Fedde's first impression for Cards marred by early ambush

CHICAGO – Having already labored through a 23-pitch first inning that he escaped without giving up a run, Erick Fedde’s second inning in a Cardinals uniform started well enough with a strikeout of Cubs third baseman Isaac Paredes.

Despite that positive result, alarms were going off inside Fedde’s head because of all the extra work it took to get his first strikeout while wearing the birds on the bat across his chest. Needing 12 pitches to fan Paredes – nine of which were fouled off – spoke volumes to Fedde about how badly he was missing his spots.

As it turns out, it was a precursor for what was to come for the Cardinals’ newcomer. Ultimately, the Cubs touched up Fedde for a season-high-tying five earned runs – all in that wayward second inning -- in a 6-3 Cardinals loss at Wrigley Field on Friday.

“Honestly, I just had terrible command,” said Fedde, who made his Cardinals debut after the club pulled off a three-team trade with the White Sox and Dodgers to land him on Monday. “I was missing a ton arm-side and up in the zone and that brought me to long ABs, and I couldn’t put people away. I’ve got to be better about [making the correction] in the inning, and I just let the moment get too big and I let the moment speed up.

“It’s a mistake I can’t make again.”

A five-run second inning sapped much of the drama from the Cardinals debut of Fedde, who had been one of the few bright spots this season for a White Sox team that is on pace to set records for futility. Fedde came into the day with seven wins and a 3.11 ERA, and he had reinvented himself as a pitcher by developing a devastating sweeper that finally allowed him to put away hitters.

However, his lack of command on Friday – could it be due to having an extra day of rest between starts or all the commotion caused by the trade? – kept him from getting ahead in counts and being able to deploy the sweeper as a putaway pitch. Harnessing his pitches came later in the day when he retired the last 10 batters he faced, but it was too late in what proved to be his first loss with the Cardinals.

“You know what they say about first impressions, and I wanted it to be a special one, but I didn’t quite have that today,” said Fedde, who has allowed eight earned runs in 10 innings against the Cubs this season (7.20 ERA). “I just have to move on to the next one and start working my way back.”

Fedde didn’t get much run support from a Cardinals offense that scored three times on Friday – all on bases-loaded walks. St. Louis drew nine walks, but it had just four hits. The Redbirds missed their best chances to get back into the game when they left the bases loaded in the third and eighth innings. In the third, Nolan Arenado swung at a 2-0 pitch well off the plate and hit a lazy looper to left after Javier Assad had thrown five straight balls. In the eighth, manager Oliver Marmol turned to veteran Brandon Crawford to pinch-hit against Héctor Neris – who he was 5-for-7 against in his career – but he struck out on four pitches.

“The history, more than anything,” Marmol said of why he went to Crawford over red-hot rookie Michael Siani. “[Neris] is going to stay away from [Matt] Carpenter and Siani, and Crawford stays on the ball well. He was 5-for-7 off [Neris], but it didn’t work out.”

After winning the long battle to strike out Paredes to open the second inning, Fedde surrendered singles to Nico Hoerner, Dansby Swanson and Pete Crow-Armstrong – with Swanson’s hit essentially a swinging bunt that he beat out.

No. 9 hitter Christian Bethancourt ambushed Fedde for a three-run home run on the first pitch he saw, drilling an 89.5 mph cutter that backed up and caught too much of the plate. Two batters later, Michael Busch made Fedde pay again with a solo home run when the right-hander’s 90.4 mph sinker broke right across the plate and into the barrel of the bat.

“For the most part, when my cutter’s good, I’m good, but for those first couple of innings I couldn’t get it to a good location,” said Fedde. “I had to battle, but that was because I didn’t make my pitches ever and I kept missing. I need to make that correction quicker.”