PHILADELPHIA – With an overworked bullpen, a rotation that saw two starters land on the injured list in two days in this series, and a team clinging to its postseason hopes, the St. Louis Cardinals needed a solid and deep outing from left-hander Quinn Mathews on Saturday.
That is a lot to ask of a rookie making his third big league start. And while there certainly are some positives Mathews can pull out of his outing, it was not the one that both he and the Cardinals wanted in a 12-3 blowout loss to the Philadelphia Phillies.
The defeat snapped a streak of five consecutive series wins for the Cardinals, who will look to avoid a three-game sweep in the finale of an 11-game road trip on Sunday afternoon at Citizens Bank Park. St. Louis began Saturday 3 1/2 games back in the NL Wild Card race.
They certainly did not get any closer to a postseason bid in this one, which was over pretty quickly. Mathews, the eighth-ranked Cardinals prospect, according to MLB Pipeline, gave up three runs in a 28-pitch first inning and then four more runs in the third. He labored through 71 pitches through three innings when the Cardinals trailed 7-0.
“Early in the game, didn’t do a great job executing,” Mathews said.
Even though he felt good about his stuff, getting ahead of hitters was a problem early for the Cardinals’ fourth-round Draft pick in 2023.
“Fell behind,” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said. “Against a veteran group, they’re going to get you. And they did exactly that.”
At that point, it looked like Marmol was going to be forced to use his tired relievers much earlier than hoped. But Mathews managed to hang in there and pitch two more scoreless innings, retiring the final seven batters he faced. He combined for a much-improved 28 pitches in the final two frames. Another potential positive? He struck out two-time MVP Bryce Harper swinging in all three at-bats.
Of fanning Harper thrice, he said, “It’s a team sport. If you beat one guy out of nine in a lineup, it’s probably not a very good day from my side of things. I don’t know if I did anything all that good today except for get through five.”
“He could have easily folded and been out of there after the third,” Marmol said. “So that part is appreciated.”
Mathews was glad to have gotten through five innings but found little else to be happy about. In every start, the 25-year-old’s goal is to pitch as deep as possible and give his team a chance to win. That did not happen.
“I didn’t really do either one of those things tonight,” said Mathews, who allowed 10 hits, struck out three, and walked one to go with the seven runs while throwing 67 of 99 pitches for strikes. “Didn’t really do anything all that positive today. Didn’t do my job. Get back to the drawing board [Sunday].”
In three starts since making his debut on Aug. 1, Matthews (0-2) has a 6.43 ERA after giving up 10 earned runs in 14 innings. He has also surrendered 18 hits and seven walks against 13 strikeouts.
It did not get better for the Cardinals after Mathews exited, either, as right-hander Ryan Fernandez was tagged for four runs in two innings that included Harper’s three-run drive in the sixth. Marmol turned to catcher Pedro Pagés to pitch the eighth inning in his first career outing on the mound. If there is another positive on a night when you had to be a Cardinals optimist to find them, Marmol was able to rest his bullpen enough that it can reset in the finale on Sunday.
Offensively, the St. Louis hitters, facing an early seven-run deficit, could not solve Philadelphia’s No. 5 starter, Andrew Painter, for the second straight outing. After taking a no-hit bid into the sixth inning in St. Louis on Aug. 10, Painter struck out eight in seven strong innings of one-run ball on Saturday.
“Fastball had real life to it,” Marmol said of Painter. “Used it well. Spun it well. And was on the attack. Yeah, he pitched really well.”
Nobody knows more than Mathews that the Cardinals did not get that kind of outing on their side. There were some things that Mathews did well, but he was not processing those immediately afterward.
“It’ll take me a moment to try and find those positives,” he said. “I don’t really have too many right now.”