Dobbins exits with forearm tightness after Pallante (elbow inflammation) lands on IL

PHILADELPHIA -- The Cardinals’ rotation might have taken two hits in one day.

After the club placed starter Andre Pallante on the 15-day injured list earlier in the day with right elbow inflammation, starter Hunter Dobbins exited with right forearm tightness after throwing one pitch in the fifth inning of Friday night’s 7-6 loss to the Phillies in 10 innings.

Dobbins, who recently became a regular in the St. Louis rotation after Dustin May was traded to the Brewers, threw a 92.5 mph four-seam fastball to Trea Turner to open the fifth. Manager Oliver Marmol, accompanied by the Cardinals’ trainer, then came to the mound. Dobbins did not even try to throw a warmup pitch. He allowed three runs on five hits and three walks in four-plus frames.

Dobbins said he felt tightness in his forearm during warmups, something that is not unusual for him. What was different is that his arm did not loosen up during the game.

“I tried to gut it out,” he said.

Marmol and other Cardinals noticed that Dobbins was laboring in the early innings and then again while warming up for the fifth.

“No reason to push through it at that point,” Marmol said. “I wanted to be careful.”

Dobbins will have further testing on Saturday to determine the severity of the injury. If there is good news for the Cardinals, Dobbins said this feeling was different from when he underwent Tommy John surgery prior to being drafted in the eighth round by Boston in 2021.

Still, concern remains.

“I’ll hopefully feel better once we get some answers,” he said.

The 26-year-old Dobbins has been taking advantage of his opportunity, entering Friday with a 2.76 ERA in 16 1/3 innings this month.

The Pallante move is retroactive to Aug. 18.

The 27-year-old right-hander is 12-6 with a 3.57 ERA in 24 starts this season. He allowed 10 hits in six innings in a 6-5 loss to Cincinnati in his last start on Monday.

Marmol did not seem to believe the injury was serious.

“Not concerned,” he said.

Pallante is in his third season in the Cardinals' rotation after spending the previous two years in the bullpen. He has 97 strikeouts and 41 walks in 136 innings pitched this season.

The 6-foot hurler was selected in the fourth round by the Cardinals in 2019.

To take Pallante’s place on the roster, St. Louis recalled right-hander Ryan Fernandez from Triple-A Memphis.

While St. Louis might need some fresh arms, the Cardinals’ batters did just fine on Friday.

Jordan Walker returned to Philadelphia for the first time since winning the T-Mobile Home Run Derby here last month, and hit a go-ahead, two-run drive off Jesús Luzardo in the sixth inning for his 27th homer of the season.

On Players’ Weekend featuring specialty bats, Walker used a Naruto-themed piece for the drive rather than the “Derby Champ” bat that is among those available to him this weekend.

Just like at the Home Run Derby when he defeated hometown favorite Kyle Schwarber 12-11 in the final round, Walker was booed each time he stepped to the plate on Friday by the sellout crowd of 44,802. And, just like last time here, he was unfazed by it.

“It was really cool,” Marmol said. “He’s coming into his own.”

Joshua Báez’s two-run drive in the first inning off Luzardo put the Cardinals in front 2-0. It was Báez’s first home run since his historic big league debut last Saturday when he went deep in his first three at-bats.

The Cardinals also got clutch, late-inning hits from Bryan Torres, whose two-out RBI single in the eighth tied the game at 5, and José Fermín, whose RBI single in the 10th put St. Louis ahead, 6-5.

Ultimately, another potential injury came back to hurt the Cardinals, as Fermín moved to center field from third base in the bottom of the 10th after Everson Pereira left the game with a left hand injury that resulted from getting hit with an Orion Kerkering pitch in the eighth.

Alec Bohm’s two-run triple that just eluded Fermín in left-center field won it for the Phillies.

It was a painful loss, both literally and figuratively, but Marmol liked the fight from his club.

“I loved it, I really did,” he said. “You want to find a way to take that one, but it’s hard not to credit the group for what they just did. They battled really, really well. When you’re rebuilding, one of the things you want to get right is culturally have a group that’s fearless. And I feel like we’ve checked that box over and over.”