3 ugly moments from St. Louis Cardinals series with Braves

Ugly No. 1: Pitching

Dakota Hudson seemed to suffer from the stifling heat in his four innings of work on Monday. He earned his fifth loss of the season after giving up nine hits, three walks, and six earned runs. He did strike out two batters.

Johan Oviedo had a scary outing after getting hit on the pitching hand with a come-backer. He did give up a hit while striking out two. James Naile came in to replace Oviedo. He pitched 2.1 innings while striking out two.

Andre Pallante earned his fourth loss of the season Tuesday and was lit up in his 3.2 innings of work. He gave up 10 hits and seven earned runs, including two homers to Austin Riley and William Contreras. He did have five strikeouts in the outing.

Packy Naughton pitched 2.1 innings of relief, giving up a hit and striking out three. Junior Fernandez pitched an inning, giving up a hit, and a walk while striking out one. Zack Thompson pitched one inning, striking out one.

Miles Mikolas earned his seventh loss on Wednesday. He pitched six innings, giving up five hits, a walk, and three runs including two homers to Marcell Ozuna and Eddie Rosario. Zack Thompson and Giovanny Gallegos pitched a clean inning each to end the game, but the damage had already been done. Mikolas appeared rattled after home plate umpire Carlos Torres disrupted his flow as he called timeout during his wind-up. While he’d pitched well to begin the game, that event was his tipping point.

It was frustrating to see Giovanny Gallegos get a fifth-blown save on Thursday. In some games, he pitches well, but when he doesn’t it gets costly. Gallegos gave up a home run to Michael Harris II, which tied the game at one in the seventh inning.