Cardinals takeaways: Evaluating 3 pitching performances from series win over Phillies

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ST. LOUIS — As the St. Louis Cardinals ride the highs and lows of their early season, the starting rotation is one of the areas under the most scrutiny.

The Cardinals’ rotation doesn’t jump out at you on paper. With St. Louis attempting to balance winning and developing, the organization decided to anchor its starting staff with three veterans — Sonny Gray, Erick Fedde and Miles Mikolas — but rewarded Andre Pallante and Matthew Liberatore with spots based on their past performance and future potential.

It certainly doesn’t make for the most feared starting five in the league. But when each arm pitches to its strength, it can be just as effective. Take this weekend, for example.

The Cardinals received three strong outings from their starting pitchers and took the series against the Philadelphia Phillies, rolling to a 7-0 win in the rubber match Sunday afternoon. It was a well-pitched series across the board, with St. Louis shutting out Philadelphia twice.

“Impressive, all of our starters,” manager Oli Marmol said. “A really nice job against a good team. You look at what’s going to be needed — it’s going to be continuing to get better every time out and learning from the days that didn’t go well. That’s going to be really important for this year, and I feel like our guys continue to do that.”

Crushed by Contreras! 💣

Willson launches his first home run of the season! pic.twitter.com/hgB8GGJMPs

— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) April 13, 2025

All three starting pitchers — Pallante, Mikolas and Liberatore — needed to take strides forward this weekend. All three did, albeit in different ways. Let’s take a look at three encouraging starts from a strong series win.

Pallante: 7 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 4 K

In a game in which the Cardinals lost their starting shortstop one inning in — which resulted in starting catcher Pedro Pagés at second base for five innings and Pallante throwing midgame to Yohel Pozo, a catcher he had never worked with before — Pallante never wavered. His seven innings of two-hit ball en route to a 2-0 win served as the longest outing from a Cardinals starter this season and the most dominant.

“I didn’t really pitch my exact game,” Pallante said. “I definitely made some adjustments, but I think that’s part of the growth.”

Part of that growth is Pallante’s learning how to better utilize his off-speed pitches. He incorporated a sinker last season to pair with his four-seamer, but being able to mix in his slider and curveball is just as important. Pallante is a weak-contact ground-ball specialist. His fastball is not overpowering but has been effective. He uses it often (over 50 percent of the time, per Baseball Savant), with opposing hitters averaging .176 against it with a .294 slugging percentage.

But the underlying metrics suggest that might not be sustainable. The expected batting average on Pallante’s fastball is .299, and the expected slugging percentage is .476. The caveat of being a ground-ball pitcher is ensuring those groundballs are hit at defenders, not at the gap. Teams can position defenders accordingly, but that won’t prevent balls from getting through at times.

To combat that, Pallante is focusing on being more comfortable going to the off-speed. Keeping hitters off-balance, particularly with the slider, allows the fastball to be more of a weapon. Friday night, Pallante threw 93 pitches, 51 of which were four-seam fastballs. He threw his slider 25 times (his highest usage this season) and his sinker nine times (the lowest amount). He’ll continue to toy with sequencing, but Friday was an encouraging step in the right direction.

Andre Pallante led the way for a shutout of the Phillies last night!#ForTheLou x @NationalPro pic.twitter.com/BML7n9oXnV

— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) April 12, 2025

Mikolas: 5 IP, 3 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 6 K

After a disastrous last start in which he was tagged for nine runs (eight earned) over 2 2/3 innings, the pressure had already mounted for Mikolas, who is coming off back-to-back disappointing seasons.

Mikolas’ start Saturday (in which the Cardinals lost 4-1) wasn’t much to write home about, at least from a box score perspective. But as the 36-year-old veteran tries to change his approach, he’s taking steps in the right direction.

Mikolas is often dubbed a strike-thrower because of his ability to consistently land pitches in the zone. However, since he’s so accurate, it’s often easier for opposing hitters to take pitches; they can be selective because they know Mikolas is likely to, at some point, offer something in the strike zone. Over the last two seasons, Mikolas has generated a ton of contact and not much swing-and-miss. In 2024, he posted a chase rate of 27.9 percent and a whiff rate of 16.4 percent, the lowest percentile in baseball.

To combat that, he and pitching coach Dusty Blake tweaked how he’d attack the zone. Mikolas is working on purposely missing the strike zone — specifically in 0-2 and 1-2 counts — to generate more chase. Saturday yielded encouraging results.

After allowing a two-run double to Nick Castellanos in the top of the first, Mikolas settled down and retired 12 consecutive hitters. His six strikeouts were the most he’s had in a game since Aug. 16, 2024, when he whiffed seven hitters against the Los Angeles Dodgers. After his outing, Mikolas said he’s feeling more comfortable pitching outside the zone in certain counts.

“I threw a 1-2 fastball down the middle to Castellanos in the first. That’s the pitch I need back,” Mikolas said. “That’s a mistake that cost us a game. But I was able to rein it in and go pretty smooth for the rest of the game. Going to those chase spots, two strikes, being aggressive. I thought my results were easily a lot better than last time.”

Mikolas’ numbers have not been pretty over the last two seasons. He’s entering the final year of his contract and is coming off a season in which he had the second-highest ERA (5.35) among eligible starters. The Cardinals have consistently credited Mikolas for his durability. He rarely misses a start and has notched three consecutive 30-plus-start seasons. But as the Cardinals navigate the early months of the season, they need Mikolas to notch quality innings. They hope the change to his approach will help with that.

“You have to stick to it,” Mikolas said. “You have to stick to it and work on those locations. I think sequencing is really important with that as well — up, down, moving the ball around so hitters can’t sit in one spot.

“A little more conviction, a little more believing in it. Confidence in the pitches is also important. But I was super happy with my stuff today.”

Liberatore: 6 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 7 K

When the Cardinals named Liberatore the No. 5 starter to open the season, Marmol was adamant that Liberatore would remain in the rotation even if the 25-year-old struggled to begin the year.

St. Louis wanted to see what Liberatore — who came up in the minor leagues as a starting pitcher — would look like with a true chance in the rotation. In years prior, he was used as a spot starter and alternated regularly between the majors and Triple A, starter and reliever. This season, as part of the organization’s transition plan, the Cardinals are committed to deploying Liberatore as a traditional starter.

Sunday, he showed why.

After throwing 58 pitches through the first three innings, Liberatore dialed in and needed just 21 to coast through the sixth. He finished with his second quality start of the year.

“He wasn’t sped up,” Marmol said. “You’re starting to see that with some of our guys, and that’s the next step in their careers is being able to — regardless of situation or count — stay even-keeled. He did a nice job of that.”

Matthew Liberatore, Nasty 85mph Slider. 😨

5th K pic.twitter.com/hw2AbbYZmI

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) April 13, 2025

After spending the first three years of his career in a variety of roles, having clarity about his usage this season has been pivotal for Liberatore.

“It’s really helped me double down on how I evaluate things and looking at execution and my processes and routines,” Liberatore said. “I’ve been given a much more stable runway to plan my days and make sure I’m maximizing my time at the field every day, instead of spitballing based off what the schedule might be that day. In terms of preparation and processes, that’s helped me quite a bit.”

Pallante, Mikolas and Liberatore will continue to start until further notice. St. Louis will switch to a six-man rotation April 16 against the Houston Astros, with Steven Matz returning. The plan is for the Cardinals to use that six-man rotation for at least three weeks to help with the overall workload (the team has one scheduled off day from April 11 through May 7). St. Louis will re-evaluate its pitching plan after that.

This news was originally published on this post .

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