Cardinals starting pitchers continue to give the team a chance to win

The St. Louis Cardinals have suffered a pair of heartbreaking losses at the hands of the Los Angeles Angels, but that is not by the fault of their starting pitchers. After sweeping the Minnesota Twins in the first series of the year, the Cardinal arms kept the momentum going with productive outings from their starters. Even with the two losses, each of Miles Mikolas, Matthew Liberatore, and Sonny Gray pitched well.

Cardinals starters have given the team a chance to win in each game.

In the first game of the year, Sonny Gray worked through five innings and only gave up two runs, leaving the game with a 3-2 lead thanks to some early offense. In a situation to continue monitoring throughout the season, Gray's fastball sat in the low 90s, and the runs he gave up were on a Harrison Bader two-run homer, which was a massive concern for Gray dating back to last season. The encouraging outcome from his first start of the year, however, was that he had his strikeout stuff still working, punching out six Twins in those five innings. At the time of his departure, Gray had thrown 77 pitches as he worked to regain his strength and stamina after fighting through a sickness. The bullpen held strong in the opener and gave up one run over the last four innings on the way to the Opening Day win.

Game two of the season saw oft-mentioned trade candidate Erick Fedde take the ball and look to build off a decent showing from the spring. He built off of Gray's debut and took it an inning further, throwing 73 pitches over an efficient six-inning start. Fedde gave up two hits and one run while only striking out two batters, showing the importance of a strong defensive alignment behind him. In the team's first quality start of the year, Fedde kept the defense busy with nine groundouts and seven flyouts. After his sixth inning, the Cardinals pushed across three big runs to take the lead, and the bullpen again did their job in the 5-1 win and moved Fedde to 1-0 on the year.

Looking to sweep the Twins and get the season off to a start almost nobody expected, Andre Pallante got the start after seemingly being in a competition for the rotation despite a solid 2024 season as a starter. Pallante got off to a tough start, walking the leadoff batter and giving up a run in the top of the first inning before settling in with a 1-2-3 inning in the second. The Cardinals bats responded in a big way, scoring eight runs in the next two innings, which let Pallante coast through his five-inning start. The righty sat at 78 pitches at that point in his outing, so it is likely he would have been done after the fifth even without the 58-minute rain delay that happened next. Steven Matz, who has at least temporarily lost out on a rotation spot despite a strong spring, covered the next four innings by allowing just one hit for his first career save. When Matz heads to the rotation when the team expands to a six-man rotation, it will be interesting to see who takes on his bulk role out of the pen.

Riding high after a series sweep, the Cardinals played host to the Los Angeles Angels, who were coming off two wins against the lowly White Sox. This series was seen as a great way for the offense, defense, and pitching to keep the momentum going, and game four starter Miles Mikolas did his best to keep the win streak alive. While fans wanted the veteran to be DFAd, Mikolas put together a nice spring and has always been a competitor, so it was not surprising to me to see him grind through his outing. Lars Nootbaar and Brendan Donovan did their job to support their starter, each hitting homers off of the lefty starter Tyler Anderson, giving Mikolas a little breathing room in the third inning. A leadoff walk came back to bite the Cardinals starter, but he limited the damage and the offense added on another run to start the sixth inning with a 3-1 lead. Mikolas got the leadoff hitter to ground out, but then back-to-back hits ended his day with runners on the corners and superstar Mike Trout coming up. Staying consistent with the first three starts of the year, manager Oli Marmol pulled Mikolas after 80 pitches and brought in reliever Chris Roycroft to put out the fire. This move was shockingly argued on social media, saying that Oli should have stuck with Mikolas, but Roycroft was able to escape with Trout driving in a run on a sacrifice fly, but the Cardinals still held the lead going into the late innings. The win streak ended with an extra-inning loss, but Mikolas did his job.

One of the biggest questions for the Cardinals during Spring Training was the fifth starter spot, with Matz and rookie Michael McGreevy expected to compete for the job. The team said that Matthew Liberatore was going to have the chance to earn the spot as well, but they also announced that he was likely to begin the year as a reliever. Alas, when spring ended, Liberatore was handed the starting gig, with Matz moving to the pen and McGreevy going to Memphis. The move to the rotation turns this year into a big one for the lefty, as he has struggled to find his role since being acquired from the Tampa Bay Rays. Liberatore had a dominant first inning, throwing 14 strikes of his 15 pitches and notching two strikeouts before following up with another 1-2-3 inning in the second. The third inning, though, was a different story. Liberatore was handed a 1-0 lead but promptly gave up four hits and three runs to go down 3-1 heading into the fourth. His next three innings were great, giving up one hit as he finished his six-inning outing with a quality start on 77 pitches and did not walk a batter. The Cardinals battled back, with Nolan Arenado tying the game in the bottom of the eighth, but the back-and-forth affair ended in another extra-inning loss.

In Gray's second start, the gopher ball bit him again when Mike Trout took him deep to center for the game's first run. Gray then cruised through the next five-plus innings, giving up one hit and striking out seven more Angels with his great sweeper and command of his fastball, which showed an uptick in velocity. Catcher Ivan Herrera hit his second homer of the game in the sixth to give the Cardinals a short-lived 3-1 lead. Gray loaded the bases in the seventh and gave up a grand slam to catcher Logan O'Hoppe, but the Cardiac Cards came back again with a two spot in the bottom of the inning. While his ending line shows five earned runs, Gray did not walk a batter and punched out nine in his second and longest start of the year. The team showed incredible energy in the entire series, and Willson Contreras and Masyn Winn each nabbed his first hit of the year in a big bottom half of the seventh inning. The 'birds were not done yet and piled on with seven runs in the bottom of the eighth, capitalized by Herrera's third homer of the game.

The Cardinals currently have a record of 4-2, and a lot of that success has to be attributed to the starters competing to give the offense a chance to win the game. Starters have yet to be on the hook for a loss and sit at a combined 3-0 with a 4.46 ERA (which was ballooned by Gray's five earned) covering 34.1 innings. Strikeouts are a concern for the starting rotation outside of Gray, but they have done a great job of limiting free passes, combining for only four walks in the first five games. The offense has busted out during the first six games of the year, so as long as the Cardinal starters can keep the game close, this team has a chance to compete in every game they play.