Why Ryan Helsley feels sharper, unfazed by 3 blown saves

The trouble Ryan Helsley got into in the ninth inning of his third blown save this home stand began a few pitches earlier when he fell behind in the count.

His confidence he’ll emerge from this turbulence goes back several weeks after beginning the season unsure of his pitches.

The Cardinals’ All-Star closer, 11 months removed from the longest streak of successful saves in club history, allowed a solo homer to Toronto’s No. 9 hitter in the ninth inning Monday night to squander his teammates’ stunning, eighth-inning rally. Helsley’s fifth blown save of the season tumbled into a 5-4 loss to the Blue Jays at Busch Stadium. In three appearances this month, the right-hander has allowed a total of three runs but also misplaced three leads. Two slipped away on some unfortunate bounces, and then Monday’s vanished on a blast that didn’t bounce until it hit the seats.

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“I think the positive is I feel good,” Helsley said, “and I can build off of that.”

That was not the case in the first month of the season, not as Helsley sorted through a mechanical issue, dealt with a sore foot, and had limited work.

Toward the end of the spring training, Helsley had a sore toe that required a rigid insert into his cleat. The protection was uncomfortable, and looking back on it the right-hander said it caused some pain his arch. He was concerned about plantar fasciitis, a painful condition that Albert Pujols dealt with in his career and can feel like wearing cleats inside out. The discomfort in his right foot caused some shifts in his delivery and less drive from his back leg. That led to less velocity. He tried to compensate with his upper body, and that cost him some command – and the kinetic chain of events was underway to erode the shape and effectiveness of his pitches.

“If you’re asking what Hels looked like in the first two, three weeks of the season that wasn’t Hels,” manager Oliver Marmol said late Monday night. “That was – something was off. And we addressed it. And we got to where we felt really good about the shape of his pitches, and the usage and kind of how he was attacking hitters. (And) what the fastball was doing. There is a distinct difference between Hels weeks 1, 2, and 3 and what we’ve seen post that time.”

A contributing factor during that same time was how few games the Cardinals needed their right-handed closer. He appeared in 10 of the team’s first 32 games.

He didn’t get the innings to work through the glitch.

But, he said Monday, he did get time away from games to do so, and that was beneficial as coaches identified inconsistencies in the movement of his hips and torso that he could correct. By the time the fastball started behaving, the save opportunities arrived. He went 9 for 9 in save chances in May to give him 13 for the season in 24 appearances. Only an official scorer’s decision kept him from a perfect 10-for-10 month. (Helsley was awarded a win by the scorer’s discretion instead of a save in a game he closed; the ruling is not reversible, per players’ union and club officials.)

“I fell into some bad habits at the end of spring,” Helsley explained. “They showed up for a month. I felt good the past few weeks.”

The most tangible example of that feeling is fastball velocity. Helsley did not average more than 99 mph on the fastball in the season’s opening weeks, and he’s averaged swifter than 99 mph in his recent outings. On Monday, he averaged 99.8 mph on his dozen fastballs, and he touched 101.9 mph with it. This past weekend, he had the fastest pitch in the majors on one day when he surpassed 102 mph.

That was the same day that Shohei Ohtani got a base hit when a groundball bounced off a base. In the inning, Helsley got two groundballs that could have been outs, struck out the side, and still could not hold a 1-0 lead. The Cardinals won, 2-1, on a walk-off in the ninth.

“Strike out the side and somehow give up a run,” Helsley said. “Sometimes baseball just happens.”

What happened in the ninth Monday was not a fluke bounce or unlucky angle.

With one out and the Jays’ No. 9 hitter up, Helsley fell behind 1-0 with a 99.7-mph fastball. At the plate, Toronto had center fielder Jonatan Clase. He brought a .207 average into the game with precisely one big-league homer in his career. It came September of 2024 and was one of his three extra-base hits in the majors.

“Just challenge the nine-hole guy,” Helsley said. “Trust my stuff.”

Challenge he did with his second pitch – a 100.9-mph fastball that Clase fouled off.

Helsley went to his off-speed pitch and missed high.

That put him behind 2-1 and took him back into the zone to dare Clase with a fastball. Helsley’s pitch left his fingers at 97.8 mph. The ball left Clase’s bat at 106.8 mph and soared an estimated 415 feet to tie the game, 4-4.

“You fall behind the nine-hole hitter, you’re not going to give in and try to get to the top (of the lineup),” Marmol said. “He was on the fastball. He doesn’t miss it. It’s falling behind the hitter that costs you that swing.”

Marmol said he couldn’t tie any “commonalties” between the three blown saves in the home stand. A groundball got through against Kansas City. A grounder pinballed against the Dodgers. And No. 9 hitter crushed the first homer of his season for Toronto.

Constantly called on to close a year ago, Helsley was about to get his 22nd save in his 30th appearance at this point in the season. He was in the midst of a record-setting run of successful saves. He would convert 31 consecutive before entering a game in extra innings and losing the save when the runner who started extra innings on second base scored. A rule only a few years old kept Helsley from adding to a record no Cardinal had done in 100 years.

“He has saved us more times,” said catcher Ivan Herrera, whose three-run homer in the eighth staked the Cardinals to a 4-3 lead for Helsley. “He can go 30 saves in a row.”

Helsley finished this past season with a club record 49 saves.

He had only four blown saves all season.

He had four this season going into Monday’s ninth, but what he didn’t have first month he senses he has now despite the results, and what he didn’t have a year ago was the confidence that comes from having already put a streak like that together.

“Just to know that I’ve done it, and I feel great,” Helsley said. “Stuff is there. And shapes. Velo. Those guys get paid a lot of money too to do their jobs. That’s not an excuse. I feel good and the only I can do is move forward.”

Photos: St. Louis Cardinals come up short against Toronto Blue Jays