ATLANTA — The engine trouble the Cardinals have had generating offense thus far in this series would be more glaring with its stalls and misfires if not for the fact they won’t be going all that far with the deflated tires of a rotation growing threadbare.
The concern the Cardinals saw coming has arrived and its starting to cost them game to game, not just within games.
For the second time in as many games against Atlanta, the Cardinals’ starter allowed at least six runs and pitched fewer that five innings. The hard math of that unsustainable model is the strain it puts on the relievers day to day, let alone the obstacle it asks the offense to overcome. The Braves pounced on rookie right-hander Andre Pallante for five runs in the first inning and seven runs total on their way to a 7-1 victory Tuesday at Truist Park.
In two games in Atlanta, the Cardinals’ two starters have allowed 13 runs and 19 hits in 7 2/3 innings.
But the issue is hardly centered in Cobb County.
In the previous 13 games, the Cardinals’ rotation has a 5.97 ERA, and including the 10 hits Pallante allowed Tuesday the starters have give up 84 hits in 63 1/3 innings. Since Yadier Molina went on the injured list with knee inflammation, it’s the rotation that has experienced a swelling ERA. The staff has allowed 57 earned runs in his previous 92 2/3 innings.
That’s a 5.53 ERA.
Forget four consecutive home runs; not even five would eclipse that.
Just another Missouri team trying to make its way in SEC Country, the Cardinals have allowed a total of 11 runs in the first two innings of the two games at Truist. Atlanta hit two, two-run homers off Pallante (2-4) in the first inning Tuesday to take the early lead. By the time Pallante left the game in the middle of the fourth inning, three different Braves had two RBIs against him. Atlanta third baseman Austin Riley had a homer, a single, and a double off Pallante before the end of the fourth inning.
