Cardinals Conversations: What next for the Cardinals following series loss to White Sox?

ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - The St. Louis Cardinals series against the Chicago White Sox over the weekend was nothing short of a downright disaster.

The Cardinals went into the weekend with a chance to for a jumping off point for the offense that has been downright rubbish to begin the year and not only that, they were in a prime position to get back to a .500 record for the first time since April 5.

Instead, what happened was the worst possible outcome: losing a series to the White Sox at home and the offense continued to stutter over the weekend, including only racking up four hits Sunday against Garrett Crochet and company for the White Sox.

Tom Ackerman, Kevin Wheeler, and Matt Pauley discussed what’s next for the St. Louis Cardinals after they lose a series at home to one of the worst teams in baseball and the conversation started at only one place: the Cardinals offensive struggles.

"They can't hit. It's really is that simple," said Pauley. "People are trying to put more into it, but they are not hitting in general and when they do have opportunities, man are they not coming through."

Kevin Wheeler focused on one area of the Cardinals struggles offensively: their lack of damage against the fastball, with only two Cardinals seeing making positive damage against the fastball this season for the Cardinals.

"If you contrast that to say the Milwaukee Brewers to the Chicago Cubs, to anyone else in the division, none of them are as nearly as bad as the Cardinals hitting four-seam baseballs," said Wheeler.

Wheeler says the Cardinals hitters numbers against the fastball in 2023 were better than in 2024 and while the history suggest they can hit the fastball, the numbers aren't showing it yet in 2024.

"It's not two week anymore, it's basically five to six weeks of the season and what are (the Cardinals) doing to fix it?" said Wheeler.

While the Cardinals problems offensively are not an issue, most of the others areas have been sufficient from bullpen pitching (outside of Giovanny Gallegos), defense, starting pitching.

"I'm pretty comfortable with where they are," said Pauley. "That A group we have seen with the bullpen is very good. I'm fine with what the starting pitching has done. We saw Lance Lynn not be able to finish off the White Sox, there has been some not so great starts from Miles Mikolas but when you look at the pitching staff as a whole: I'm fine with it."