Walks burn Gant as Cards' woes continue

CHICAGO -- Come the first walk, it was a blip. By the fourth, it was an inauspicious trend. After the fifth, and especially after the bases-loaded plunk, it was an all-too-familiar song playing out for John Gant and the Cardinals.

Saturday’s 7-2 loss to the Cubs at Wrigley Field was a continuation of concerns already known far too well. As Chicago worked its way to a fourth win in five meetings of this rivalry this season, it did so with seven runs scored on just five hits. It took what the Cardinals gave -- and have continued to give teams since the middle of May, and especially over the past two weeks.

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The defeat was the Cardinals’ 10th in their last 12 games and pushed St. Louis to a .500 record for the first time since April 28.

“The fact of the matter is we haven't been able to be consistent,” said manager Mike Shildt. “That’s a word I've used a lot over my tenure in this job. We need to be more consistent with our ability to throw strikes. …

“We haven’t been able to overcome this differential on walks, and it's been giving away too much. … I have to figure out a way to make it better, and it’s ultimately on my shoulders.”

Most concerning on Saturday was the culprit of such struggles -- and what they resembled. Gant, despite what the underlying numbers may say, has been the Cardinals’ steadying force through the first two months of the season, a role greatly elevated by injuries to Jack Flaherty and other hurlers.

Now -- after lasting just 1 2/3 innings, with five free passes issued in the second frame -- the right-hander has seen his high-wire act go awry two showings in a row, with his ERA ballooning from 1.60 to 3.36 in the process.

“Johnny couldn’t locate his fastball today,” Shildt said. “Almost as simple as that.”

Gant was not available to speak with reporters postgame.

The Cardinals continue to acknowledge their dearth of healthy starting pitching, a need that will start to be aided with Kwang Hyun Kim’s impending return. Even after Kim rejoins the Cards, though, two-fifths of the rotation will remain on the shelf, with Flaherty and Miles Mikolas not in the immediate plans.

So call Gant’s evening a reminder of a concern on a night full of them; eight staff-wide walks made it seven games with as many this season.

But on Saturday, it was the circumstances rather than the free passes alone. Already leading the Majors by having faced 108 plate appearances with the bases loaded entering the evening, the Cardinals added five to that total on Saturday.

They ended as such: popout, walk, single, hit-by-pitch and putout. The run-scoring walk was the Major League-leading 16th offered by the Cardinals this season. The next closest team (Toronto) has 10.

Jake Woodford was brought in to replace Gant with two outs and the bases full in the second inning. He has faced the most batters with the bases loaded this season, at 18. Gant has faced 12 batters with the bags juiced, walking two.

“I'm not here to complain about it. It's been what it's been,” Shildt said. “We have to figure out a way to get better. We start to make some momentum, and then it happens, and here we are talking about it.”

Frustrating for the Cardinals is that they believe their process should lead in a more generous direction, even in spite of the rash of injuries. They believe in their process, citing past years of success, but also realize they can’t rely on it solely when the results don’t come in tandem.

“We understand the recipe,” Shildt said. “We just need to be more consistent with what that recipe looks like. … We're doing our best to adapt and make adjustments, but we also want to make sure we stay at their core principles that won us a lot of baseball games.”

Paul DeJong, who slugged his first homer since coming off the injured list in the third on the heels of Nolan Arenado’s second-inning blast, noticed one area the clubhouse may be pressing.

“Yadi said before the game to me, he's like, ‘We just have to have fun out there and enjoy it,’” DeJong said. “We're a little too stiff sometimes and a little too tense. Overall [we need to keep] just playing loose and playing together, not worried about failing and being aggressive. … If we can kind of all adapt that attitude, I think we'll be just fine as a group.”