Gray, Liberatore illustrate Cardinals’ innings-first pitching approach
At the precise moment on Tuesday night when Sonny Gray’s 64th pitch came off Johan Rojas’s bat and into Masyn Winn’s glove to start a double play, the vision for the St. Louis Cardinals’ pitching staff in 2024 came into total clarity.
By the time the bullpen had again successfully passed the baton en route to a shutout victory over the Philadelphia Phillies, it was hard not to detect notes of both confidence and vindication in that approach.
“Everyone was pretty excited that he was able to walk off [the field] on his own,” manager Oli Marmol said. “The fact that he was able to do it within his [pitch] limit of 65 and give you five innings, people were pretty pumped. I was pretty pumped.”
In meeting with Gray in the dugout following the top of the fourth, the staff ace had a simple message for his manager that allowed the two to share confidence he would be able to work up to his pitch count.
“Just don’t let me do anything stupid,” Gray recalled telling Marmol. “Don’t let me talk to you some type of way to do something stupid. We had a plan, so let’s stay with it.”
That plan originally involved some game action in the minors before his first appearance in the big leagues, but bad weather in Indianapolis last week shifted his work to a simulated appearance in Springfield, Missouri with the Double-A Cardinals.
That meant, prior to Tuesday, it had been more than 30 days since Gray pitched in a competitive game setting, requiring trust that he would be able to handle the stress of a real game as he works to come back from a hamstring strain.
“I just felt more comfortable in this environment than I have in any of those back field settings,” Gray explained, stressing that he’s felt physically normal for upwards of a week.
“Nothing ever sped up on him,” Marmol added. “You try to mimic that in-game simulated type of stuff in the minor leagues while he was trying to get healthy to get here, but when you add that third deck and the lights are on, it’s different, and he was under control the whole time.”
Gray’s return to the rotation, even on a pitch limit, means that the Cardinals are down only reliever Keynan Middleton from having in place the pitching staff they envisioned at the conclusion of the offseason. Last season’s cratering on the mound fed into a desire for innings certainty and informed the winter’s acquisitions, and this largely represents the vision of that design.
Without Middleton, lefty Matthew Liberatore has embraced his new role as the reliever for seemingly any situation. His comfort in warming up partially without wasting much stamina allows him to be ready to be deployed on a near-nightly basis, and Marmol’s developing trust in him opens up a number of situations for which he might have otherwise been passed over.
On Tuesday, after walking the first two hitters he faced in the sixth inning, Liberatore recovered to induce a ground ball double play. Marmol opined that he wouldn’t have had a similar result a year ago, instead perhaps letting an inning spin out of control, and the game along with it.
Slotting Liberatore into that flexible spot leaves a group of four high-leverage relievers that includes right-handers Giovanny Gallegos and Andrew Kittredge and lefty JoJo Romero ahead of closer Ryan Helsley.
Marmol explained earlier this week that the Cardinals will use Helsley exclusively in traditional closing situations – ahead by three or less in the ninth, the top of the 10th inning at home, perhaps occasionally for one out in eighth – in an effort to maximize his predictable outings and keep him ready for as many appearances as possible.
So far, those efforts are succeeding, as Helsley leads all pitchers in appearances through 12 games, with seven.
Even failures are working out for Cardinals pitching in the early going. Kyle Gibson’s Sunday start, his first at home as a Cardinal, saw him surrender two separate three-run homers to the Miami Marlins and then complete six full innings. That made him the first Cardinals pitcher to allow six in the first and pitch six innings since Bob Tewksbury on June 29, 1991, and more to the point, significantly curtailed the downstream effects of bullpen churn.
Gibson’s effort meant that only Ryan Fernandez and the since-optioned John King had to pick up relief outings behind him. That left a rested bullpen for Monday, maximizing the number of available arms for a tough series against the Phillies. What didn’t happen Sunday directly impacted what did happen Tuesday and avoided one of the too-common 2023 innings sinkholes which swallowed whole stretches of the schedule.
As the game writ large seeks velocity and frets over arm health, the Cardinals took on significant water over the winter with their strategy of durability and reliability, valuing innings over all other characteristics. With the middle of April approaching, there aren’t many teams finding as much upside as they are.
