SEATTLE -- The fact that Cardinals pitchers have struggled early this season is not exactly breaking news, but that statement only tells half the story. While the pitching staff has mostly held up when attacking early in counts, it is the staff’s inability to put hitters away -- predominantly in two-strike counts -- that has led to its worst woes.
Two-strike issues -- both in terms of surrendering hits and home runs -- came back to bite the Cardinals again on Friday night in a frustration-filled 5-2 loss to the Mariners at chilly T-Mobile Park. Starter Steven Matz struck out seven hitters and finished one whiff shy of a personal best with 18 swing-and-misses, but he allowed Teoscar Hernández to burn him with a double and a home run -- both in two-strike counts. Matz also walked two in the sixth inning -- hitters he lost after getting to two strikes. Both scored.
Hernández’s home run in the fourth came on a 92.2 mph sinker that split the plate -- one the Mariners slugger smashed 414 feet and 103.6 mph off the bat. It was the 10th home run Cardinals pitchers have surrendered with two strikes, second only to the Athletics [12]. Jake Woodford [four] and Matz [three] have combined to give up the majority of those two-strike smashes.
“With me, I think it just comes down to me trying to make my best, nastiest pitch in two-strike counts and I come out of my delivery,” said Matz, who dropped to 0-3 with a 6.55 ERA. “I can think of some changeups left over the heart of the plate and it’s just about executing better.”
In the team’s pregame pitching meeting, Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said the squad addressed the two-strike conundrum. On Friday, the Cardinals encountered more of the same.
“It’s one [problem] we’ve addressed and actually had a conversation about today, but there are other things that are contributing,” Marmol said. “If you look at balls under 90 mph [exit velocity], we’re leading the league by a ton. Balls are dropping in and there are a lot of contributors, but [two-strike knocks] is one we’re factoring in.”
Unfortunately for the Cardinals, the two-strike issues don’t end with the long balls. The Cardinals came into Friday last in baseball on batting average against with two strikes, at .223. The Athletics are 29th at .211. For comparison sake, the Cubs came into Friday leading the league in average allowed with two strikes at .112.
Marmol said it often comes down to pitchers trying to be too fine with pitches and catching far too much of the plate.
“The biggest contributor is probably location,” he said. “If you look overall where we’re missing with two strikes, we’re in the zone more than we need to be.”
Standout rookie Jordan Walker staked the Cardinals to a 2-0 lead in the top of the second with a 105.2 mph double over Hernández’s head in right field and off the base of the wall. Little did the Cardinals know it at the time, but they would get just one more hit, Alec Burleson’s line-drive single to right field in the sixth.
Matz, who signed a four-year, $44 million free-agent deal with the Cardinals in 2021, struggled through injuries throughout most of his first season in St. Louis. He came into Friday having surrendered just two runs over a 5 2/3-inning outing against Pittsburgh -- one that was cut short because his pitch count got to 110. That performance was somewhat encouraging, considering he yielded two home runs and four earned runs against Atlanta, and six earned runs against the Rockies in his first two turns in the rotation.
The early 2-0 lead didn’t last long as Hernández opened the bottom of the second by turning on a 3-2 pitch -- an 81.4 mph changeup in the heart of the plate -- for a double. He came around to score on a Jarred Kelenic single.
Two innings later, Hernández -- Matz’s former teammate in Toronto -- hurt the Cardinals again with two strikes. This time, he hit a 1-2 pitch over the wall to tie the game at 2.
Matz’s two walks in the sixth inning ultimately came around to score. As was the issue earlier in the game, Matz lost both Julio Rodríguez and Eugenio Suárez after getting to two strikes in the count.
Said Matz: “Other than one bad pitch to Teoscar and those walks in the sixth inning, I felt like everything else was good. Unfortunately, that’s what beat us and it stinks.”