A tale of 2 at-bats, 1 loss

Cardinals starting pitcher Andre Pallante throws during the first inning of a game against the Reds on Sunday, Aug. 31, 2025, in Cincinnati.

Abdoul Sow, Associated Press

CINCINNATI — With the bases loaded due in part to an error and two walks in the second inning, Cardinals starter Andre Pallante faced Cincinnati leadoff hitter, left-handed batter TJ Friedl. Pallante did what he does and has for a few years in those spots:

He attacked Friedl with fastballs, falling behind on the first and falling into a pattern with the second.

Friedl flared the second fastball toward center field for a two-run single and the Reds’ first lead Sunday at Great American Ball Park.

Hours later, as he discussed his start, Pallante referenced that at-bat and those two pitches and offered a review that was as revealing as it was short.

“That’s what I was,” he said.

The rest of the game was him trying to explore what he could be.

People are also reading…

In a 7-4 loss to Cincinnati that kept the Cardinals from sweeping the series and leapfrogging the Reds in the standings, Pallante hunted for the strikeouts while his teammates were a lineup lousy with them. The Cardinals struck out 15 times in the loss, and 10 of those came from the bottom four spots in the lineup. Jordan Walker struck out in all four of his at-bats.

Those whiffs bogged down an offense that kept the game close thanks to Jimmy Crooks lofting a home run for his first major league hit and leadoff hitter Lars Nootbaar’s two hits that defied Reds outfielders.

The Reds seized on an error in the second inning to score three unearned runs against Pallante and added two solo homers later to widen the lead. While Cardinals hitters were experiencing the kind of strikeouts Pallante needs to tighten his hold on a rotation spot, the right-hander was dealing with a side effect of chasing such strikeouts.

“When you look at what he’s trying to work on with the spin and not strictly being reliant on the ground ball, it’s going to come with some walks,” manager Oli Marmol said. “But you also get six punch-outs instead of two, right? Until he gets even more comfortable landing some of it, then that’s a little bit of what you see. The best chance for him to give himself a shot to be in the rotation is to get that.”

Pallante (6-13) struck out six for the second-highest total in any of his past 13 starts. He offset that by matching a season high with four walks.

The Reds’ three-run second inning — the one that climaxed with Friedl’s two-run single — featured two walks that loaded the bases ahead of the leadoff hitter’s single. But all four of the walks Pallante issued came only after he got the batter to a full count. Twice, he walked a batter as he experimented with ways to lure that Red into a strikeout.

In that revealing second inning, Pallante got ahead 0-2 on Spencer Steer. The Cardinals right-hander then spun four consecutive breaking balls, missing to different degrees on all four and giving Steer the walk. Three batters later, against No. 9 hitter Matt McLain, Pallante got into a full count and walked McLain on a slider.

In the third inning, Pallante again got ahead 0-2 and leaned into his fastball to strike out Gavin Lux. He fouled off a pitch and then took a slider for ball four.

Three of the walks came on sliders Pallante tried to throw so they looked like they were in the strike zone until they weren’t — or as he put it, “strike to ball.”

“At least I was challenging them,” he said.

In Pallante’s fifth and final inning, Reds cleanup hitter Austin Hays hit the two-run homer that broke a 3-3 tie and catapulted Cincinnati toward the win. Pallante got ahead in the count with two fastballs and then tried to tease Hays into a strikeout with breaking balls out of the zone.

Pallante skipped a slider in the dirt. He came back with a 2-2 slider that Hays dove toward but checked his swing just before coming around for strike three. Trying to land another slider closer to the zone, Pallante got too much of it, hung it and then watched it travel as Hays drilled his 12th homer of the season.

Executing a breaking ball for a strikeout there is where Pallante aims to improve.

“When you got an 0-2 count, you’re trying to get them to swing and miss at something out of the zone,” Pallante said. “(I was) just a little bit too far out there. He got pretty close. He checked out both of them. Just didn’t get them in the perfect spot.”

Pallante threw more sliders than any other style of pitch, and he got nine swings on them. Four put a ball in play. Two missed entirely. He landed as many sliders for a strike (seven) as the Reds made contact on them (three fouls, four in play for seven total). Cincinnati had seven swings and misses total in the game against Pallante, and four of them came on a breaking ball.

Improving his breaking balls is an emphasis of his between-start bullpens, and it is likely the breakthrough he needs to continue his bid to be a starter and part of the 2026 rotation plan.

“He’s getting a little bit more of that swing and miss, a little bit more chase, but that’s also going to lead to some more walks until he can refine it and get to the point where he can limit the walks and keep the swings and miss,” Marmol said. “It goes hand in hand as he works through this.”

Pallante isolated two at-bats as examples of his past and his progress.

Consider them before-and-after images.

In the second, he went after Friedl with fastballs with the bases loaded, the Cardinals leading by a run and a strikeout being especially helpful in that moment. Two innings later, Pallante had a different approach. He got ahead by landing a slider and then a curveball for strikes. Friedl fouled off three four-seam fastballs as Pallante continued to move the Reds’ leadoff hitter around the zone. For the ninth pitch of the at-bat, Pallante dropped a 78 mph curveball.

Friedl took it for a called third strike.

“The second (inning) at-bat I had against him is the old Andre, right?” the right-hander said. “Coming into a big situation, you’ve got a lefty coming up, bases loaded, two outs and I throw a first-pitch ball. It’s like, what am I going to do? I throw another fastball. What I’m trying to do is the next at-bat. I get him 0-2. I have two breaking balls, then 3-2. I throw another breaking ball, he takes it in the zone, looking. Strikeout. That’s who I’m trying to be more of and less of the very predictable with multiple fastballs. He’s hunting one thing only so he can put a good swing on it.”

Pallante gave him something different.

And what’s next is doing that more consistently.

“There’s still work to be done there,” Marmol said. “It’s up to him to grow and take steps in the right direction in order to prove he belongs in the rotation.”

St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Lynn Worthy joined Jeff Gordon to discuss Andre Pallante’s recent struggles on the mound and Nolan Gorman’s progress at the plate.

Photos: Cardinals strike out 15 times in series-finale loss to Reds