More Dustin May Struggles, Sagging Offense Sink Cards in Series Loss to Pirates

· Yahoo Sports

Cardinals’ manager Oliver Marmol discusses the success Dustin May had with his sweeper and cutter before running into major trouble in Thursday’s sixth inning. The Cards lost 6-2 and lost the series to the Pirates.

ST. LOUIS – In losing their first series in nearly a month, the Cardinals emerged from an ugly Thursday performance wondering which issue they should be more concerned about going forward: Dustin May’s continued mid-game troubles or their suddenly disappearing offense?

May, who was signed to a one-year, $12.5 million free-agent deal to provide a veteran presence to the starting staff, held the Pirates in check for the most part over the first 5 1/3 innings of Thursday’s series finale at Busch Stadium. However, he came unglued in the sixth by allowing four straight Pirates to reach and two of them to score. Making matters worse, a Cardinals offense that was shut out on Sunday and again on Wednesday never figured out much against hard-throwing right-hander Braxton Ashcraft, who allowed just a run and four hits over seven innings.

Visit newsbetting.club for more information.

Add it all together and the result was a 6-2 Cardinals loss to the Pirates before 27,705 fans at Busch Stadium. In losing the series 2-1 to the rival Pirates, the Cards dropped their first series since getting swept by the Mariners at Busch Stadium from April 24-26. They responded to that sweep by going 4-0-2 over the next six series to surge as high as nine games over .500.

“Predictable counts, repeating too many predictable pitches and not executing,” said May, who surrendered six hits, a homer and four earned runs while striking out seven in 5 1/3 innings pitched. “I need to be better.”

McGreevy lacks sharpness, bats go silent in shutout loss to PIrates

May came into Thursday having pitched at least six innings in six of his last seven outings, and that appeared possible on Thursday when he struck out Bryan Reynolds looking to open the sixth inning. However, a walk, a double and two singles later, May was done for the day.

“It’s frustrating punching (out) the first guy and then walking the next buy is basically like a leadoff walk,” said May, whose ERA sits at 5.00 after 10 starts. “It’s not ideal and definitely not what I was trying to do in that moment.”

May continued to have trouble in the biggest spots in games. Pirates’ hitters had two hits with runners in scoring position off May on Thursday, meaning the right-hander is allowing foes to hit .383 with runners in scoring position. With any runners on base, the opposition is hitting at a .310 clip this season. Also, there’s this: In May’s three wins this season, he has a sparkling 1.56 ERA, while it swells to 8.05 in his five losses.

“I felt like he was executing well and the cutter was good and a lot of the balls in play were just out of reach and the double play ball was hit just slow enough that we couldn’t turn it,” Cardinals’ manager Oliver Marmol said. “A combination of those things led to us chasing.”

The Cardinals beat up on Ashcraft when they faced him in Pittsburgh on April 28, but the hard-throwing right-hander overpowered them most of the day on Thursday. He struck out the side in the first innings and racked up nine strikeouts in seven innings, while throwing just 98 pitches.

Ashcraft struck out nine over seven innings

Catcher Ivan Herrera, who had a three-run, walk-off homer on Tuesday night in the only St. Louis win of the series, connected on a 408-foot homer in the third inning for the only damage off Ashcraft.

“This (Ashcraft) guy did a really good job of not leaving anything in the middle of the plate and on my first at bat he dotted every single pitch,” Herrera said. “I kept telling (assistant hitting coach Brandon Allen), ‘He’s going to miss over the middle of the plate at some point and I’m going to hit the ball.’ For me, it’s about being more left-center (with his aim), so that I don’t get too pull-happy. I want to be aggressive early because I’ve been too lazy – well, not lazy, but passive – and I’m getting jammed. I want to give myself the best chance to be successful and you can’t do that when you are late on pitches.”

With nine straight games coming against NL Central rivals – the Reds, Brewers and Cubs – Herrera knows the Cardinals are in a critical juncture of their season and need to start playing better to stay in the race.

“It’s crazy because it feels like we’ve been winning a lot, but (the Brewers) have been winning a lot, too,” said Herrera, who is hitting .262 with six home runs and 24 RBI on the season. “It’s cool to be able to compete (in the division) and we’ll see how things finish at the end. I know we just lost this series (to the Pirates), but we’re going to continue to fight and hopefully get the results we want.”

Cards appear poised to shuffle infield depth with possible Bryan Torres promotion   

Join the conversation

Remember to join our CARDINALS on ROUNDTABLE community, which is FREE! You can post your own thoughts, in text or video form, and you can engage with our Roundtable staff, as well as other CARDINALS fans. If prompted to download the Roundtable APP, that's free too!

Read full story at source