Liberatore's 'bad habits' present in Cardinals' loss to A's

ST. LOUIS -- Six nights removed from the greatest pitching performance of his career, Matthew Liberatore was challenged with not trying to repeat it, but instead showing that he had made progress toward being a dependable pitcher the Cardinals can count on in 2024.

However, the opposite occurred in an unsightly 8-0 loss to the A's on Wednesday night at Busch Stadium when Liberatore’s “bad habits” resurfaced, which resulted in a bad night for himself and the Redbirds.

Unable to find the velocity that helped him get a career-best 15 whiffs in a dazzling eight-inning, two-hit outing last Thursday against the Rays, Liberatore was hit hard in a four-run first inning by Oakland. The A's came into the game with the second-lowest batting average (.222) in the franchise’s history, but they got to the 23-year-old left-hander for six runs (five earned) on 10 hits and three walks in 4 1/3 innings.

“Definitely, I feel like I reverted to some old habits after that first inning,” Liberatore said after the Cardinals failed to polish off their second home series sweep of the season. “Obviously, that’s not what I want to do, but that’s what happened.”

In the days leading up to last week’s start in St. Petersburg, Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol and pitching coach Dusty Blake spoke of finally unlocking some of the massive potential within the 6-foot-4, 200-pound Liberatore. In building a strengthening program for Liberatore and using film study to make his mechanics more efficient, Liberatore was able to add some much-needed velocity to his five-pitch arsenal.

Against the Rays, Liberatore’s four-seam fastball averaged 94.3 mph and his sinker consistently set at 95 mph. On Wednesday, the four-seamer was at 92.5 mph and he got just one whiff with it, while the sinker was down to 92.9 mph and it also commanded just one swing and miss.

Marmol, who has pushed Liberatore to be more assertive and to pitch with a purpose, confirmed that the loss in the series finale was a step back.

“At the end of the day, if you thought this was going to look like this, it’s not at the [same] level [as last week],” Marmol said, pointing out the differences between Liberatore’s effectiveness in his past two starts. “When you’re talking about developing at the highest level, there are going to be ups and downs. He’ll go right back to work and get after it, and we’ll look at it after his next outing.”

Very little went right for a Cardinals squad that lost outfielder Lars Nootbaar (lower abdominal contusion) and shortstop Tommy Edman (right calf contusion). Nootbaar fouled a bouncing ball off his groin and tried to stay in the game, but he eventually had to leave. Edman fouled a pitch off his right shin and left the game to get X-rays that showed no fracture to the bone. Both are listed as day to day, but it was another blow to a team already without Willson Contreras (right hip tightness) and Nolan Gorman (lower back tightness).

Liberatore, Gorman’s childhood friend from the Phoenix area, thought he was poised to have another stellar performance after working throughout the week to make sure he was strong for Wednesday’s outing.

“It’s invaluable, because that’s where you put in all the work to let the results show on a day like today,” Liberatore said of his weight room work, bullpen throwing sessions and video study. “It wasn’t like I didn’t put in the work. I had another great week this week. I got a bunch of great workouts in, arm care and the whole nine, but it’ll take some time to break bad habits.”

By “bad habits,” Liberatore is referring to his mechanics being out of sync -- something that takes velocity and accuracy off pitches. In trying to get him motivated to attack his workouts with more ferocity, the Cardinals have shown Liberatore the success he has when he pitches at 95 mph or greater and how hard he gets hit when his velocity dips. When he couldn’t command pitches against Oakland, he more closely resembled the pitcher who struggled much of the past two seasons instead of the one who thrived less than a week ago against Tampa Bay.

“It’s frustrating, because I felt like I turned a corner a little bit in [St. Petersburg],” said Liberatore, who had three strikeouts in the first, but also surrendered four runs in the frame. “I felt great in the first, the [velocity] was there and stuff was there, and I just wasn’t able to find it after that. So, pretty frustrating.”