Pallante finds rhythm, gives 6 solid innings in Cards' tight loss

PITTSBURGH -- It wasn’t shaping up to be Andre Pallante's best night at the ballpark in the early innings of the Cardinals’ 2-1 loss to Pittsburgh on Monday at PNC Park.

The right-hander needed 26 pitches to get through the opening frame and 65 to make it through the first three. Still, he found a way to keep the Pirates’ offense at bay.

After laboring to get outs early in the contest, Pallante went on to fire six innings of one-run ball on 98 pitches while scattering just three hits. It marked his third start since joining the rotation in late May that he lasted six or more innings and allowed one or fewer runs.

Pallante found a rhythm in the second half of his outing and ended it by retiring the final seven batters he faced.

“I felt like [I was] maybe a little froggy from the [12] days between throwing with the All-Star break and stuff,” Pallante said. “Towards the end there, I was able to find a little bit more of the zone. They were getting a little more aggressive by putting balls in play earlier, which helped with the pitch count.”

After the first time through the order, Pallante began throwing his four-seamer away to left-handed hitters more often as opposed to inside as he usually does. He also started using Pittsburgh’s aggressive approach against them.

“I think towards the beginning they were very passive,” Pallante said. “I threw some pitches that were just off and they took them. And then towards the end, they got a little more aggressive. So [they were] good pitches, and I felt like I put them in the zone more and they were swinging at them.”

Pallante’s sole blemish came in the third inning, when Andrew McCutchen supplied a one-out double before Oneil Cruz roped an RBI single to give the Pirates its first lead of the game.

Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said the early game struggles weren’t surprising given his 12-day layoff between live outings.

“He really [battled],” Marmol said. “A long stretch of not pitching with the All-Star break so you expect him to not be very sharp at the beginning, but I felt like he got a lot better as the game went on. He got more efficient, and it allowed him to actually get us late into that game. Battled through those first few innings, high pitch count. He did a nice job.”

In regards to the key adjustments he made midway through the game, Pallante gave all of the credit to his batterymate, Pedro Pagés.

“I thought it was almost all Pagés today,” Pallante said. “Pagés called some stuff that wasn't part of my game plan but noticed I was doing a good job of. A huge credit to him calling a great game, framing a lot of really good pitches at the bottom of the zone, got me some strikes.

“Really, I think it wasn't a ton of growth on my part, but more him.”

The Pirates took the lead for good when Bryan Reynolds led off the eighth inning with a base hit, later reaching second on a wild pitch and scoring on an RBI single by Nick Gonzales.

With both teams back in the hunt for a postseason spot, Marmol explained after the game how everything is bigger now. Despite Pallante pitching well, one play late in the game changed it from possibly being a thrilling victory to a disappointing loss to a divisional foe.

“That’s why every decision, every pitch, every at-bat seems extremely magnified because there is no room for error,” Marmol said. “The margins have been really thin all year. We’ve played a lot of these games, like the one we played tonight. One ball in the dirt leads to a runner moving up and it just changes the game a little bit.”