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Roundtable Sports' John Denton breaks down the Cardinals' 5-1 loss to the Marlins on Saturday -- their fourth straight defeat and a seventh loss in the past nine games.
Their losing streak at four and caught in a skid that has included seven defeats in the past nine games, the Cardinals are in the throes of their poorest stretch of the season, allowing the Marlins to pass them in the Wild Card standings.
A night after being held to just three hits in a shutout loss, the Cardinals mustered just seven hits against five Marlins pitchers and Miami ended Andre Pallante’s four-game winning streak with a 5-1 defeat of St. Louis at Busch Stadium on Saturday night.
In possession of the National League’s top Wild Card slot earlier in the week, the Cardinals have not only fallen out of possession of a spot, but they have been passed by the scorching-hot Marlins.
The Cards (42-38) trailed 4-0 before they scored their only run of Saturday’s game and the Marlins (44-39) immediately answered back to push it back to a four-run deficit. The Cards have just one run in 18 innings in the series and they have scored just 11 times five games while totaling just 28 hits.
“It’s called baseball,” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol told reporters. “You are going to go through stretches where your big boys don’t feel great and they’re still going to battle and give you everything that they’ve got. And there are going to be stretches where they can’t get out and scorch everything thrown. Right now, we’re in a stretch where we’re having to claw for every run. At some point, we’ll get out of it and be fine.”
Xavier Edwards (3 for 5, 1 RBI), Otto Lopez (2 for 5, 1 RBI) and Kyle Stowers (2 for 3, 2 RBI) pestered Cardinals pitching all night. Meanwhile, the Cardinals did not have an extra-base hit and got just three runners into scoring position all game.
Andre Pallante, who came into Saturday’s game having not lost since May 17, started in place of veteran right-hander Dustin May, who was skipped in the rotation because of lingering back tightness since his one-hit gem against the Padres on June 15. Kyle Leahy will be on the mound on Sunday as the Cardinals look to avoid the sweep at the hands of Miami.
Pallante surrendered single runs in the first and third innings, two more in the fourth and was charged with another run in the seventh inning. He surrendered 11 hits, but walked just one while striking out four.
“When you are playing 162 games and trying to make 32 starts, stuff like this is going to happen,” Pallante said of some of the grounders hit by the Marlins finding holes. I feel like I commanded my fastballs well, but I could have been better with my breaking balls, especially to lefties. But overall, I’m happy with the way I threw the ball. It just sucks that some of the ground balls were hits and some good pitches went for hits.”
The Cardinals failed to capitalize on their best opportunity to get back into the game in the third inning. After singles by JJ Wetherholt and Ivan Herrera and Alec Burelson reached on a hit by pitch, Jordan Walker came to the plate with the bases loaded and two out. However, Walker struck out and fired his bat toward the Cardinals dugout.
Walker, an All-Star hopeful on the heels of his finest season in the big leagues, is just 5 for his last 22 and he hasn’t homered in 12 games.
“I don’t think it’s so much approach driven as it is just that we weren’t able to get that key hit when we had an opportunity,” Marmol said of his team going just 1 for 3 with runners in scoring position and stranding eight base runners.
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Their losing streak at four and caught in a skid that has included seven defeats in the past nine games, the Cardinals are in the throes of their poorest stretch of the season, allowing the Marlins to pass them in the Wild Card standings.
A night after being held to just three hits in a shutout loss, the Cardinals mustered just seven hits against five Marlins pitchers and Miami ended Andre Pallante’s four-game winning streak with a 5-1 defeat of St. Louis at Busch Stadium on Saturday night.
In possession of the National League’s top Wild Card slot earlier in the week, the Cardinals have not only fallen out of possession of a spot, but they have been passed by the scorching-hot Marlins.
The Cards (42-38) trailed 4-0 before they scored their only run of Saturday’s game and the Marlins (44-39) immediately answered back to push it back to a four-run deficit. The Cards have just one run in 18 innings in the series and they have scored just 11 times five games while totaling just 28 hits.
“It’s called baseball,” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol told reporters. “You are going to go through stretches where your big boys don’t feel great and they’re still going to battle and give you everything that they’ve got. And there are going to be stretches where they can’t get out and scorch everything thrown. Right now, we’re in a stretch where we’re having to claw for every run. At some point, we’ll get out of it and be fine.”
Xavier Edwards (3 for 5, 1 RBI), Otto Lopez (2 for 5, 1 RBI) and Kyle Stowers (2 for 3, 2 RBI) pestered Cardinals pitching all night. Meanwhile, the Cardinals did not have an extra-base hit and got just three runners into scoring position all game.
Pallante suffers first loss since May 17
Andre Pallante, who came into Saturday’s game having not lost since May 17, started in place of veteran right-hander Dustin May, who was skipped in the rotation because of lingering back tightness since his one-hit gem against the Padres on June 15. Kyle Leahy will be on the mound on Sunday as the Cardinals look to avoid the sweep at the hands of Miami.
Pallante surrendered single runs in the first and third innings, two more in the fourth and was charged with another run in the seventh inning. He surrendered 11 hits, but walked just one while striking out four.
“When you are playing 162 games and trying to make 32 starts, stuff like this is going to happen,” Pallante said of some of the grounders hit by the Marlins finding holes. I feel like I commanded my fastballs well, but I could have been better with my breaking balls, especially to lefties. But overall, I’m happy with the way I threw the ball. It just sucks that some of the ground balls were hits and some good pitches went for hits.”
The Cardinals failed to capitalize on their best opportunity to get back into the game in the third inning. After singles by JJ Wetherholt and Ivan Herrera and Alec Burelson reached on a hit by pitch, Jordan Walker came to the plate with the bases loaded and two out. However, Walker struck out and fired his bat toward the Cardinals dugout.
Walker, an All-Star hopeful on the heels of his finest season in the big leagues, is just 5 for his last 22 and he hasn’t homered in 12 games.
“I don’t think it’s so much approach driven as it is just that we weren’t able to get that key hit when we had an opportunity,” Marmol said of his team going just 1 for 3 with runners in scoring position and stranding eight base runners.
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Remember to join our CARDINALS on ROUNDTABLE community, which is FREE! You can post your own thoughts, in text or video form, and you can engage with our Roundtable staff, as well as other CARDINALS fans. If prompted to download the Roundtable APP, that's free too!
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