ST. LOUIS -- Through nearly a month of baseball, the Cardinals have the fewest strikeouts of any MLB pitching staff -- with St. Louis hurlers sitting a healthy margin off the pace of the 29th-ranked team in the category.
It’s a reason the Cardinals have placed a priority on strong defense for their daily lineup, looking to maximize the number of outs that a predominantly pitch-to-contact staff can produce.
With a modest 5.4 strikeouts per nine innings coming into Friday’s start at Busch Stadium, Cardinals starter Andre Pallante isn’t an outlier relative to his teammates.
Despite ending up on the wrong side of a 3-2 loss to the Mariners, he demonstrated more evidence of growth on the mound as he struck out eight Seattle hitters across 5 1/3 innings pitched.
“The difference in what we're seeing out of him this year, compared to other years, is just his ability to not let things snowball,” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said. “You get a ground ball that gets through or even with that leadoff walk -- it usually will lead to that 2-0 count, base hit, now it’s first and third. It starts to unravel a little bit.
“He did a really nice job of, whenever something like that happened, he punched out the next guy or just -- with the overall mentality of, let me take care of what's right in front of me, that next thing. He did well with that.”
Over the long haul, there’s a limit to the degree to which a pitcher can be expected to excel without some whiff in his repertoire. But to demonstrably alter this trait in the middle of one’s fifth big league season -- Pallante’s career K/9 coming into Friday’s start is 6.2 -- seems like a big ask.
Pallante, though, is making strides.
Friday, a slider that has historically been one of his more potent swing-and-miss pitches was particularly effective. Pallante drew 12 whiffs in the outing, eight of which came on the slider.
“I think I just kept it down beneath the zone,” Pallante said of his success with the slider Friday. “When it's over the plate, but under the zone, that’s when it gets a lot of swing and miss. So, I just thought I got that pitch there.”
Marmol liked what he saw in Pallante’s stuff as the 27-year-old drew more whiffs than highly regarded Mariners starter George Kirby, 12-11, in the outing.
If not for Josh Naylor tagging Pallante for a sixth-inning home run, they might still be playing at Busch. The solo shot that broke a 2-2 tie traveled a Statcast-projected 418 feet -- only narrowly farther than the distance of Naylor’s bat flip after the swing.
“He's a good hitter. I mean, you could argue that’s exactly where I want to throw the pitch,” Pallante said. “Maybe I went to the well too many times because I threw him a fastball in there on the pitch before. But, I’m not perfect. If I executed my approach on that pitch, just got to live with it.”
After complimenting Pallante as an elite pitcher, Naylor’s freewheeling thoughts on the home run swing matched how the Cardinals starter seemed to feel about it.
Sometimes, it’s better to be lucky than good.
“It wasn’t the best pitch to hit, actually. I think it was a ball,” Naylor said. “I just thought I’d take a shot at it. What’s the worst that could happen? I’d miss and get an out?”
Pallante’s eight strikeouts Friday matches a total he’s reached on only three previous occasions in the big leagues -- last on Aug. 15, 2025 vs. the Yankees -- while falling one K shy of his career high of nine strikeouts (Sept. 16, 2024 vs. the Pirates). His outing also marked the most strikeouts by a Cardinals starter in a game this season.
For Pallante, his continued commitment to varying his offerings is key as he works to create additional depth to his pitch arsenal -- an aspect of his game that he feels is still a work in progress, but is trending favorably as his season evolves.
“I feel like I’ve got more avenues for success now,” Pallante said. “I’m throwing more pitches for strikes, I’m attacking hitters in different ways -- a more diverse arsenal. I’m still not where I want to be with that yet, but I think it’s a step in the right direction. It makes you feel like you have a lot more options out there.”