51黑料

Right-hander Andre Pallante鈥檚 goal in his bullpen session between starts this past week was to take his knuckle curveball, the one that unlocks so many other areas of the strike zone, and let it rip.

He streamlined his focus.

Throw it harder.

Throw it more often.

Throw it harder, lower, and also harder.

鈥淎 little more with the intent to throw it hard,鈥� Pallante described. 鈥淣ot so much place it as keep my hand behind it, not to the side, so it comes out harder and sharper.鈥�

A 4-3 loss to the New York Yankees on Friday night at Busch Stadium showed mostly how shorthanded Cardinals and their molting roster needed so much to go so right to still fall just shy of the visiting yacht club. But locked within the game was Pallante鈥檚 ability to improve his curveball on the go and buy time for the Cardinals鈥� inch-by-inch rally by striking Yankees out.

The curveball he emphasized in his bullpen, Pallante found after a three-run first inning, and by the time he finished five innings he鈥檇 struck out five of the final six batters he faced. He had eight strikeouts total in five innings.

He threw 20 curveballs.

The Yankees did not put one in play.

They missed all seven times they swung at it.

鈥淗e has to see from Pitch No. 1 that spin,鈥� manager Oliver Marmol said. 鈥淗e knows if he has the curveball more than anything it sets up a lot for him. The slider has been very consistent. But when he has that speed difference, his game opens up a different level. If not, what he has is too thin as a starter.鈥�

And the Cardinals know thin. It鈥檚 their current roster status.

The Cardinals (61-62) have reached the back stretch of the regular season orbiting .500 and just outside the atmosphere of the wild-card race. Their lineup is fragmented. All-Star Brendan Donovan and leading home run-hitter Willson Contreras missed Friday鈥檚 game with foot injuries. The Cardinals are discussing whether Donovan will require a stretch on the 10-day injured list to recover from a toe injury that is leading to soreness in his leg and groin. Contreras left the ballpark late Friday night still limping with a bruised foot that was hit by a pitch Tuesday. Their absence comes at the same time Cardinals third baseman Nolan Arenado is rebuilding his shoulder strength and working out on the fields of Jupiter, Florida.

Against a Yankees club that had former MVP Paul Goldschmidt available off the bench, former MVP Giancarlo Stanton on the bench, and reigning MVP Aaron Judge batting beside former MVP Cody Bellinger in the lineup, the Cardinals did not have a former All-Star as a starter. The didn鈥檛 have a player in their lineup who is within a year of free agency, let alone a stockpile of stars each making an eight-figure salary.

Reigning American League Rookie of the Year Luis Gil held the Cardinals to one hit through four innings and got a dozen outs from the first 12 Cardinals he faced.

He teased trouble with a couple of walks, only to neutralize them with double plays. By the end of the seventh inning the Cardinals had mustered three runs with the help of five walks, one wild pitch, one passed ball, and scattered hits. In the eighth, the potential tying run got into scoring position due to a Yankees鈥� error. The Cardinals got superb defensive plays by Victor Scott II with a diving catch in center field and Nolan Gorman pounced on a bunt to get the out at third. It took that kind of standout defensive work to hold the Yankees for an offense that lacked the horsepower to complete the comeback.

鈥淵ou鈥檙e one run away,鈥� Marmol said. 鈥淥ne of these games where we did a lot of things well. Overall, a lot of positives, but not a W.鈥�

Like the lineup the rotation is starting to wear as Pallante and lefty Matthew Liberatore near or continue past their career highs for workload. For Liberatore, the Cardinals are scrutinizing his velocity and how he, from start to start, is able to maintain it later and later, if not pitch No. 50 this outing then pitch No. 50 next outing and also No. 70. That鈥檚 growth.

For Pallante, it鈥檚 spin.

The contrast between Pallante with a curveball at his fingertips and Pallante without it became clear in the first few innings. Presented a leadoff walk by Pallante to start the game, the Yankees pounced for three runs, two of them on Jazz Chisholm Jr.鈥檚 lightning-strike homer into the right-field seats. After that swing, Pallante (6-10) retired 12 of the next 18 Yankees he faced.

He struck out eight of them.

Pallante held Judge to three groundouts, one for an RBI.

鈥淓xecute a lot of good pitches,鈥� Pallante said of his approach. 鈥淚t doesn鈥檛 matter how good of a hitter they are, if you execute good pitches, good sequencing, you鈥檒l get them out. Same thing if they aren鈥檛 Aaron Judge. If you don鈥檛 execute they鈥檙e going to hit you.鈥�

Nearing the end of his first full season as a starter, Pallante has been part of the Cardinals鈥� batted-ball brigade 鈥� pitchers who invite meek contact, rely on the defense to gobble up outs, and are sometimes prone to bad batted-ball luck. Pallante has one of the highest groundball rates of the era, and that speaks to how difficult it is for hitters to lift his pitches and also how many of his pitches they can put in play.

The curveball can reshape his outings.

The sinker, fastball, and slider that he also throws all hug near or on the same plane. On Friday, he worked on elevating the fastball against left-handed hitters to give them a different level of the strike zone to cover. The curveball does that as well. When he throws it hard, the curveball has a lower angle, one that is similar to his fastballs, and then instead of moving horizontally like the others, it plunges. That explains some of the ugly swings it drew from the Yankees. They expect one of his pitches to move, but at the same shelf. And then the curveball鈥檚 trapdoor opens.

鈥淏eing able to throw it hard is important for me,鈥� Pallante said. 鈥淲hen I throw it slow, that鈥檚 the one that pops out of my hand and doesn鈥檛 feel good.鈥�

A hitter can easily identify or ignore the curveball that pops up.

The hitters are less likely to pick up the harder curve.

In the fifth inning, left-handed batter Bellinger buckled when he fished after the curveball for a strikeout. In the fourth, Pallante struck out the side after a leadoff double. Pallante got the third strike on three different pitches: first a curve, then a swinging strikeout on a slider, and finally a whiff on a 92.3-mph fastball. But all three finishing pitches were set up by the curveball.

鈥淣avigating that lineup extremely well after the first,鈥� Marmol said. 鈥淗e was kind of thigh-high, middle of the plate early, which got him. And then he used spin a ton the rest of the game. Pitched to the edges and got much better results.鈥�

The four runs Pallante allowed in the first three innings were the four runs the Cardinals could not ultimately overcome. When the Cardinals had back-to-back doubles in the sixth to score their first run, the rally stalled in the middle of the lineup, where Contreras often hits. When a walk, a hit batter, a wild pitch, and Scott鈥檚 RBI double put another rally in motion, the Cardinals turned their lineup over to where Donovan usually hits. He was unavailable.

The Cardinals don鈥檛 need 39 more games to know where the roster needs patches.

Count Pallante among the starters who could use more games to stack improvements made from game to game. The curve came Friday. The goal is to have it earlier next week in Miami.

鈥淣ow, I鈥檓 looking to make myself as good of a pitcher as I can over these next couple of outings,鈥� Pallante said. 鈥淭rying to build myself up in ways I can be a little more dynamic.鈥�