HOUSTON — To get a clearer view of what Andre Pallante is trying to do as he converts from the reliever the Cardinals had to the starter they think he can be, zero-in as the Houston Astros apparently did on two pitches. They changed and abbreviated the right-hander’s outing.
The first, a slider, he executed often as a reliever.
The second, a sinker, is essential to succeeding as a starter.
He threw them on consistent pitches during one sequence in the third inning Tuesday night. The first was laced for a double and the other lofted for a homer in a four-run inning that sent Houston toward an 8-5 victory at Minute Maid Park. Those two pitches, surrounded by three walks and too many disadvantage counts, illustrate where Pallante’s start sputtered and what he needs to improve as the Cardinals have more starts to fill.
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“This is the stuff I’ve been working on over the past month or so, and this was a lineup full of guys I’m trying to implement that on,†Pallante said. “Still getting used to it. Got to get better.â€
The Cardinals received home runs on the third consecutive day from Alec Burleson and Nolan Gorman, and in his first homecoming to Houston rookie shortstop Masyn Winn hit a two-run homer. Winn’s third hit of the game – an infield groundball he outran for a single – helped put the tying run in scoring position and the go-ahead run on base in the seventh inning. The rally stalled there with Brendan Donovan’s inning-ending strikeout.
Four of the Cardinals’ five runs came on home runs, but the deficit proved too steep to surmount because of the six runs scored against Pallante (1-2).
Four came on those back-to-back pitches.
Pallante follows Matthew Liberatore into the rotation as a substitute for Steven Matz, the lefty who is on the injured list with a sore lower back. Matz is set to begin his rehab assignment with Class AAA Memphis on Thursday, and he’s targeted to throw two innings or between 40 and 45 pitches. That would put his next outing at 55 to 60 pitches, and the Cardinals are not planning for that to be in the majors. They want the lefty to build up his arm strength and also test his recovery before he’s in the rotation.
That leaves at least one and likely two more starts for the Cardinals to cover with someone else, and that leading someone on the active roster is Pallante.
When the Cardinals optioned Pallante to Class AAA and they decided to build his stamina and arm strength to be a starter, he also needed those innings to workshop a new pitch. Pallante once joked that he throws like a left-hander, and the movement on his four-seam fastball is a feisty, groundball-getting pitch against lefties that made him an effective, counterintuitive choice as a reliever. His reverse splits weren’t a secret and yet some opponents put lefties up against him only to see Pallante confound them.
As a starter, he would face more lineups like Houston’s – ones stacked with right-handers specifically because of his success against lefties.
The counter was a pitch to go inside, sometimes up on righties.
He needed a sinker.
“What’s new is throwing that two-seam fastball up and in,†Pallante said. “I used to just be fastball down, and making that alteration is a bit tough.â€
The two batters atop the Astros’ lineup, All-Stars Jose Altuve and Alex Bregman, got a glimpse of that in the first inning. Altuve, a right-handed hitter, ambushed a four-seam fastball for a single. Against Bregman, a right-handed batter, Pallante tried to go inside with the sinker and bruised Bregman with the pitch. A wild pitch followed. Four batters into the game and the Astros had two runs, a hit by pitch, a wild pitch, and two RBI groundouts. The groundouts are Pallante’s game, but getting to them was tricky Tuesday night.
Pallante got a strike on the first pitch to three of the first six batters he faced. In the third inning, as nine batters came to the plate, Pallante got a first-pitch strike on only two. One was the three-run homer. He was behind in the count to 11 of the 19 batters he faced in the game. And some of those counts tilted further toward the hitter and the Astros’ approach because they fouled off 12 of his 75 pitches, made contact with 26 of them total, and whiffed on only four of 30 swings.
“You could tell second time through they executed their game plan well, yeah,†manager Oliver Marmol said. “He gets a decent amount of weak contact. You look at the groundballs. You start looking at the exit velo on his balls in play compared to most pitchers, and it is a lot of weak contact. When you fall behind, it makes it harder. When you walk three in three, it makes it harder. You’re inviting more runners and you don’t punch people out – they had a good approach.â€
The second offered an example of how innings can go for Pallante.
He retired three of the four batters he faced. Two grounded out. The third, Altuve, broke his bat and had a soft lineout to third. Even the hit was a groundball single. Pallante displayed the stuff he’s been working on to advance as a starter against former MVP Jose Abreu, a right-handed hitter. In the second inning, the first five pitches Abreu saw were strikes. Pallante wedged two sinkers inside on Abreu, both for strikes. Still ahead in the count after Abreu did not chase the slider away, Pallante went back inside with a 95.5-mph sinker. Abreu grounded out.
Mix in the knuckle curve for a different look and that’s the at-bat and execution Pallante aims to get against right-handed batters.
What happened in the third showed the work in progress.
Pallante missed with four consecutive sinkers to walk Bregman on four pitches. He then threw all four-seam fastballs to left-handed slugger Yordan Alvarez and gave up a single. Both of them were on base when the defining sequence of the game, the illustrating sequence of what Pallante is trying to do, happened.
Against the right-handed Jeremy Pena, Pallante threw three consecutive sliders. He used the breaking ball just as he did as a reliever – trying to lure the aggressive-swinging Pena into chasing it outside the zone. Pallante just didn’t get the third one at 89.2 mph low enough.
Pena tagged it for an RBI double to right field.
The sinker was up next.
“Those two specific pitches – definitely rethinking the pitch I threw to Pena,†Pallante said late Tuesday night in the Cardinals’ clubhouse. “I had thrown him two sliders before and throwing the third one in a row – it’s always got to be a good one if you’re throwing it a third time in a row. The second one was a pretty good one. Looking back on it that’s not the (third) pitch I should have thrown there. If I had thrown it exactly where I wanted to it would have been fine. That one would be for chase.
“There is nothing new about trying to throw my slider away,†he continued. “But that is something that I’m working on improving.â€
What’s new is what came next.
With the right-handed Diaz at the plate and two runners in scoring position, Pallante wanted to go back to the pitch he’s been working and working and working on. The sinker had to be inside and up, right under Diaz’s hands. It ended up over the plate and up, right smack on Diaz’s bat barrel.
“I want that up and in and it was up and out over,†Pallante said. “That is something I haven’t done in the past, so I’m trying to do that at a higher level.â€
What that leads to sometimes is walks as he misses the zone.
What that leads to sometimes is extra-bases as over the plate.
What that leads to sometimes is two pitches defining a game.
Where this can still lead is the outs like he had in the third inning – the busted bat by a former MVP, the meek groundball from another former MVP – and where that leads would be where the Cardinals need someone to go at least in the coming week. Deeper into games as their fifth starter until Matz returns.
“There is nothing new learned from today; I just have to get better at what I’m trying to get better at,†Pallante said. “I had success when I executed my pitches, just not at a level that can compete at this level.â€