Pallante's lengthy start pivotal for confidence, bullpen before win in extras

PITTSBURGH -- Given the nature of how many close games the Cardinals continue to play this season, their leverage relievers are all set to see their workloads increase by a good margin.

The Cardinals expect it to happen, but they are also trying to be smart about it, and hope that the starting staff can lend a hand in giving the unit some rest by going deep. In Thursday’s 3-2 win over the Pirates in 10 innings, that’s exactly what Andre Pallante did at PNC Park.

Pallante covered seven innings for the first time this season and the third time in his MLB career, and it allowed St. Louis’ offense -- which was quieted for most of the game -- to drive the go-ahead blow in extra innings.

Pedro Pagés doubled in automatic runner Michael Siani with a liner to left-center field that dropped just out of the reach of Michael A. Taylor, a strong defensive center fielder, and rolled to the wall.

Alec Burleson blooped a single to left to score Pagés soon after, which turned out to be crucial insurance. Before those hits, the Cardinals were 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position, as their only other run before the 10th came when Brendan Donovan scored from first on Dylan Carlson’s double in the second inning.

“Everyone’s grinding,” manager Oliver Marmol said. “Another close one, and we came up on top.”

But the main reason the offense had as many opportunities as it did was Pallante, who landed his sinker as well as he has all year to complement his go-to fastball, which Pirates hitters had trouble timing up outside of a center-cut offering to Bryan Reynolds for a solo homer in the fourth.

“That one pitch, it landed in Reynolds’ honeyhole,” Pagés said. “But other than that, his stuff was on today. He was able to attack these guys -- and that’s just what he has to do. His stuff is nasty. He just has to keep attacking guys, getting ahead and trusting his stuff.”

That trust in himself was there on Thursday in a way that even Marmol noticed from the dugout.

“You could see it from pitch one: There’s a certain presence to him that we didn’t see before, we didn’t see last year,” Marmol said. “Regardless of starting or in the ‘pen, he looks like he belongs. He’s carrying himself like he belongs, and it’s been really good.”

Equally important as the confidence these kinds of results give Pallante is the conditioning. He admitted that he hasn’t come out of outings the way he would like to for much of the season, feeling gassed late in starts.

But on Thursday, Pallante needed only four pitches to complete the seventh. It was a start so efficient that, given the state of the taxed bullpen -- which came up huge in the late innings as Andrew Kittredge and John King worked through pressure-packed innings -- it was worth wondering whether he could have kept going.

“I gave every pitch I had all I could right there,” Pallante said. “I mean maybe I could’ve. I don’t know.

"But I definitely felt like I’ve been wavering toward the end of my outings over the last couple of weeks, and I’ve been working on trying to get that endurance up.”

The Cardinals now head to Washington, D.C., on a national holiday in a decent spot pitching-wise thanks to the length Pallante provided, and they are in a great spot in the standings, winning three of their past four series along with a four-game split vs. the Braves. Taking a series after two long, close affairs can do wonders for a team trying to grit out three more series until rest comes at the All-Star break.

“It carries you through, especially when it’s hot out there,” Marmol said of winning the series finale. “Guys are grinding, and we have a lot of guys who like playing every day. So being able to win that last game of the series, jump on a [plane] and head to the next series, you feel good about it.”