MILWAUKEE — For just the second time this season, the Cardinals started a game with star slugger Paul Goldschmidt out of the starting lineup.
Goldschmidt entered the day having started 35 of the 36 games the Cardinals had played through Wednesday. He’d been scheduled for a day off Wednesday prior to the game’s postponement.
He didn’t start Thursday in Milwaukee, and manager Oliver Marmol said he wanted to give Goldschmidt at least a pair of “work days” in hopes of helping him get back on track at the plate.
“I definitely wanted to give him at least the two days, and then I’ll talk to him today and see how that work went out on the field today and then make a decision from there,” Marmol said before the game.
Goldschmidt came into Thursday in an 0-for-24 slump that included him going 0 for 20 in the last homestand. That’s the longest career hitless stretch in one season for the 36-year-old right-handed hitting seven-time All-Star first baseman and former National League Most Valuable Player (2022). He had an 0-for-25 stretch that spanned two seasons in 2017-18.
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Through his first 35 games, Goldschmidt batted .195 with a .287 on-base percentage and a .263 slugging percentage with five extra-base hits (two home runs, three doubles). Prior to the start of his recent hitless stretch, he’d registered his only four-hit game of the season April 30 in Detroit.
Asked if there’s a definite benefit to having a day out of the lineup to focus on his pregame work and making adjustments at the plate, Goldschmidt said, “Sometimes there can (be). It doesn’t guarantee success, but one of the weird things about baseball is we don’t ever really get a practice day. You can work on stuff, but in the back of your mind, you always know there’s a game coming up — outside of probably a starting pitcher who has got his bullpen.”
Goldschmidt said the day off doesn’t significantly change what he’d typically do once he get to the ballpark. He compared the day off to a spring training day, where he can “focus on the work a little bit more” without preparing for four or five at-bats.
Statistically, opposing pitchers have thrown Goldschmidt the lowest percentage of fastballs (54.5%) of any season in his career. Goldschmidt downplayed that as a significant factor and instead pointed to a lack of success against fastballs, breaking balls and off-speed pitches.
“I really haven’t performed on basically every (type of) pitch, location and situation,” Goldschmidt said. “It’s just been a combination of a lot of different things. It’s not me trying to target one thing the pitchers are doing. It’s about trying to put good swings on the ball and have good at-bats.”
Goldschmidt has enjoyed success at American Family Field during his career. He enters this series with 18 home runs at this ballpark, the sixth-most among all visiting players and the second-most among active players behind only Joey Votto’s 24 home runs.
“He’s a very honest and very good self-evaluator,” Marmol said. “So you just want to get him in the right mindset and then make sure he feels, mechanically, where he needs to be. Then you shoot him back in there and you keep rolling.”
Rotation questions
The Cardinals filled in for injured starting pitcher Steven Matz (lower back strain) by having left-hander Matthew Liberatore make a spot start Sunday in the series finale against the Chicago White Sox.
Wednesday’s postponement allowed the Cardinals to hold off on making a decision on how they’ll fill in the next time Matz’s rotation spot comes around. Sonny Gray, who had been scheduled to start Wednesday, started Thursday night’s opener in Milwaukee instead. Lance Lynn, who had been set to start Thursday, will start Friday night. Marmol has not announced pitching plans beyond Friday.
Liberatore will be available out of the bullpen to start the series, but he could be in play for another start depending on his usage in the coming days.
Left-hander Zack Thompson, who began this season in the major league rotation filling in for Gray, started Thursday for Triple-A Memphis. Thompson wouldn’t be on turn to pitch again before Tuesday.
Memphis’ scheduled starters for the next three days are Michael McGreevy on Friday, Andre Pallante on Saturday and Adam Kloffenstein on Sunday. Pallante, who began the season in the bullpen in the majors, and Kloffenstein are currently on the Cardinals’ 40-man roster. McGreevy, a former first-round draft pick, has been a non-roster invitee to big league camp the past two seasons but is not on the 40-man roster.
Contreras surgery successful
Cardinals starting catcher Willson Contreras had surgery on his fractured left forearm Wednesday, and he did not travel with the team to Milwaukee. He’s not expected to be around the club again until they return to Ƶ after series in Milwaukee and Anaheim.
“I talked to him right before,” Marmol said. “He was in the right mindset. He did more of the grieving the day before and was in a good mindset of, ‘It is what it is, and I’m going to be here to support the team. Get this done and work like hell to get back.’”