Cardinals LHP Liberatore leaves start against Royals with fatigue issues

ST. LOUIS (AP) — St. Louis starter Matthew Liberatore left the Cardinals' game Thursday night against Kansas City because of fatigue.

Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said the concern factor was not high.

“He said he felt good, just out of sync with his mechanics,” Marmol said. “Wish we had a better answer, but it just wasn’t coming out. But no injury, no pain, said he actually felt really good going into that game, and just wasn’t synced up. So ran some tests on him during that game, once he came out, and everything came back looking pretty good.”

Liberatore left with no outs in the fifth inning after throwing 71 pitches. His final pitch was a 73.8-mph, ball-four curveball to Maikel Garcia, who eventually scored on a single by Salvador Perez to cap the scoring in Kansas City's 7-5 victory in the second game of a day-night doubleheader.

“I wasn’t concerned about pain or fatigue or anything,” Liberatore said. “I was going to keep pitching until they ripped the ball out of my hands, which is, unfortunately, what ended up happening. But just kept trying to figure out how to make the adjustment and ran out of time.”

Liberatore’s fastball dipped from 96 mph at the start of the game to 89 in his final inning.

“Once he threw the one at 89, I mean, at that point we saw some cutters at 88 and the four seamer at 90-91, and then one dipped down 89, so I didn’t want him over compensating,” Marmol said.

Liberatore, the St. Louis starter in the nightcap of a day-night doubleheader, struggled in his second straight start. The 25-year-old left-hander allowed a season-high seven runs on eight hits in four-plus innings.

Liberatore said he went through several tests after leaving the game, but had no imaging on his shoulder or arm.

“Everything probably has a hand in it,” Liberatore said. “I think when you get out of sync, it’s not as easy to maintain velocity, and you get fatigued quicker. I don’t know if it was a fatigue and then out of sync issue first. I think that it was more of a mechanical out of sync that led to some fatigue.”

In his last outing, Liberatore allowed five runs, four earned, in five innings in an 11-1 loss to the Rangers.

Liberatore earned a starting role with the Cardinals out of spring training after spending the majority of last season working out of the bullpen. He has worked at least six innings in eight of his 12 starts and entered Thursday with a 2.42 ERA since April 13, which ranks seventh among National League starters.

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