In rare rocky start by Cardinals’ Matthew Liberatore, Rangers pull away for win

ARLINGTON, Texas — Having allowed five runs in total across his previous four starts entering Friday, Cardinals starter Matthew Liberatore could not get past the second frame against the Rangers before matching that figure.

Liberatore surrendered one run in the first inning and four in the second, leaving the Cardinals in an early deficit they could not climb out of in an 11-1 loss to the Rangers at Globe Life Field. The five runs allowed by the left-hander matched a season high. He had not given up that many runs since he allowed five runs on April 7 against the Pirates.

Although Liberatore managed to complete three scoreless innings before his exit, four runs surrendered by rookie Gordon Graceffo in the sixth inning and two allowed by rookie Matt Svanson in the seventh inning left the Cardinals with their biggest deficit in a loss since losing by 11 runs on April 6 to the Red Sox.

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Coming off back-to-back wins in Baltimore that lifted them to a season-best eight games above .500, the Cardinals were held to three hits and struck out six times against Rangers starter Jack Leiter.

The Cardinals (32-25) had two runners reach scoring position against Leiter. The first came when Willson Contreras singled and advanced on a wild pitch in the second inning. Their other opportunity to hit with a runner in scoring position against Leiter came in the fifth inning when Yohel Pozo singled and advanced to second when Victor Scott II walked. Both of those scoring chances ended without the Cardinals getting a hit.

The one run scored by the Cardinals came on a double from Lars Nootbaar in the eighth inning.

Second inning struggles

Following a lineout of Ezequiel Duran that signaled the second out of the second inning as runners stood on first and second base, Liberatore got within one strike of ending the inning without damage when he had Sam Haggerty in a 1-2 count. But a curveball taken for a ball in the dirt and a slider that missed above the strike zone allowed Haggerty to linger.

On the sixth pitch of their encounter, Liberatore left a fastball above the strike zone that Haggerty lined into the right field corner, allowing Kyle Higashioka and Marcus Semien to score.

In the following at-bat, Liberatore had a cutter and curveball miss the strike zone against Wyatt Langford before seeing a 90.3 mph cutter pulled to left-center field for a home run. The home run put the Cardinals in a 4-0 deficit and represented the fourth homer Liberatore has allowed this season.

A flyout from Corey Seager aided Liberatore in escaping the second inning.

Following the four-run inning, Liberatore recorded four strikeouts against the next 11 batters he faced before exiting the game after five innings and 91 pitches (55 strikes).

In eight starts after his five-run outing in Pittsburgh, Liberatore posted a 1.91 ERA in 47 innings across eight outings, which includes a rain-shortened outing on May 1 against the Reds. But on Friday, a first-inning error that led to a run and a four-run frame in the second inning that included a two-run triple raised the lefty’s ERA on the season from 2.73 to 3.08.

Leiter limits Cardinals

Leiter, who allowed six runs in his previous 18 innings, held the Cardinals scoreless and to three hits in 5 2/3 innings of work, leaving him an out shy of a third quality start in his previous four outings. Leiter’s outing began with him retiring the first three batters he faced on 14 pitches and ended when he plunked Contreras on the left shoulder with a 97.5 mph sinker.

While flashing a five-pitch mix highlighted by a fastball he revved up to 99 mph, Leiter baffled the Cardinals with a changeup that led to five whiffs on six swings. Leiter used his changeup to collect a swinging strikeout of Ivan Herrera in the second inning and another on Contreras in the fourth.

When the Cardinals placed runners on first and second base in the fifth inning thanks to a single from Pozo and a walk from Scott, Leiter landed his changeup for a called strike to put Nootbaar in a 1-2 count and went back to the changeup two pitches later to get Nootbaar to strikeout on a swing and miss.

Winn’s errorless streak snapped

Shortstop Masyn Winn entered Friday as the only qualified shortstop in the majors with a fielding percentage of 1.000 but had his errorless start to 2025 end to begin the first inning.

Winn’s throw to first base on a ground ball from Haggerty pulled Contreras off the bag and put Contreras in a position where he could not apply a tag on Haggerty. A scorer’s decision ruled the errant throw a fielding error, marking Winn’s first error since Sept. 28, 2024.

The Rangers capitalized on Winn’s first error of 2025 with a two-out single from Josh Jung that score Haggerty from second base after Haggerty had advanced on the base paths following a wild pitch from Liberatore.

The Rangers’ Corey Seager slides into second base as Cardinals second baseman Brendan Donovan throws to first for a double play during the fifth inning Friday, May 30, 2025, in Arlington, Texas.

LM Otero, Associated Press

Photos: Cardinals are blitzed by Rangers in series opener