MIAMI -- Andre Pallante never got a chance to get comfortable.
The 26-year-old starter hit Marlins catcher Agustín Ramírez with a pitch in the first inning Wednesday night, and from that moment on, he faced some sort of drama every time he took the mound.
The Marlins reached base in every inning Pallante pitched, and though he wiggled out of some trouble, Miami still roughed him up in a 6-2 Cardinals loss at loanDepot park.
“I feel like the results are at their floor right now,” said Pallante, who has a 7.22 ERA since the All-Star break. “And I feel like I still see glimpses of the potential success I have -- my highs. I’m really just trying to be more consistent.”
With the setback, the Cards (63-65) fell short of evening their record and missed a chance for their first three-game series sweep since taking three from the Guardians from June 27-29.
Pallante’s night ended with a 418-foot home run and fireworks. In the sixth inning, Maximo Acosta, playing his third game in the Majors, smashed the right-hander’s 94.5 mph fastball to center field for his first MLB hit.
Pallante allowed five runs -- all earned -- on eight hits in 5 1/3 innings, striking out four and walking three.
“I felt like I did a pretty good job getting my slider away, but they were able to put some good swings on the ball and some ground balls got through,” Pallante said. “I felt like I did a better job against the lefties. I’ve been trying to get my fastball in a better location to them. I felt like I did that. And I threw my curveball more. That’s something I’m trying to do and be more competitive with. I wish I could have landed a couple of those behind-the-count ones.”
Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol praised Pallante, but also pointed out that he could have easily avoided some of the predicaments he faced.
“The ball was coming out of the hand well, but how he handled some of the other aspects of the game kind of led to some frustration, when you look at the running game and the stolen bases, the walks, some of them being non-competitive," Marmol said on Pallante. "He battled through it at the end of the day. But we just need to continue to get better.”
In the second inning, Pallante escaped a bases-loaded, no-out jam while giving up just one run. After surrendering back-to-back singles and a four-pitch walk to open the frame, he induced a 6-4-3 double play and then an inning-ending groundout.
The right-hander got into trouble again in the third.
This time, the Marlins tagged him for two runs on Heriberto Hernández’s two-out single up the middle. That brought home Jakob Marsee, who had singled, and Ramírez, whom Pallante plunked with a pitch for the second time, after their double steal.
“That’s the stuff you give away,” Pallante said. “What adds to that are the mistakes -- the walks, the hit by pitches. That’s where they really start to compound.”
In the fourth, the Marlins again loaded the bases with no outs, but after a mound visit, Pallante was able to strike out Xavier Edwards and Marsee, then get Ramírez to ground out to second to escape the inning unscathed.
“He can definitely learn from that,” Marmol said of Pallante's fourth inning. “... But at the end of the day, we have to clean up the running game stuff and some of the non-competitive walks.”
The Cardinals, meanwhile, failed to muster any offense of their own against Marlins starter Sandy Alcantara for the first four innings. Iván Herrera came up with two on and two out in the third, but he grounded out to second to end the threat.
The Cards finally broke through in the fifth against Alcantara. Lars Nootbaar’s ground-rule double scored Yohel Pozo, who reached on a dropped third strike before moving to second on Jordan Walker’s single.
In the sixth, Willson Contreras crushed a 414-foot homer to left-center off Alcantara for his 17th of the year. Contreras has long dominated at loanDepot park, with a career slash line of .346/.441/.628 with a 1.069 OPS at the venue over 93 plate appearances.
“I liked our at-bats. I thought we hit him pretty hard,” Marmol said of Alcantara, who allowed two runs -- one earned -- on five hits over seven innings. “We didn’t have a whole lot to show for some of [the at-bats Wednesday], but I liked our approach against him. It’s a tough arm. I know he’s not having the year he would like, but it’s still a tough arm.”
As for Pallante, he vowed not to get discouraged by Wednesday’s start.
“I’m taking every start as a clean slate,” he said. “Just trying to be the best version of myself every time I take the ball.”