The thing about setting forth on a season with a goal to seek opportunities and information for the future is that not all answers will be affirmative.
There will be “maybe” and “not likely” and “no” mixed in.
Those are answers, too.
With nine games remaining on the “runway” in their regular season, the Cardinals did not get the widespread results from their investment of playing time in young players. But that does not mean they will start the winter without answers. Their final home game against National League Central rival Cincinnati — a 6-2 loss Wednesday afternoon at Busch Stadium — underscored areas where the Cardinals have made progress, where they still have competition and where on the roster questions and uncertainty still linger.
Alec Burleson put the Cardinals ahead early with a solo home run, his 18th of an assertive season that has seen him capitalize on playing time and secure his place, if he’s in the organization, in the 2026 lineup. Andre Pallante pitched five innings and allowed four runs on six hits. All four runs were influenced by the three walks he issued as he continues to experiment with ways to expand his pitch-to-contact style for more strikeouts.
A year spent in the rotation has put Pallante in the conversation for 2026, but the results have likely left him entering spring in competition for a spot.
“Now the ball is in his court to make adjustments,” manager Oli Marmol said. “Just because you have a bad year doesn’t mean you bail on the idea of him being a starter.”
The final 2025 meeting between the Reds and Cardinals showed the thin line between a team that fancies itself in the wild-card race and one that, inch by inch, is receding from it. The win vaulted the Reds back to .500, at 76-76, and within earshot of the National League’s third wild-card berth. The Cardinals lost their third consecutive series and lost for the seventh time in their past nine games to slip to 74-79.
They could have tied the Reds in wins with a victory Wednesday.
Instead, they’ll get an off-day Thursday before having to win seven of their final nine games to avoid a losing record.
Cincinnati’s Spencer Steer had five RBIs in Wednesday’s win and hit the three-run homer to pounce on two walks from Pallante and turn them into a lead. The Reds exploited opportunities that Pallante offered. The Cardinals offense, which lacked All-Stars Brendan Donovan and Willson Contreras, did not have the depth to do so. The Cardinals went 0 for 7 with runners in scoring position.
Two of the featured young players entering this season are exiting with some of the familiar struggles: Nolan Gorman and Jordan Walker combined to go 0 for eight with three strikeouts each.
“You’re going to have at-bats from young guys that don’t look up to par at times, and that’s part of being patient. It’s going to take time,” Marmol said. “Some guys are sticking to the process and not having results. Some guys are reverting back to bad habits. That’s why it’s hard for me to answer as a blanket statement. It is super-individual in what we’re seeing right now. There are certain guys where the results aren’t there, but we like how they’re going about it.
“There are certain guys where the game starts and there’s a little bit of hitting the panic button,” the manager continued, “and reverting back to what’s comfortable.”
That is where Burleson’s strides have stood out.
Urged to embrace being uncomfortable at the plate to eventually bring out more power, Burleson has made that breakthrough this season. Gifted when it comes to contact, the Cardinals spent the past few seasons urging Burleson to use that “superpower” with two strikes but adopt and refine an approach that sought damage earlier in the count.
In the first inning Wednesday, he did both. He jumped on a 1-2 sinker for a solo homer. In the fourth, he got a 2-0 slider that he drilled for a double. Those hits raised his average to .285, which is top 10 in the NL, and his slugging percentage to a career-best .461. He’s on the brink of an .800 on-base plus slugging percentage (OPS), and he’d be the first left-handed-hitting Cardinals outfielder to reach that mark in 15 years.
“There’s a different level of game planning there and sticking to it,” Marmol said. “He’s super-stubborn — in the most positive way possible — of sticking to what he think is going to happen in an at-bat. The double you saw there? He’s sitting on a pitch. He takes a good swing on it. There’s layers to that one — and they’re really good.”
It’s that approach the Cardinals hunger to see from other hitters.
It’s that willingness to adapt with some initial risk they’re seeing in some other players.
Winless in August, Pallante (6-15) lost his eighth consecutive decision and the Cardinals fell to 2-12 in his past 14 starts. He has a 6.14 ERA in that stretch, and the number of base runners has spiked against him. He walked at least three batters for the fourth time in six starts — and part of that is the cost of finding strikes outside the zone.
“He was trying to get chase once he got to two strikes,” Marmol said. “So that’s where a lot of that comes from. When you pitch to that much contact it’s hard to walk. But he’s trying to pitch to less contact, therefore it’s a give and take there at the moment.”
Pallante felt that in real time as he tried to entice Reds with his breaking ball.
“It’s tough to go back and look at it and, man, if I just filled up the zone against those guys with my better strike pitches, maybe I don’t give up that three-run homer. But I know that in the long-term, I need to be more dynamic and I need to be able to do that. So you just have to take it.”
Staked to a 1-0 lead by Burleson’s homer, Pallante retired the side in order in the second on 12 pitches. He struck out Elly De La Cruz for the second out. In the fourth, that same area of the Reds lineup set up Steer for his game-flipping homer. Pallante walked Sal Stewart and then got De La Cruz to a full count before walking him too. The next batter, Steer, ambushed the first pitch for a 411-foot homer and the lead.
An inning later, Pallante walked a batter to load the bases after two singles. He then misfired on a breaking ball for the wild pitch that brought home the fourth and final run against him.
“If I land my breaking ball there, I don’t fall behind in counts,” Pallante said. “I don’t walk those guys. And a solo homer won’t beat me. That’s what it comes down to.”
More specifically, he mentioned a sequence.
Since his days as a reliever, Pallante has thrown an unusual fastball, one that breaks continually and used to give left-handed batters fits. As a starter, those hitters have seen it more, and the adjustment has happened “so drastically, so fast,” Pallante said. He has had to develop new looks.
The curveball is one. He wants to be able to throw a sinker on the outside edge to right-handed batters that will clip the strike zone and thus make his slider to that spot more appealing — before it breaks out of the zone. Stewart ignored one of those sliders for a walk. Pallante said if he threw a better sinker, Stewart might go fishing for that slider.
Regardless of how the final nine games go, the Cardinals will leave this season with a feel for the stratification of the roster. There are players who will be traded. There are players who will have roles waiting for them in spring. There are players who will compete for a role, even if it’s one they’ve had for all of 2025.
Pallante was asked if he’s made his best claim to a spot in the future rotation.
“I don’t think about that. That’s not my job to do that,” Pallante said. “I’m worried about getting hitters out.”
That’s the best way to start.
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Derrick Goold | Post-Dispatch
Lead baseball writer
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