WASHINGTON — At the end of a road trip that began with another injured starter and was surrounded by the Cardinals’ ongoing attempts to trade for a starter, the youngest member of the rotation asserted his place in it.
Andre Pallante flirted with becoming the youngest starter to throw a shutout for the Cardinals in eight years as he carved through the Washington Nationals for eight stellar innings. Pallante was unable to get an out in the ninth, leaving the 5-0 victory at Nationals Park for closer Ryan Helsley to secure. Before allowing two hits to start the ninth, Pallante had collected 21 outs from the previous 20 batters he faced, including two double plays.
He left the mound escorted by a standing ovation from the crowd.
As a visiting pitcher.
The paid attendance of 28,738 had a decidedly partisan feel to it as fans chanted for an Albert Pujols’ appearance late in the game, roared with the Cardinals’ two homers, and acknowledged what Pallante did. A career-best eight innings on 96 pitches. He scattered five hits in the game, and only one of them came from the third to the eighth inning. He had the pitch count and the opportunity to, at 23 years old, take a run at becoming the youngest Cardinals starter since Shelby Miller in June 2014 to finish a shutout.
The right-hander pitched most of the game with a lead due to Corey Dickerson’s three-hit game. He doubled and scored in the third, and after Washington starter Josiah Gray walked two batters Dickerson struck for a two-out, three-run homer in the fourth inning. The Cardinals squandered such a lead in Saturday’s game.
There was no such drama Sunday.
Not even after Pallante (4-4) departed two batters into the ninth.
With two inherited runners on base, Helsley struck out two, including Soto, and got a fly ball to end the game exactly where he got it.
Pallante gained momentum through the course of the game without losing any of the efficiency his fastballs allows him.
Entering the ninth inning, Pallante had retired 19 of 20 batters.
He faced the minimum over the previous six innings because of a double play Nolan Arenado turned on a line drive he caught. In the seventh inning – only the second seventh inning he’s seen as a starter this season – Pallante sped through the middle of the Nationals’ order. Washington’s No. 3 hitter Juan Soto, and the subject of trade talks with the Cardinals and several teams, reached base four times Saturday. Pallante walked him in the first inning Sunday.
In the seventh, he retired Soto for the second consecutive at-bat.
And then he revved up the velocity.
Against cleanup hitter Josh Bell and longtime slugger Nelson Cruz, Pallante went to his fastball for strikeouts. He struck out Bell on three pitches, finishing the at-bat with a 96.7-mph fastball. Cruz missed on a 96-mph fastball for a strikeout to end the inning.
Those two strikeouts gave him seven in seven innings, two more total than his previous career high in the majors. He had eight going into the ninth inning.
The Cardinals finished the trying road trip, 4-4, with a series loss in Cincinnati, a split in Toronto, a series win in Washington, and one other significant loss along the way.
At the start of the trip, lefty Steve Matz tore a ligament in his left knee and the Cardinals are unsure if he’ll be able to contribute at all the remainder of the season. That has only heightened their need for a starting pitcher, and the front office was already shopping for one before Tuesday’s trade deadline. That search continues into Sunday evening.
Dickerson tags in for O’Neill, hits one out
Thrust suddenly into Saturday’s game when left fielder Tyler O’Neill felt a cramping, tightening sensation in his left leg, Dickerson gamely turned that unexpected plate appearance into a sacrifice fly.
With more time to prep, he did damage Sunday.
Starting in O’Neill’s place, Dickerson had three hits in his first three at-bats and the socked the three-run homer that broke the game open for the Cardinals in the fourth inning. The homer was Dickerson’s second since returning from the injured list and the game was his fourth with at least two hits.
Dickerson created the Cardinals’ first run with a leadoff double in the third inning Sunday. He advanced to third on a wild pitch and then scored on Dylan Carlson’s groundout. In the fourth, Dickerson came up after a pair of walks to the left-handed hitting youngsters closer to the middle of the Cardinals’ order. From the No. 8 spot, Dickerson crushed a 2-1 curveball into the seats two stories above the Nationals’ bullpen.
The three-run rainbow extended an estimated 380 feet.
Through five innings, the Cardinals had a 4-0 lead and Dickerson either scored or drove home all four of the runs.
The Cardinals gave O’Neill an addition day Sunday and the off day Monday in hopes whatever discomfort he felt would release. The left fielder said after Saturday’s game that he was cautious about not pushing through the cramps and causing a larger issue, and that being recently removed from a leg injury informed that concern.
DeJong homers (again)
Paul DeJong went his first 24 games of the season and 86 plate appearances with one home run. His inability to find the power that once catapulted him to the club record for homers by a shortstop was part of what detoured his season to Class AAA Memphis and forced him to hit his way back to the majors.
He did.
And has yet to stop.
Including three games this past week at Triple-A, DeJong has homered in five consecutive games he’s played. In the sixth inning Saturday, DeJong drilled a pitch to center field for his second homer in as many days against the Nationals. It was his third homer of the season. In two games back in the lineup, the former All-Star has the two homers and four RBIs. The Cardinals were encouraged by DeJong’s play in the field at shortstop, but that’s the given part of his game, for big-league coaches. Manager Oliver Marmol said the offense is where the team needs DeJong to deliver.
In his office Sunday morning, Marmol affirmed his explanation that DeJong is going to get a long look at shortstop because “we need him if we’re going to do what we set out to do.”
