Game Day Preview: Cardinals Need an Answer After Another Late Collapse

The Cardinal Chronicle
Game Day Preview: Cardinals Need an Answer After Another Late Collapse
St. Louis, MO
By Ray Mileur

The St. Louis Cardinals will try to stop a three-game losing streak tonight when they face the Los Angeles Angels in the second game of their three-game series at Angel Stadium.

First pitch is scheduled for 8:38 p.m. CT, with left-hander Matthew Liberatore starting for St. Louis against Angels rookie right-hander Walbert Ureña. The game will be televised on Cards.TV and carried on KMOX.

Liberatore enters the game with a 5-6 record, a 5.00 ERA and 88 strikeouts. Ureña is 5-7 with a 2.88 ERA and 78 strikeouts.

The Cardinals enter tonight’s game at 51-48 after suffering another crushing late-inning defeat Monday night.

St. Louis carried a 2-1 lead into the bottom of the ninth before Riley O’Brien surrendered the tying run and then hit Jo Adell with the bases loaded, giving the Angels a 3-2 walk-off victory.

The loss came one day after the Cardinals blew a 7-0 lead against the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Los Angeles had been 0-48 when trailing after eight innings this season and had lost 106 consecutive games under those circumstances before completing Monday night’s comeback.

One bad loss can be dismissed as baseball.

Two consecutive late collapses begin to test a clubhouse.

The Cardinals cannot change what happened Sunday or Monday, but they can prevent those defeats from becoming the beginning of an extended losing streak.

Liberatore has shown stretches this season in which his fastball, slider and curveball have allowed him to miss bats and control a lineup. The difficulty has been maintaining his command and avoiding the one damaging inning that turns a competitive start into a short outing.

Tonight, the Cardinals need more than strikeouts from Liberatore.

They need innings.

Kyle Leahy gave St. Louis six strong innings Monday, allowing one run on three hits while striking out four without issuing a walk. That performance should have been enough to win.

Liberatore must follow that example by attacking the strike zone, limiting free passes and preventing the Angels from creating traffic ahead of the middle of their order.

The left-hander has faced Los Angeles before. In his only previous start against the Angels, Liberatore delivered six innings and recorded a quality start.

Ureña may not be a familiar name to many Cardinals fans, but his performance demands attention.

The 22-year-old enters the game with a 2.88 ERA and has pitched especially well at Angel Stadium, going 4-2 with a 3.12 ERA in eight home starts.

Ureña works with a four-pitch mix built around a changeup and sinker. He also uses a four-seam fastball and sweeper. His velocity is one of his strengths, but his ability to limit damaging contact has separated him from many young pitchers.

Opposing hitters have produced an average exit velocity of only 86.7 mph against Ureña, along with a 32.3 percent hard-hit rate and a 5.4 percent barrel rate.

In plain English, hitters have had trouble squaring him up.

The Cardinals will need to resist chasing the changeup below the strike zone and avoid pounding his sinker into the ground. Ureña has allowed limited damage this season, so St. Louis cannot afford to waste the few mistakes he may provide.

The Cardinals scored twice in the second inning Monday but failed to add another run.

Jordan Walker opened the inning with a double, Lars Nootbaar followed with a single and Nathan Church snapped an 0-for-30 drought with an RBI hit. Blaze Jordan then drove home the second run with a groundout.

That was the extent of the Cardinals’ offense.

A two-run lead may have been enough years ago when starting pitchers routinely worked deep into games and closers slammed the door. It is a much thinner margin in today’s game, especially with a bullpen that has recently struggled to protect late leads.

The Cardinals must do a better job of adding on.

That means productive outs, advancing runners and taking advantage when the middle of the lineup gets opportunities with men on base. St. Louis cannot continue asking its pitchers to make every small lead stand up.

Adell entered Monday’s game in an 0-for-24 slump but left it as the central figure in an Angels victory.

He homered in the third inning and later absorbed the bases-loaded pitch that ended the game. Nolan Schanuel added two hits, while Vaughn Grissom nearly won the game with a ninth-inning drive that struck the top of the right-field wall for a game-tying double.

Liberatore must be careful with the right-handed power in the Angels lineup, particularly when pitching behind in counts.

Mike Trout remains capable of changing a game with one swing, while Zach Neto, Adell and Jorge Soler give Los Angeles enough power to punish mistakes.

Despite losing three straight, the Cardinals remain in possession of the National League’s final Wild Card position.

St. Louis enters Tuesday at 51-48, tied with Miami in winning percentage. The Cardinals have scored 446 runs and allowed 443, leaving them with a plus-three run differential.

That is not a comfortable position.

There are enough teams within striking distance that one prolonged losing streak could quickly change the standings. Games against a 40-61 Angels club are games the Cardinals need to win, regardless of the time zone, travel schedule or disappointment carried over from the previous night.

Former Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak is now working in the Angels’ front office, creating an unusual backdrop for this series.

Mozeliak knows many of the players and executives in the visiting clubhouse, while Chaim Bloom is now directing the Cardinals’ baseball operations.

There may eventually be trade discussions between the two organizations, particularly with the deadline approaching and Angels pitchers Reid Detmers and José Soriano drawing interest.

However, none of that helps the Cardinals tonight.

Trade rumors will not stop a losing streak. A strong start, timely hitting and nine complete innings of baseball will.

The Cardinals have received two painful reminders that games are not won after seven or eight innings.

They are won after 27 outs.

Tonight’s game does not qualify as a must-win in the mathematical sense. There are still more than two months remaining in the season.

But it feels important.

The Cardinals need Liberatore to provide a steady start. They need the offense to do more than score early and disappear. Most importantly, they need to finish a game when they are given an opportunity to win.

After two straight late-inning nightmares, the best medicine is not a team meeting, another speech or another explanation.

It is a victory.

The Cardinal Chronicle, in association with Gateway Sports & MiLB Today
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Photo Credit: Matthew Liberatore St. Louis Cardinals | Kenneth Richmond/Getty Images