MILWAUKEE — The four-seam fastball that got a hunk of the strike zone but not the call was only the beginning of how Andre Pallante’s start came apart on him in the first inning. What followed was an overreliance on a pitch he had purposefully avoided, walks galore and baseballs soaring in ways they don’t normally against the Cardinals right-hander.
He had a brief diagnosis of the issue.
“I reverted to who I was before,†Pallante said.
He means before he returned as a starter who steadied the Cardinals.
As Pallante’s reinvention as a starter shifts to his education as a starter and audition to remain a starter, he let one inning get away from him before the Cardinals eventually watched Milwaukee walk away with the game. The Brewers asserted once again their hold over their rivals and the National League Central with a 9-3 victory Monday afternoon at American Family Field. The Brewers slugged three home runs, including Willy Adames’ 29th of the season on his 29th birthday and rookie Jackson Chourio’s grand slam.
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Each of those homers brought home two runners who had been walked by the Cardinals. They gave more walks away (eight) than Milwaukee had hits (seven) in the loss.
“We’ve been good at not walking people,†manager Oliver Marmol said. “Today, that wasn’t the case.â€
The Brewers lead the National League in walk rate and are one of three teams in the majors with more than 500 walks this season. They’ve nourished their offense with it and on Labor Day used it to increase their lead in the division to 12 games on the Cardinals. Milwaukee is a remarkable 30-17 against division foes.
Milwaukee lowered its magic number while increasing the Cardinals’ magic-trick number. At 69-69, the Cardinals have 24 games remaining to overtake as many as three teams and at least five games in the standings for a playoff spot. They’ve rallied to win or split recent series against winning teams after dropping the first game, but any momentum the Cardinals had from their jubilant weekend of winning at Yankee Stadium vanished fast in the first inning.
It began with a call that should have ended the inning.
Pallante wedged a four-seam fastball on the inner edge of the strike zone against Brewers designated hitter Jake Bauers. The pitch caught the zone, but home plate umpire Alfonso Marquez called it a ball. Instead of a strikeout to end the inning, Pallante lost his grip on the plate appearance and walked the left-handed-hitting Bauers.
“It was unfortunate that that pitch should have ended the inning there,†Marmol said. “That’s a punch-out. And it leads to a walk and a homer. So (Pallante) did his job in the first of making pitches. Unfortunately, he has to throw some extra ones there, and it leads to runs.â€
Pallante said it wasn’t just extra pitches, it was too many of the same pitch.
As part of his transition from reliever to starter over several weeks at Class AAA Memphis, Pallante had to develop a pitch to attack right-handed batters. He had pitches that foiled lefties. Right-handers did all the damage to him. His solution was to improve a two-seam fastball, one that could keep right-handed hitters on the ground with its sink and also chase some strikeouts up in the zone. That pitch helped him become a starter.
So with two on, two out and the right-handed hitting Adames at the plate ...
Pallante threw him eight consecutive fastballs, only one of which was a two-seamer.
Adames crushed the seventh four-seam fastball he saw for a three-run homer that tied some Major League Baseball history. Only Ken Griffey Jr. in 1996 has had as many three-run homers as Adames’ 13 in a single season.
“That should not be a primary pitch,†Pallante said of the four-seamer. “Throwing five of them in a row — of any pitch — is a bad idea, especially one that is not my best pitch. ... Really what I’m more upset with is the way I wasn’t throwing my fastball in to righties. That’s a very important pitch for me. That’s the biggest thing I changed. It’s given me a lot of success this year. Not doing that in the first inning, I felt a little trapped, kind of felt like I reverted back to where I was, not where I’ve gotten.â€
Pallante (6-7) walked a career-high five batters and pitched through the fifth inning, but he did so leaning into the four-seam fastball. He threw 51 of them — twice as many as any other pitch.
He got only one swing and miss on it.
He allowed two homers total.
“Both of those home runs were poorly sequenced at-bats from my part,†Pallante said. “They were horrible sequenced.â€
Down quickly after Adames’ home run, the Cardinals played catch-up all game. Rookie catcher Pedro Pages hit two solo homers for his first multi-homer game of his career, and he hoisted the Cardinals within reach of the Brewers each time. The Cardinals were down by two after three, down by three after five and then in the sixth went aggressively to pinch hitter Luken Baker to potentially flip the game. The Brewers called on lefty reliever Bryan Hudson, and Baker, who homered off Hudson earlier this season, greeted him with a pinch-hit sacrifice fly. That cleaved the Brewers’ lead down to 5-3.
The game went haywire from there with more walks.
Reliever Riley O’Brien walked two of the first three batters he faced in the sixth inning and sandwiched a double in between. The bottom of the Brewers order all reached base to get the inning back around to Chourio at No. 2. The 20-year-old arriving star drilled a 1-1 pitch 420 feet to put it and the game out of reach for the Cardinals. Chourio’s second career grand slam set the final score and assured four of the eight Brewers who walked scored.
Opposite Brewers starter Freddy Peralta (10-7), Pallante felt he strayed from his game plan because of early misses in the strike zone. He did not have an immediate feel for his sinker but thought after the game that wasn’t a reason to pocket it so early, so often.
“That’s all of it, right?†Pallante said. “It’s learning from poorly sequenced at-bats or maybe not understanding where I’m at in the lineup. Or how to get myself prepared to go out there and pitch. My first couple of starts, I had a really good stretch in the first innings. I felt comfortable out there. The last couple, I have not felt comfortable out there. Now it’s come back, learn, try to make the adjustment and come out in the first inning feeling strong.â€
And he knows he’ll get that chance.
As Steven Matz returns to the rotation from injury Tuesday and Lance Lynn’s return is on the horizon for as soon as next week, the Cardinals feel Pallante has pitched well enough as a starter to remain a starter — and see how far it takes him, not just this season but into the offseason and their planning for next. Marmol’s first comments after the loss Monday reflected that as he said, “Everyone is allowed an outing that doesn’t go their way.â€
“You get out of that first (inning), it just feels different, confidence-wise,†Marmol said. “You stay locked in. But you have to overcome that. It’s part of the game. You’re not going to get every call.â€