ANAHEIM -- At the end of the day, it wasn’t an outing that left-hander Matthew Liberatore ever wants, but it was one that exemplifies what the Cardinals are trying to buy into. Resiliency.
That's something that Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol has talked at length about recently. To Marmol, the most important meaning of resiliency is learning how to deal with failure, and that you have to go out and fail in order to be resilient.
Liberatore did just that on Tuesday night, allowing five runs in the first inning, but settling in after that and tossing scoreless innings into the sixth to save the Cardinals’ bullpen in their 5-1 loss to the Angels at Angel Stadium.
“That's kind of been the story of our whole season,” Liberatore said. “We've had our fair share of getting kicked and knocked down. We haven't hesitated to get right back up and punch back.
“Same thing with myself. I certainly don't want to come out of that game after the first inning, probably more than if I was just cruising. I think it's important for us to be able to go back out there and find our footing again, and be able to eat up some innings, save the bullpen, prove to ourselves and everybody else that we're able to make the right adjustments and continue pitching.”
It started with a two-strike single by Zach Neto to lead off the first. Mike Trout then followed with another single, but Neto was too aggressive and got thrown out trying to reach third.
Liberatore then walked Nolan Schanuel to set up Jorge Soler’s two-run double. Vaughn Grissom followed by going after a first-pitch fastball and lining it the other way to score Soler.
The final punch came via the long ball, when Liberatore left an 0-2 curveball over the middle of the plate to Jo Adell, who crushed it into the Cardinals’ bullpen to make it 5-0.
Leaving pitches over the middle of the plate was a common theme for Liberatore in that opening inning, as all five hits came off pitches that were in the middle-third of the strike zone.
The first inning has been trouble for Liberatore all year long, as he's posted a 5.21 ERA in the opening frame entering Tuesday night. That number jumped to 7.20 after this outing.
“Execution is the easiest answer,” Liberatore said. “Certainly not for a lack of commitment or conviction in what I'm trying to do. Just not really matching up with what's actually happening in that first inning.”
After surrendering five runs in the first, he tossed 4 1/3 scoreless innings with five strikeouts, and only allowed one baserunner to reach scoring position.
“With the amount of games we have in a row, it was important for him to go deeper into that game, which he did,” Marmol said. “He settled in, punched out seven and did what we needed.”
Liberatore tossed consecutive one-two-three innings in the second and third. In the fourth, he got himself into a jam by allowing a pair of two-strike singles to make it first and third with only one out. But he escaped the threat by getting a strikeout and a flyout.
It was smooth sailing the rest of the way before he was pulled after issuing a walk to Oswald Peraza in the bottom of the sixth with one out.
Amidst all the hard contact, the one pitch working for Liberatore was the slider. He generated a 56% whiff rate on it, and the Angels only put two balls in play against it out of 16 swings. Liberatore was also able to land it for a first-pitch strike eight out of 12 times.
Although Liberatore can take a positive from finishing the outing strong, it’s still not an outing that he wants. His ERA on the season is now 5.18 through 20 starts.