NEW YORK -- It looked like Cardinals right-hander Andre Pallante was in for a short night on Thursday against the Mets at Citi Field. After two innings, he had allowed four runs and thrown 39 pitches.
However, Pallante made adjustments and went deep into the game. But the Cardinals¡¯ offense was stifled in a 4-1 loss to New York.
Pallante¡¯s worst inning turned out to be the second, when the Mets scored their four runs. Mark Vientos, a .145 hitter entering the day, was able to get his groove back. He led off the inning and belted a 1-0 pitch that hit the right-field foul pole for his first home run of the season. New York added three more runs as both Brett Baty and Francisco Lindor delivered RBI singles.
After the inning ended, Pallante, pitching coach Dusty Blake and catcher Pedro Pag¨¦s talked in the dugout about making adjustments. Pallante had to find a way to slow the game down. Pag¨¦s told him to have more conviction in his pitches, while Blake told Pallante that he wasn¡¯t mixing his pitches well enough to get hitters out.
¡°I told him, ¡®Let¡¯s tighten the zone and keep working. We are going to be fine,¡¯¡± Pag¨¦s said.
Pallante then became almost unhittable, retiring 12 out of the next 13 hitters before calling it a night. As the game went on, the velocity on his pitches went up. Pallante¡¯s first pitch of the game was clocked at 91.3 mph, which was too slow for his liking. He topped out at 95.3 mph on a sinker in the fifth inning.
¡°I did some things toward the end. I liked the way I was mixing my pitches and executing,¡± Pallante said. ¡°I started to loosen up a little bit. I got some more [velocity] on my sinker. Everything was a little sharper. I still have to work on my curveball. It has been poor recently. I wish I could have used it more, but it wasn¡¯t coming and then I got behind in the count. I put myself in tough situations and had to give in.¡±
Pallante¡¯s counterpart, Griffin Canning, had his best outing of the season. He pitched a season-high six innings and allowed one run on three hits, striking out eight. The run was plated in the third inning, when Victor Scott II scored on an infield single by Brendan Donovan.
¡°He threw a good game against us. He mixed well. He beat us,¡± Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said. ¡°We couldn¡¯t string a whole lot of hits together.¡±
It was a game that saw right-hander Matt Svanson make his Major League debut. He replaced Pallante in the seventh and retired three of the four hitters he faced in a scoreless inning.
¡°[He threw] 96, 97 [mph] with a good sink,¡± Marmol said. ¡°This is a guy that usually fills up the zone and stays on the ground, so that was good. When you make your debut [in New York], this is a good environment for it. He seemed under control.¡±