Cards might have found their long-term fifth starter in Pallante

ST. LOUIS -- While the Cardinals have been somewhat hesitant about fully committing to Andre Pallante as their long-term answer as the No. 5 pitcher in their starting rotation, the Reds would certainly give the 25-year-old right-hander their reluctant endorsement.

As he has started to evolve into more of an assertive pitcher who is not afraid to challenge hitters with his improving stuff and showing more grit against the right-handed hitters who bedeviled him previously, Pallante’s stature has begun to grow in the eyes of a Cardinals team that won behind him again on Friday.

“We’ve seen a little bit of an evolution from being timid to going out there and having some presence about him,” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said of Pallante, who pitched 5 1/3 scoreless innings on Friday and got plenty of help from his bullpen mates as the Cardinals defeated Cincinnati 1-0 before 40,220 fans at Busch Stadium. “It’s a big change. The mentality is different, the approach is different, and you can visibly see it.”

How about this for presence from Pallante, who has bounced between the bullpen and a starting role in the Minor Leagues and with the Cardinals in a rollercoaster 2024? While facing Reds star Elly De La Cruz in the top of the third with Jonathan India in scoring position, Pallante rocked back and fired a 98.6 mph four-seam fastball -- his fastest pitch of the season, per Statcast -- that induced a comebacker to escape the jam.

“That pitch especially, there was no caving in, and I’m coming right at you,” Pallante said of the battle against the switch-hitting De La Cruz, who was up lefty in that spot. “It’s my best pitch against your best swing. Having a little bit of confidence there helps, and I’m just trying to build off every outing.”

Pallante and De La Cruz squared off again in the fifth inning in arguably the biggest spot of the night. Well aware of the splits against him -- coming into the night, right-handed hitters had batted .367 against Pallante this season, while lefties had hit just .229 -- he wisely pitched around India, walking him, and faced De La Cruz with the bases loaded. Using a 96.9 mph fastball that ran inside, Pallante got De La Cruz to break his bat while tapping a slow roller to first baseman Paul Goldschmidt.

“India’s seen me pretty well over the last three years, and I feel pretty confident against De La Cruz and I feel like my fastball has been pretty good against him,” Pallante said. “I just trusted it and got inside on him.”

Mauled a night earlier in an 11-4 series-opening loss to the Reds, the Cardinals got some impressive work from Pallante, who lowered his ERA to 1.25 in four career starts against Cincinnati -- all four of them wins. In total, he’s made 14 career appearances vs. the Reds. On Friday, he scattered four hits and three walks for his win over the Reds in 2024. In six starts since moving into the rotation following a back injury to Steven Matz and struggles from Matthew Liberatore, Pallante is 4-2 with a 3.86 ERA.

The Cardinals' lone run came in the third inning when Reds’ star shortstop Elly De La Cruz went to shallow center field and caught a popup as his momentum carried him away from the infield. De La Cruz catching the pop up -- instead of deferring to charging center fielder Stuart Fairchild -- allowed Cardinals speedster Michael Siani to tag up and score from third base when De La Cruz’s throw was offline and resulted in an error.

Siani, a former Reds outfielder, has been involved in that exact play before with De La Cruz. When asked what happened before on similar plays, Siani cracked: “Well, usually they don’t run,” referring to the power of De La Cruz’s throwing arm.

Ryan Fernandez pitched out of a sixth-inning jam and Andrew Kittredge got the third out of the eighth inning to strand De La Cruz at third. Ryan Helsley pitched a scoreless ninth inning -- thanks to a Brendan Donovan catch at the wall to end the game -- converting his 29th consecutive save opportunity, extending his club record.

The biggest star on this night was Pallante, who has been absorbing knowledge from the other pitchers on staff to improve his own standing in the rotation.

“Every bullpen [other Cards starters] have been behind me, telling me, ‘That was good,’ and I’ve been feeding into that confidence,” Pallante said. “I’ve done a lot of work on the mental side of the game, reading books. In games, I’m getting mentally tired because I’m much more focused now than when I first came up. It used to be … call a pitch and throw it. Now it’s, ‘What do I want to happen? What do I want from myself?’ Mentally, I’m giving a lot, but it feeds into my confidence.”