Lack of control costs Gant, Cards in finale

John Gant's time in the rotation has been marked by his high-wire acts. Bases-loaded situations, dazzling catches to help him escape, nearly as many walks as strikeouts through his first six outings -- it hasn’t been how the Cardinals drew it up, but Gant still seems to be getting results.

So call Thursday’s 4-1 series finale loss to the Mets at Busch Stadium not an aberration but a microcosm. Gant walked six Mets -- including three in a row in the fifth -- setting a career high in free passes and handing New York a lead in the fifth that it would not look back from to split the four-game set. Cardinals pitching, for its part, allowed 11 walks on the day -- a season high.

“I mean, 11 walks?” said manager Mike Shildt. “Gosh darn. There's no place for that."

Gant entered Thursday with the highest walk rate (16.5 percent) among all pitchers (minimum 20 innings pitched). By the time he left the Busch Stadium mound with one out in the fifth, a stark divide played out: Gant’s 2.15 ERA stood as 19th best in the Majors (also min. 20 innings); his 1.70 WHIP was fifth worst.

Not one other arm in the bottom 30 of WHIP had an ERA under 3.50 as of last pitch on Thursday, let alone under 2.50.

“I just threw too many balls, man,” Gant said. “Got to mix some more strikes in, for sure.”

But it didn’t matter much on Thursday, as the Cardinals’ offense was listless against Mets starter Taijuan Walker, who retired 18 consecutive batters after an error in the second led to a run and struck out eight on the afternoon, sandwiched around a brief rain delay in the sixth.

Unlike St. Louis’ six pitchers, Walker and two relievers didn’t offer a free base.

“He was able to keep a really good lineup to one run,” Shildt said, “and by doing that, again, no walks.”

And Thursday could have been much worse.

The Mets, somehow, stranded 17 runners on base -- their highest mark of the season. Until Dominic Smith’s RBI single in the eighth, every run the Mets scored came on a bases-loaded walk.

“The fact that we're in a 4-1 game while giving up 11 walks, you can look at as being kind of impressive,” said catcher Andrew Knizner.

Gant was central to that storyline. By the time he walked Kevin Pillar to load the bases in the fifth, Shildt -- knowing the escape acts Gant has on his resume this season and in Thursday’s game alone -- gave his starter the benefit of the doubt.

One more walk to Jonathan Villar -- capped by a borderline pitch -- ended Gant’s day. Kodi Whitley’s bases-loaded walk an at-bat later made it four consecutive walks by Cardinals pitching.

“One thing with Johnny, though, that I could I could justify and did -- the guy’s been a pitch-maker,” Shildt said. “Johnny’s played in a lot of traffic, and he’s been able to dodge a lot of traffic, and he's been able to do it pretty much all year. He got the benefit of the doubt.”

Where does Gant go from here? He seized a spot in the rotation during Spring Training partly due to performance but also due to injuries. When Kwang Hyun Kim returned from the injured list, he was slid down to the fifth starter slot. And with Miles Mikolas appearing to be just around the corner from doing the same, Gant’s chances to start may now need to come in more of a spot role.

To this point, Gant has been able to find some of the big escapes thanks to those who play behind him. Harrison Bader’s stellar sliding catch on the first batter of the game was just a precursor to Justin Williams’ heroics.

With the bases loaded in the third, Williams raced back on a Pillar fly ball that appeared to be tracking foul. No matter. He leaped, came down with it and provided a sorely needed injection of emotion into a game that waffled into the late afternoon without much to inspire.

“Almost every time I speak to you guys, we have an elite defense,” Gant said. “Just got to give them more chances to work.”