Flaherty's strong start unravels in 5-run 7th

ST. LOUIS -- As if he wasn’t already disgusted enough with letting one of his finest performances of the season disintegrate with a poor start to Monday's seventh inning, a cross-armed, scowling Jack Flaherty had to watch from the top step of the Cardinals’ dugout as Pavin Smith smashed a grand slam over the wall in right-center.

Flaherty, who seemed to get over a slow start to the game by retiring 10 straight D-backs hitters at one point and 12 of 13 before the seventh inning, was already out of the game when Smith uncorked the first grand slam of his career.

Flaherty’s run of success throughout much of Monday’s game came to a screeching halt in the top of the seventh when he surrendered a home run, a double and a walk. That brought out the hook for Flaherty, who could only look on as Smith hit the grand slam that sealed the Cardinals' fate in a 6-3 loss to the D-backs at Busch Stadium on Monday night.

“There's never a point where you ever want to come out of the game,” Flaherty said of being pulled after allowing the first three batters of the seventh inning to reach. “If you do [want out], you probably shouldn't be playing this game.”

The frustrating result belied just how well Flaherty pitched as he attempted to string together a second straight victory.

The 27-year-old right-hander, who can be a free agent at the end of the season, is still trying to regain the form he had in 2019 (231 strikeouts in 196 1/3 innings) and early in 2021 (an 8-1 start derailed by a strained oblique and shoulder trouble) when he pitched like a dominant ace.

On Monday night, he allowed just four hits over six-plus innings, but he was tagged for four runs, with two coming on the grand slam hit off reliever Andre Pallante.

“That’s the first hit I gave up in however many innings it was,” Flaherty said of Ketel Marte’s solo home run that led off the seventh and began the unraveling. “I thought I pitched well. The pitch to Marte, he beat me [on the] backside. To [Lourdes] Gurriel [Jr.], you still want to be aggressive and fill up the zone and he put a good swing on a pitch [for a double].

"Then, it comes down to managing the inning and understanding what you have to do to get out of it and keep that runner on second. … You have to manage the situation there and that’s all I was trying to do with the [Christian] Walker at-bat [that ended with a walk and loaded the bases]."

Losses like this have been commonplace thus far to the Cardinals. For whatever reason, they are 0-6 in the first games of a series. They managed to rally to win two of those series, lose two of them and split four games with the Pirates over the weekend.

Pallante, one of the surprise stars of 2022 with his rookie success against left-handed hitters, relieved Flaherty in the seventh and struggled right away. He issued a four-pitch walk to Corbin Carroll -- the rookie’s first walk of the season -- and then hung a curveball to Smith, who hit it a Statcast-projected 414 feet over the wall. Pallante, who missed time last week with arm fatigue, pitched for a second straight night on Monday and said he felt strong.

“I wasn’t afraid to go in there and face Carroll, and the first batter you face, you’re supposed to face him head-on, and walking him on four pitches is unacceptable,” Pallante said. “It’s just execution. I’d like that [curveball to Smith] for chase. Big count, I’ve got one ball to work with and I’m trying to get that underneath the zone. Commanding your curveball is not just throwing it for strikes.”

Flaherty had his command working much of the game. After yielding a leadoff double and a broken-bat single to fall behind 1-0 after three pitches, he retired the next 10 Arizona hitters. His effectiveness -- which was helped by two double plays, strong defense from Gold Glover Brendan Donovan and the fifth caught stealing of the season by catcher Willson Contreras -- allowed him to retire 12 of 13 hitters leading up to the deciding seventh inning.

The most frustrating part of the night, Flaherty said, was allowing Arizona to rally an inning after the Cardinals had knotted the score at 1 on a Contreras RBI double.

“That’s frustrating, for sure,” Flaherty said. “We finally get a run and then to give it right back, something you take pride in is getting shutdown innings, and I didn’t do that there.”