It’s been a strange season for the St. Louis Cardinals. After going an MLB-best 19-8 in May, the Cardinals are suffering an extreme June swoon, sitting at just 8-10 this month.
Despite the ups and downs, the Cardinals — who are 41-35 — are just 4.5 games back of first-place in the NL Central, and are tied for the NL’s third Wild Card spot.
In order to gain some ground in the National League, they are going to need consistency across the board, especially on the pitching side. Sports Illustrated recently named 26-year-old starting pitcher Andre Pallante as the team’s “most disappointing player” so far this season.
“They’ve only needed seven starters to get through ‘25. The least effective of these starters has been Pallante, who remains a bit of an enigma four years into his big-league career,” Sports Illustrated’s Patrick Andres wrote. “He’s given up three or more earned runs in eight of his 14 starts this season; half of those starts have come in the last month. St. Louis is by no means done in the playoff race, so we’ll see how long its patience with the 26-year-old lasts.”
The former high-leverage bullpen arm turned starting pitcher has had a bit of a rough go this season. On the year, Pallante 5-3 with a 4.48 ERA, with 58 strikeouts in 82.0 innings of work.
Pallante was rather sharp on Friday against the Cincinnati Reds, allowing just two hits and zero earned runs over 6.0 innings. The team is hopeful that this performance can get Pallante on the right track as it looks to salvage an inconsistent start to the season.
