SEATTLE -- The Cardinals have been waiting for Matthew Liberatore to show them he can pitch deep into games and deep into a season in his first full year as a big league starter.
On Tuesday night, the left-hander once again fell victim to what’s been plaguing him since the All-Star break: He just can’t seem to stay consistently effective beyond five innings.
In fact, Liberatore didn’t even get to the fifth in the Cardinals’ 5-3 loss to the Mariners in T-Mobile Park. He gave up all five of Seattle’s runs on seven hits, including two home runs, in four innings.
But on this night, both the pitcher and his manager, Oliver Marmol, said it wasn’t a case of getting weaker as his pitch count rose.
“Today wasn't a matter of hitting the wall,” Marmol said. “He felt pretty good. It was more [about] execution.”
Things started off in promising fashion for the Cardinals, who jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the second inning on the strength of three consecutive hits: a single by Willson Contreras, who was back from his four-game suspension, followed by an RBI double by Nolan Gorman and an RBI single by Thomas Saggesse.
But Liberatore couldn’t keep the lead for long. Victor Robles led off the bottom of the third with a single and stole second. J.P. Crawford then worked a walk and Randy Arozarena made the southpaw pay, hitting a towering three-run homer off the façade of the upper deck in left.
“Three walks and two mistake pitches is really what it boils down to,” Liberatore said. “I can't walk Crawford there to get to Arozarena and fall behind 2-0. That's the price you're gonna pay.”
The Cardinals battled back to tie the game at 3-3 in the fourth against Seattle starter George Kirby when José Fermín’s liner off the third base bag led to an RBI infield hit. But the Mariners once again didn’t waste time getting the advantage back, scoring two more in the bottom of that inning on a Josh Naylor solo homer and an Arozarena sacrifice fly that made it 5-3.
On paper, it continues a trend that began at the All-Star break, when Liberatore’s velocity began to dip a bit as the innings accumulated. St. Louis skipped his initial outing after the break to give him more rest, but since then he has not pitched more than 5 1/3 innings in a start.
That did it for Liberatore, whose four-seam fastball velocity peaked at 94.9 mph in the third inning but didn’t get past 93.1 mph in the fourth. He hasn’t won a road game since June 29 in Cleveland, which, incidentally, was the last time he pitched six innings in a game.
Shortstop Masyn Winn was a last-minute scratch with right knee soreness. Winn, who was listed as day-to-day, was replaced at shortstop by Saggese, with Fermín starting at second base.
St. Louis did well to limit Kirby to four innings, but the Cardinals couldn’t dent Seattle’s bullpen quintet over the final five frames. Relievers Caleb Ferguson, Eduard Bazardo, Gabe Speier, Matt Brash and Andrés Muñoz each pitched a scoreless inning and combined for seven strikeouts while surrendering two singles and not walking a batter.
After the game, Liberatore was asked if maybe Tuesday night’s result wasn’t so maddening considering his arm felt good and his velocity didn’t abandon him.
He shook his head.
“I think it's a little bit more frustrating,” he said. “I think it's easier when your stuff isn't there to just kind of chalk it up to that and move on to the next one. It’s definitely a bit of a gut punch when you feel like your stuff is there and you still get beat.
“But, I'm still motivated. I'm still looking forward to making my last few starts here and finishing the year strong.”