driving in those runs.”

The Cardinals faced an early deficit after starting pitcher Lance Lynn gave up two first-inning runs to his former club.

Lynn pitched for the White Sox from 2021-2023, and he tied a franchise single-game record with 16 strikeouts against the Seattle Mariners in June of last year. In 70 starts with the White Sox, Lynn went 25-22 with a 4.23 ERA, a 1.29 WHIP, 444 strikeouts and 109 walks in 398 1/3 innings.

Lynn faced the White Sox for the first time since they traded him and reliever Joe Kelly to the Los Angeles Dodgers on July 28, 2023.

The first three batters of the game reached base against Lynn via a Nicky Lopez leadoff single, a Pham walk and a Gavin Sheets RBI double. Eloy Jimenez’s sacrifice fly drove in the other run.

A Gorman fielding error led to an unearned run in the fourth inning, and the Cardinals trailed 3-0 going into the fifth inning against White Sox starter Erick Fedde.

However, the Cardinals got more than a little bit of traction against Fedde in the fifth. Gorman drew a leadoff walk, followed by a Michael Siani single — the Cardinals’ first hit since the first inning — and that set up a two-run double rifled down the line and just inside of first base by Brendan Donovan.

Donovan’s double made it a one-run game, and Willson Contreras walked for the second time in the game to put the go-ahead run on base. Following a Goldschmidt strikeout, Arenado hammered a 2-2 sinker left up and over the outer half of the plate.

Arenado’s blast traveled an estimated 412 feet to center field for a three-run home run. That put the Cardinals in front 5-3.

Lynn couldn’t hold onto the lead. He walked the first two batters of the sixth inning, and reliever Andrew Kittredge came within one out of stranding both men on base. Instead, Lee hit a two-out single up the middle that tied the game in the sixth and set the stage for extra innings after neither team scored in the seventh, eighth or ninth innings.

“It wasn’t a good day for me, there’s no other way to say it,” Lynn said. “The team got me five runs, then I turn around and walk the two guys in the top of the sixth. All in all, I’ve got to be better from the get-go.”

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Liberatore, who has pitched exclusively out of the bullpen this year, will take the place of injured left-hander Steven Matz.

The Cardinals placed Matz on the IL with a lower back strain on Friday, and they’d initially listed Kyle Gibson as the starter for Sunday’s game. However, Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol announced before Saturday’s game that Gibson instead would start on Monday, followed by Miles Mikolas on Tuesday.

Following Saturday’s game, Marmol announced Liberatore will start on Sunday.

Liberatore settled nicely into a bullpen role this season after having previously started in the majors and minors. Liberatore has a 2.76 ERA with 10 strikeouts in 12 games (16⅓ innings) this season out of the bullpen.

Last season in his major-league starts, Liberatore went 2-5 with a 5.88 ERA, 34 strikeouts and 20 walks in 49 innings (11 starts) after he’d excelled as a starter at Triple A in the beginning of last season.

DeJong enjoys ‘special’ return

Before Friday’s series opener, White Sox shortstop Paul DeJong reflected on the emotions of returning to St. Louis to play against the franchise for which he’d spent the vast majority of his career and enjoyed a lot of success.

DeJong described the moment as “special,” getting to see guys he used to share a clubhouse with and getting to share hugs and smiles with them again.

The day off Thursday before starting the series allowed him to see his barber and visit with some family from Lake St. Louis. His mother also came into town for the weekend series.

“I’m excited to see the fans,” DeJong said. “They supported me throughout my whole career here, and I’ve always valued the Cardinals franchise and their fans. … I just want them to know that I’m thankful for them supporting me throughout my good and my bad times here.”

DeJong, selected by the Cardinals in the fourth round of the 2015 MLB draft (131st) out of Illinois State University, entered last season as the second-longest tenured player in the organization behind Adam Wainwright.

He’d been the Cardinals’ opening-day shortstop from 2018-22, a run that started after he finished second in the NL Rookie of the Year voting in 2017 behind Cody Bellinger. He hit a team-high 25 home runs, batted .285 and posted a slugging percentage of .532 in 108 games as a rookie.

He signed a six-year contract before the start of the 2018 season.

DeJong registered his best season in 2019 when he earned NL All-Star honors, was a finalist for the Gold Glove at shortstop, lead all NL position players in defensive wins above replacement and set the franchise single-season records for home runs (30) and extra-base hits (62) by a shortstop.

He struggled at the plate in 2022 and spent much of the offseason heading into 2023 make swing adjustments. With a club option likely to make him a free-agent after the 2023 season, the Cardinals traded him to the Toronto Blue Jays last summer.

The Blue Jays released DeJong on Aug. 21, and San Francisco signed him two days later for their stretch run. The Giants released him in late September, and DeJong signed with the White Sox this offseason.

“It’s been a real learning experience for me,” DeJong said of the past year. “I thought I wanted to be a Cardinal for life, but that’s such a rare opportunity. It takes a real special player to stay with an organization for a whole career. I understand that. I’ve been able to get away from St. Louis and learn more about myself as I progress in my baseball career.

“Coming back here gives me that perspective of where I’ve been and where I started. So it’s just nice to be able to come back and just kind of reflect on what I’ve done and enjoy the moment.”

He was one for four Saturday in the White Sox’s 6-5 victory in 10 innings and is hitting .210 this season.

Carlson nears return, Middleton nears rehab

Outfielder Dylan Carlson returned to St. Louis and was with the club at Busch Stadium before Saturday’s game. Carlson had been on a minor-league rehab assignment with Triple A Memphis since May 1.

Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said Carlson returned to St. Louis because of a weather forecast that threatened to wash out Memphis’ game. The Cardinals planned to have the switch-hitting Carlson do outfield work, run the bases and “mimic” game-speed at-bats as a right-handed batter.

How he felt would determine the next step for the Cardinals, but Carlson could return to the active roster in the coming days.

Right-handed relief pitcher Keynan Middleton threw a bullpen session for the first time since spring training. He’s been sidelined by a forearm flexor strain. The planned progression for Middleton includes a pair of bullpen sessions this week followed by him starting a minor-league rehab assignment Friday, likely with Double A Springfield.

Designated hitter/infielder Matt Carpenter went one for three with a double and a walk in the first game of his rehab assignment with Springfield on Friday. He played five innings at first base.

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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. ������Ƶ 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 ������Ƶ 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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Sonny Gray puts his own unique spin on the adage look good, feel good, play good, but that distinctive twist seems to work for the Cardinals ace right-hander. Though it may require some to avert their eyes.

Gray once again set the tone for the entire game with his stellar performance on the mound as the Cardinals shut out the Chicago White Sox, 3-0, to win the opening game of their three-game series in front of an announced 34,010 at Busch Stadium on Friday night.

Gray (4-1) has started both of the Cardinals shutout wins this season. He tossed seven scoreless innings and lowered his earned run average to 0.89 this season. He struck out six, allowed just three hits and one walk. Gray has not allowed a run in the first four innings of his starts this season.

“He’s a real one,” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said of Gray. “I can’t say enough about the way he prepares and his ability to execute. He just does a phenomenal job. … He knows what he’s good at, but he also knows what the opposition is not good at and he attacks it extremely well.”

Despite the outcome and final line, Friday night’s outing wasn’t smooth sailing for Gray. In fact he credited catcher Willson Contreras for “coaching” him through the first few innings.

Gray stranded a pair of runners on base in the third inning, and he retired 12 of 13 batters he faced after that inning.

After the “slow” start, the veteran right-hander said he went into the clubhouse between innings to “reset.” When asked what a reset looks like for Gray, who made just his fifth start as a Cardinal, he explained that it entailed more than just words.

“I just came in here after the third, took all my clothes off and got redressed with new cleats, socks, underwear, pants, belt, jersey, hat, and just kind of was like 'Alright you’re a new guy, start over here,'” Gray said. “That’s kind of how I reset it today.”

The Cardinals (15-17) offense largely came from two hitters, star third baseman Nolan Arenado and the catcher Contreras. Arenado went 2 for 4 with two doubles and drove in all three Cardinals runs, while Contreras went 3 for 3 with a double, a walk and two runs scored.

Arenado’s first-inning, two-run double scored Contreras and Paul Goldschmidt (0 for 3, walk) and gave Gray a two-run lead to protect through the first four innings. Arenado lined a first-pitch slider into the left-center field gap. The 105.4-mph exit velocity made it the hardest ball hit by Arenado so far this season.

Gray allowed just one baserunner in the first two innings. He allowed a one-out double to Andrew Vaughn. Andrew Benintendi, who entered the day batting .423 in 26 career at-bats against Gray, hit a deep fly ball to the right field that Lars Nootbaar caught while up against the wall.

Then in the third inning, the White Sox (6-26) appeared poised to make noise with two outs.

Gray gave up a two-out single to Nicky Lopez followed by a walk by former Cardinal Tommy Pham. While Pham was at the plate, Lopez advanced to second base on a wild pitch. Lopez then stole third on ball four to Pham.

Gray then got an inning-ending lineout from White Sox slugger Eloy Jimenez to Arenado at third base.

“Thankfully Eloy hit that ball at Nolan at third,” Gray said. “He hit a billion miles an hour, so that’s not a guarantee. That was huge because that was the one. I just knew once I got out of that — and I felt like I got away with one to be honest with you — to come out unscathed, then I felt like it’s time for you to make an adjustment and figure it out.”

Gray allowed just one hit, a Martin Maldonado single, in his final four innings.

Gray has pitched six innings or more in four consecutive starts. He surpassed 1,600 career innings with the second out of the sixth inning on Friday night. He is the first Cardinals pitcher to record an ERA below 1.00 in the first five starts with the franchise since 1910.

Asked what has made Gray so consistent, his catcher Contreras replied bluntly, saying, “Attack the zone. That's the best way to put it. He's not (messing) around."

Left-handed reliever JoJo Romero (one inning) and Ryan Helsley (one inning) didn’t allow anyone to reach base in the eighth and ninth innings, respectively, and Helsley logged his 11th save of the season.

Arenado drove in the third run with an RBI double in the fifth after Contreras drew a one-out walk.��The Cardinals registered six hits in the game, three from Contreras.��

“Every win is important,” Contreras said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s April or May. We’re already in May, but we know that as an offense we’re not there yet. I hate to say it, but it’s the truth. If you watch the game, you look at the scoreboard, we have some guys that are not feeling well at the plate.

“But that only thing that comes to my mind — and I’ve already shared it with the group of guys — is battle. I think if you battle that takes some pressure off your shoulders. Try to just win it for the guy behind you and do that until you feel good and feel like yourself at the plate.”

The Cardinals and White Sox entered the night ranked 27th and 30th out of 30 MLB teams in runs scored per game. The Cardinals average 3.52 runs per game, while the White Sox scored an average of 2.87 runs per game. The White Sox's 22 home runs this season ranked 29th, while the Cardinals ranked last with 21 home runs.

“Offensively, we haven’t felt right,” Arenado said. “And it’s rare to see kind of a whole lineup not feel right, besides maybe Willson. Usually, there’s always somebody picking up the load for the other guys until some other people clean it up, but this is where we’re at. I believe better times are coming. There’s no way that all of us are this bad. It’s just a bad feeling right now.

“Today, I was able to help out. Hopefully, tomorrow the rest of the team will just continue to try pick each other up.”

However, the White Sox entered the day with the worst record in the majors. The Cardinals now sit two games below .500 with perennial All-Star Arenado sporting an OPS of .707, leadoff hitter Brendan Donovan has an OPS of .655, former MVP Goldschmidt’s OPS is .620 and last year’s team home run leader Nolan Gorman is batting under .200 with an OPS of .591.

“You’ve got to give credit to all our pitchers,” Arenado said. “All our starters, our bullpen, they’re doing great. They’re keeping us in ballgames. We’ve had a chance to win a lot of series this year. There’s a few that we haven’t, but you’ve got to give credit to out pitchers. They’ve done a great job. Hopefully, they can continue to do what we’re doing and we can turn this offense around.”

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On May 4, 1910, President William Howard Taft had quite the day of baseball in St. Louis.

After a visit downtown to christen the new YWCA, the president headed to Robinson Park, where the .��

Next there was a scheduled stop at ������Ƶman's Park, where the Browns were scheduled to play the Cleveland Naps, named after their star second baseman, Napoleon Lajoie. Labor unions, who were boycotting the Naps, urged the president to stay away from the game, but Taft would have none of it. He said he didn't believe in boycotts.

Taft got more than he bargained for at the game. Cleveland's Cy Young and the Browns' Joe Lake dueled to a , and the president reportedly stayed around for the conclusion.

After the game, as Taft was leaving ������Ƶman's Park, future Hall of Famer Rube Waddell was throwing some warmup pitches with Browns teammate Sled Allen.��

The Post-Dispatch gave the following account.��

"Walt a minute," said Rube to Allen. He walked to the smiling executive, who  extended his hand. Rube clasped it and glanced around, smiling easily.��

Horrors! There was not a photographer in range. This would never do. All but one of the press picture-takers had unlimbered their machines and climbed into waiting vehicles.

Over near third base was a Post-Dispatch man, intent on getting some action pictures of the game. He caught Rube's distress signal and hurried to the scene.

By rare tact, scintillant conversation and a strong grip Rube held the hand that is supposed to be on the tiller of our destinies until the above picture was snapped.

Then the big right-hander went his way, considering the Ballinger affair and wondering what the senators were doing to the railroad bill. The big left-hander returned to the curves he was throwing to Sled Allen, wondering what Lajoie's bunch would do to them.��

Postscript: Waddell was quite the colorful character. In exhibition games, he would shoo his teammates off the field and then strike out the side. Alas, 1910 would be his last big league season, after his bouts with drinking would cause him to pass out during games on at least one occasion.

In a perfect world, Cardinals starter Steven Matz will be back after a brief injured-list stint due to what manager Oli Marmol on Friday afternoon called “a protruding disc” in his back.

Forgive me for suggesting you should see it before you believe it.

And forgive me for feeling at least a little compelled to remind folks that the Cardinals, after spending their offseason preaching the importance of a durable rotation, are once again scrambling because of uncertainty about Matz.

“He got an injection and is down for a couple of days,” Marmol said. “Then we will make a decision on what that progression looks like to get him back. But we do think it’s a shorter stint than a long one.”

Now what?

“A couple of options,” Marmol said. “We have yet to nail it down.”

A bullpen game that buys one more tuneup minor league start for Zack Thompson before he gets called back up to the majors seems like perhaps the best move. Thompson secured his shot at next-man-up for the rotation earlier this season and deserves, at least for now, the chance to stick as a starter whether that’s here or in Class-AAA Memphis.

Sem Robberse, acquired in last season’s trade of Jordan Hicks to Toronto, could be an option. Gordon Graceffo, who is not on the 40-man roster, is an intriguing wild-card candidate. Hopefully starter-turned-reliever Matthew Liberatore, who has finally found some solid footing in the bullpen, won’t be asked to shapeshift on the fly.

Roles matter, the Cardinals also have preached this season, which brings us back to where this all begins: Matz. The Cardinals’ perfect-world vision for him continues to not mesh well with reality. The role continues to feel wrong.

Signed to a four-year, $44 million deal entering the 2022 season — that’s the same number of years and dollars Hicks got this offseason from the Giants to start, by the way — Matz now has the highest ERA (4.58) he’s had with any of his three teams.

A total of 131 major league starters have made more starts than Matz’s 33 since joining the Cardinals.

Of the 138 major league starters who have made at least as many starts as Matz has for the Cardinals since his arrival, only seven of them have pitched fewer innings than Matz’s 180.2. And only two have provided fewer quality starts (six innings pitched and three or fewer earned runs allowed) than Matz’s six.

Matz has been limited by injuries — shoulder and knee before this back one. He’s spent some time in the bullpen, which cut into his start count and innings total, but also offered some intriguing flashes of Matz, the reliever. Out of the bullpen in his Cardinals career, Matz has delivered a scoreless appearance nine of 13 times. It’s not a new take to wonder if the Cardinals (and Matz) would be better off if Matz was used as a reliever full time. I made the case for it almost exactly one year ago. His strikeout stuff plays well there. Volatility in relief is common. Comes with the job. Volatility in the rotation? Different story. Comes with compounding problem.

Depending on Matz as a starter keeps getting the Cardinals in trouble. It also keeps them from finding out what the soon to be 33-year-old southpaw could look like weaponized as a reliever. Maybe his contract would wind up being justified in that new role. Performing relievers who can be trusted in leverage situations are worth $11 million a season these days.

Despite a public scoff at the idea of the role change, the Cardinals did explore it this offseason. They decided against it, in part because Matz pitched well in what could best be described as glorified spring training as the clock ran out on a last-place finish. Matz was handled carefully during spring training and limited in pitch count to start this season. Three short but effective starts were followed by an avalanche — 16 runs allowed in 12.2 innings over his last three starts, only one of which lasted five frames. Over his last 65 batters faced, Matz’s opponents have averaged .364 with a .446 on-base percentage and a .618 slugging percentage.

The Cardinals are optimistic Matz’s back will heal quickly enough for him to return soon. For a team that talked a ton about reliability in the rotation, the role continues to feel wrong. It’s May, and Matz has the Cardinals scrambling again.

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The Cardinals stranded the bases loaded in the 10th inning after rain paused the game for 3 hours and 3 minutes in the middle of what ended up being the final at-bat of the game.

Heavy rain accompanied by lightning forced the game to stop with two outs, men on every base and Nolan Gorman at the plate against former Cardinals pitcher and current Chicago White Sox reliever John Brebbia.

When play resumed, Ivan Herrera pinch-hit for Gorman and struck out looking against the new relief pitcher, left-hander Tanner Banks, and the Cardinals fell 6-5 in front of what remained of an announced crowd of 38,559 on Saturday evening at Busch Stadium for the second game of a three-game series.

Former Cardinal Tommy Pham lined a single into left field to drive in the automatic runner placed on second base to start extra innings, and that run provided the margin of victory for the White Sox. Cardinals rookie relief pitcher Ryan Fernandez allowed that hit and took the loss.

The Cardinals (15-18) will try to secure their second straight series win at home with a victory on Sunday. Their last home series came against the Arizona Diamondbacks on April 22-24, and the Cards won two of three games in that series.

The White Sox (7-26) recorded just their second road win of the season. They’re 2-14 away from Guaranteed Rate Field in Chicago.

Cardinals first baseman Paul Goldschmidt started the bottom of the 10th inning as the automatic runner on second base. Nolan Arenado then singled and Alec Burleson reached on a fielder’s choice when White Sox third baseman Bryan Ramos threw home with Goldschmidt caught between home and third.

However, Ramos’ throw to the plate was in the dirt, catcher Korey Lee couldn’t field it cleanly and that allowed Goldschmidt to retreat to third base safely. That loaded the bases with no outs, but Lars Nootbaar struck out and extended his recent slump to 0 for 10. Then Masyn Winn struck out and stretched his slump to 0 for 14. That set up Gorman’s/Herrera’s final at-bat.

Arenado continued what has become a breakout series with a three-for-three performance that includes a three-run home run with two walks. He drove in all three of the team’s runs in Friday night’s win.

Cardinals leadoff hitter Brendan Donovan went one for five with a double, a run scored and two RBIs.

Cardinals starting pitcher Lance Lynn allowed five runs (four earned) on four hits and three walks in five innings. He struck out four in a no decision.

Lynn pitched for the White Sox from 2021-2023, and he tied a franchise single-game record with 16 strikeouts against Seattle last June. In 70 starts with the White Sox, Lynn went 25-22 with a 4.23 ERA, a 1.29 WHIP, 444 strikeouts and 109 walks in 398⅓ innings.

Lynn faced the White Sox for the first time since they traded him and reliever Joe Kelly to the Los Angeles Dodgers last July.

First inning foibles for Lynn

The White Sox burst out of the gates quickly against their former teammate. The first three batters of the game reached safely against Lynn. Nicky Lopez’s single started the game, and Lynn’s former Cardinals teammate Pham walked to put two men on in front of Gavin Sheets.

Sheets doubled to left field and drove in Lopez. The White Sox put a run on the board before an out had been recorded. Eloy Jimenez then hit a sacrifice fly to center field as the White Sox traded an out for a run as they built a two-run lead within the first four batters of the game.

The White Sox, shut out for a MLB-high ninth time Friday night, snapped a string of 11 consecutive scoreless innings with those two first-inning runs. They entered the day ranked last in the majors in batting average with runners in scoring position (.190).

The White Sox scored their third run with the help of a Gorman fielding error at second base in the fourth inning. Andrew Benintendi singled, advanced on a groundout to first base and scored on the fielding error on a ball hit sharply off the bat of Lee.

Cards offense stalled early

White Sox right-hander Erick Fedde held the Cardinals to one hit through the first four innings, including no hits in the second, third or fourth innings.

The Cardinals’ first hit came on a Nolan Arenado opposite-field single in the first inning, and that came two batters after Willson Contreras walked to give them their first baserunner of the game.

Fedde allowed just two men to reach base between the end of the first inning and start of the fifth. Gorman drew the first of his two walks in the second, and Arenado drew a leadoff walk in the fourth.

Fedde had turned in a stellar outing in his previous start, against Tampa Bay. He pitched into the ninth, struck out nine and allowed just two hits in that start.

However, the Cardinals got to him in a big way in the fifth.

Fedde chased by five-run fifth

The Cardinals trailed 3-0 going into the fifth. Gorman’s second walk of the game started the inning and put the leadoff man on for the second consecutive inning.

Michael Siani then swatted a single to right field for the Cardinals’ first hit since the first inning and Gorman went from first to third. Donovan then rifled a double just inside the first base line and into the right field corner. Gorman and Siani scored and made it a one-run game.

With Gorman aboard, Contreras drew his second walk of the game to put two men on with no outs. The first four batters of the inning reached base against Fedde.

Then Goldschmidt struck out swinging for the first out of the inning, and that brought Arenado to the plate with two men on base.

Arenado rocketed a 2-2 sinker left up and over the outer half of the plate into the center field stands for his second home run of the season. The three-run blast gave the Cardinals a 5-3 lead and marked the end of Fedde’s outing.

Lead short-lived

Trying to protect a lead for the first time in the game, Lynn walked Gavin Sheets and Jimenez to start the sixth.

After the back-to-back walks, Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol went to his bullpen and called upon Andrew Kittredge with no outs and two men on base.

Kittredge, who entered the day with a 0.75 ERA, retired the first two batters, on a groundout and a fly ball to left field. With two strikes, Lee punched a 3-1 slider back up the middle for a two-run single that tied the game. Lee had been 0 for 16 with two outs and runners in scoring position in his career beforehand.

Both runs were charged to Lynn since the runners reached on his walks.

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