PITTSBURGH -- While fourth-year big leaguer Andre Pallante has spent a considerable amount of time sharpening his craft on the mound this season, he’s also making sure not to overlook a much different part of the game: the mental side. Enlisting the help of the Cardinals’ mental skills trainers has helped him shift his off-the-field preparation, and it’s recently paid off on bump day.
One of their overarching messages: “Speak with the end in mind.” For Pallante, that means laying out goals for the rest of his career and blazing the path ahead of him. Pallante is learning what kind of pitcher he wants to be for the rest of his career and figuring out what he needs to do to get there.
Pallante has had an up-and-down 2025, but he is starting to find some momentum at the midway point in the season. The right-hander took another step on Tuesday night, firing off one of the sharpest outings of his career with seven shutout innings in the Cardinals’ 1-0 loss to the Pirates at PNC Park.
“Stuff was a lot better today,” Pallante said. "Mixing curveballs well, fastball was sharp, got some inside -- got a big strikeout of [Bryan] Reynolds on it.”
Pallante entered the game having pitched some of the best games of his career against the Pirates, with a 1-0 record with a 0.90 ERA in three starts (20 IP) against Pittsburgh. That trend continued, allowing just one hit and walking a pair while striking out three.
Pallante’s had quite the recent couple of weeks, allowing just two runs in his past three starts (18 innings), lowering his season ERA to 4.10. Still, in his last two outings, he’s felt like he’s only had one or two pitches moving the way he wanted.
On Tuesday night, he had the whole arsenal working for him. Pallante threw 39 curveballs, 31 sliders, 14 knuckle curves, and even debuted a new pitch -- a sweeper -- for the first time. All of this served as part of Pallante’s plan to increase his unpredictability, as the creativity helped him record 13 ground-ball outs.
“Definitely [tonight was] the most unpredictable I’ve been in my career,” Pallante said. “I still think there’s room for me to go. I threw a sweeper for the first time in the game today. I threw one of those in there, just trying to get some work, just to see if I can get a better chase pitch to righties. Threw it to the backstop, but you know, gotta throw one first before I can get a little more comfortable and start working on it in the game.”
Pallante quickly settled into his outing after some struggles with command in an 18-pitch first inning. Still, he went on to retire eight consecutive batters after a first-inning walk. Pittsburgh’s first hit of the game, a harmless fourth-inning single by Andrew McCutchen, was Pallante’s only blemish.
“He did a nice job,” manager Oliver Marmol said. “Fastball was good, just overpowered these guys. When you look at, outside of [McCutchen], everyone else went 0-fer. Did a really nice job of being on the attack, [locating his] curveball, and got back into counts with it as well. When he’s doing that it’s a tough at-bat.”
While frustrated with the loss, Marmol highlighted his team’s ability to find a silver lining he can pull away from the game.
“Obviously we want to win that game and it doesn't sit well but you have to be able to parcel out the things that you did well and build on it,” Marmol said. “Pallante was one of those, right? His last three have been good and that’s why you have to be somewhat patient with these guys because there is development taking place and this is the type of outing you want to see.”
And for Pallante, his recent success has given him a fresh outlook on his career.
“[It] definitely makes me excited to show up and work everyday when I have a goal in mind of what I want to get to and what I’m reaching for. To have good results just feeds that even more.”