The St. Louis Cardinals are giving struggling starting pitcher Erick Fedde at least one more opportunity to get his season back on track.
Fedde (3-9, 4.79 ERA) draws the start Saturday afternoon when the Cardinals host the Atlanta Braves in the middle game of a three-game series at Busch Stadium. The Braves edged the Cardinals 6-5 on Friday night.
Fedde has allowed 17 runs on 20 hits in his previous 10 innings, spanning three starts.
“My sinker is not running, which is really killing me,” Fedde said recently. “My cutter is moving, in my opinion, a little too much. … Right now, I’m throwing a lot of balls. When I’m throwing strikes they’re being hit well. It’s a difficult situation to navigate.
“Maybe, in a sense, thinking too much about outside things — about my mechanics, about tipping, about holding runners — and just not focusing on making the quality pitch right then and there. That is inexcusable, and I need to be better about it.”
Rather than replace Fedde in the rotation with top pitching prospect Michael McGreevy, the Cardinals stayed the course with the trade deadline in mind. If Fedde gets back on track, he could become an asset to move.
“We’re going to give him another shot at it,” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said. “My hope is that we can get on the other side of (what) his last couple of outings have looked like.”
Fedde is hoping history doesn’t repeat itself. He is 0-6 with a 9.98 ERA in 11 career appearances against the Braves, including 10 starts.
Cardinals third baseman Nolan Arenado is questionable after leaving Friday night’s game with a sprained right index finger. “We’ll see how he comes in tomorrow and make a decision,” Marmol said after the game.
The Braves came into St. Louis reeling from 11 losses during a 14-game span, capped by their 11-inning loss to the Athletics in West Sacramento, Calif., on Thursday night.
“It’d be great going into the break on a little bit of a positive,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “It’s been a tough first half and that’s probably understating everything, We’ve just got to keep looking for positives and keep working and start waiting on us to get on our run.”
One positive has been the power provided by outfielder Jurickson Profar since returning from his 80-game suspension for testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs. He hit two doubles and scored a run Friday.
Profar hit three homers in his first 32 at-bats since coming back. Braves left fielders combined to hit two homers in 330 at-bats before Profar returned.
Sean Murphy offered another big positive Friday by blasting 437-foot and 440-foot homers.
But Braves third baseman Austin Riley is questionable after departing Friday night’s game with lower abdominal tightness.
The injury-depleted Braves will deploy bullpen starts in their final two games before the All-Star break. As of late Friday night, they had yet to name a starting pitcher for Saturday.
The Braves adjusted their bullpen ahead of this series, claiming lefty Joey Wentz on waivers Friday and designating right-handed reliever Kevin Herget for assignment.
–Field Level Media
