Matthew Liberatore gives up six runs to Arizona

The one run came in the third, when Jorge Mateo singled, stole second, advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored on a sac fly. With two lefties due up, the Cardinals brought Liberatore back out for the sixth at 92 pitches. However, he walked Matt Olson to start the inning and was pulled. Liberatore’s nine strikeouts came up one shy of his career high from last month. He fanned 10 Brewers in a loss on May 25 and then went his last five starts without ever striking out more than four batters. The rebound ensures that he’ll continue to stick in the rotation and face the Cubs on Sunday. Still, there’s not a lot to like here at the moment.

Yikes. Liberatore did record two of his five outs via the strikeout and didn’t walk a batter. He allowed one run in the opening inning on a solo blast by Bobby Witt Jr. The Royals then piled on with six more while chasing him in the second. He got four whiffs on just 48 pitches in the game, posting a CSW of 27 percent. He now holds a disappointing 5.23 ERA, 1.56 WHIP and a 67/27 K/BB ratio over 72 1/3 innings of work in 15 starts on the season. He’ll try to get back on track when he takes on the Diamondbacks on Wednesday.

Liberatore gave up two homers in the fourth and one more in the fifth before departing. That brings his season total of homers allowed to 14 in 14 starts. Last year, he allowed a total of 19 in his 29 starts. Liberatore will take a 3-3 record and a 4.71 ERA into his next turn versus the Royals.

It’s the fourth time in five starts that Liberatore, whose velocity was down one mph today, has allowed at least three runs while getting no more than 15 outs. The Cardinals won anyway, so they’re 9-4 when he pitches this season, even though his ERA stands at 4.48 and he’s completed six innings only three times. He’ll pitch in Minnesota next weekend.

Liberatore allowed three hits, walked one and struck out five. That’s just half as many strikeouts as the career-high 10 he had last time out, but it is a fifth straight start with at least five strikeouts. He reached that mark just once in his first seven starts. Last year, he struck out five in 13 of his 29 starts (and went 6-4 when he did, compared to 2-10 the rest of the time.) Liberatore has a 4.35 ERA and a 58/24 K/BB in 62 innings on the season. He’ll face the Reds next weekend.

Given what Jacob Misiorowski was doing to Cardinals hitters today, it was pretty easy to miss Liberatore setting a career high for strikeouts for a second straight outing. He’d never topped eight before fanning nine Pirates on Tuesday, and now he has 10 for the first time. His 17 whiffs were just two fewer than Misiorowski’s total (he also had two fewer strikeouts), and while he did give up seven hits, he actually allowed only four hard-hit balls. Liberatore dropped to 2-3 with a 4.76 ERA, but his stock is climbing as he misses more bats. He’ll likely face the Cubs on Sunday.

Mautz was supposed to start Sunday’s game against the Reds and make his MLB debut, but that game was postponed. The 24-year-old will instead be a bullpen option with Matthew Liberatore getting the nod for Monday’s tilt against the Brew Crew.

Liberatore cruised through four before giving up two singles to start the fifth. He was able to retire two more batters while giving up one run, but the wheels came off afterwards, as Bryan Reynolds doubled, Marcell Ozuna walked and Oneil Cruz singled before he was lifted. Fortunately, Gordon Graceffo was able to strand both runners he inherited at that point. Liberatore finished up with 13 whiffs and a 32 percent CSW. His previous high for strikeouts was eight, though he’d topped out at six in his previous nine starts this season. He has a 4.70 ERA, and he rates as a poor play Sunday in Cincinnati.

Liberatore’s velocity was a little better than usual tonight and he had great success in amassing a 58 percent CSW on the 19 curveballs he threw, but thanks to Nick Kurtz’s grand slam in the fifth, the results just weren’t there in the end. The loss leaves him 2-2 with a 4.40 ERA. That’s not much different than his 4.21 ERA from last year, but his strikeout and walk rates are both significantly worse now than they were then. If he’s just going to be a fifth starter, it might be worth dropping his changeup and cutter and taking another look at him as a reliever at some point.

Michael King matched Liberatore through six, but Liberatore still got the win due to a Masyn Winn RBI triple in the top of the seventh that every MLB right fielder besides Nick Castellanos and Joc Pederson would have caught. It makes Liberatore 2-1 with a 4.07 ERA in eight starts. That’s solid, but given that he’s well below average in terms of generating strikeouts and groundouts, he still seems like a weak bet going forward. He’ll face the A’s next week.