ST. LOUIS -- With the return of former Cardinal star Nolan Arenado to Busch Stadium in the backdrop, the Cardinals needed to avoid letting their longtime third baseman become a leading storyline at the plate on Monday night.
A trying weekend for Cardinals pitching in Kansas City left manager Oliver Marmol staring at a color-coded sheet pertaining to recent bullpen usage on Monday afternoon.
“That was insane,” Marmol said before Monday’s game, reflecting upon a weekend in which the Royals outscored the Cardinals by seven runs (30-23). Specifically in Sunday’s Cardinals win in which St. Louis scored 12 runs, Marmol deployed seven relievers behind an uncharacteristically brief outing from Dustin May.
“There’s certain outings you want to learn something from,” Marmol said. “Then there’s certain ones where you just tell yourself it was an off day and then you show up the next day.”
So, Monday’s challenge was to take that bullpen usage chart and crunch the numbers in a way that could allow for the Cardinals to find their way through the series opener against the D-backs.
To even reach the point of that quandary carrying relevance, the Cardinals would need another good outing from Andre Pallante. They got it, with Pallante delivering six innings of one-run baseball to put the bullpen in position to save a 3-2 Cardinals win.
Pallante’s gem was the sixth time over his past seven starts in which he has limited opposing lineups to two or fewer runs. The stretch dates back to mid-May, over which Pallante has knocked nearly a full run off his ERA, down from 4.46 to 3.59.
A workmanlike three runs against Arizona starter Merrill Kelly was enough for Pallante and the Cardinals to provide the bullpen with a 3-1 lead as Marmol’s piecemeal effort in extracting a win from a beleaguered bullpen began.