If the St. Louis Cardinals are going to stay in the postseason race, they will the starting rotation to deliver.
Michael McGreevy gave them a strong start Monday night in a 6-2 win against the Colorado Rockies, and it will be Erick Fedde’s turn to do the same Tuesday in the second of a three-game series in Denver.
Fedde (3-9, 4.83 ERA) takes the mound against Colorado’s Bradley Blalock (0-2, 9.97) in a clash of right-handers.
Fedde was strong at the beginning of the season, tossing at least six innings in five of his first eight starts, which included a complete game shutout at Washington on May 9. He hasn’t won a game since then, and he has finished six innings only once in the 11-game span.
In that time his ERA has increased by a just shy of a run per game since the game against the Nationals, leaving Fedde to search for answers.
“My sinker is not running, which is really killing me,” Fedde said after a recent start. “My cutter is moving, in my opinion, a little too much. I need to clean up the mechanics to hopefully get back to those shapes that I like.
“I’m throwing a lot of balls. When I am throwing strikes, they’re being hit well. It’s a difficult situation to navigate. Maybe in a sense, I’m thinking too much about outside things, about my mechanics, about tipping, about holding runners. I’m just not focusing on making a quality pitch right then and there. That’s something that’s inexcusable and I have to be better about.”
Tuesday will mark his seventh career appearance (sixth start) against the Rockies, and he is 2-2 with a 5.00 ERA. He has pitched well in Denver, going 2-1 with a 3.32 ERA in four outings (three starts).
Blalock, who has not faced St. Louis in his young career, is pitching at home for the first time since Colorado’s most lopsided loss of the season. The Rockies were routed 21-0 by San Diego on May 10, a day before the Rockies fired manager Bud Black.
He allowed 12 runs on 13 hits in just 3 2/3 innings and was optioned to Triple-A Albuquerque the next day. The Rockies called him up two weeks ago to make his fourth start and sixth appearance of the season.
Blalock had a better experience at Cincinnati on July 12 when he allowed just one run on six hits in 5 2/3 innings.
Whenever St. Louis comes to Denver, it evokes memories of Nolan Arenado anchoring third base and crushing home runs for the Rockies. He was the star on Colorado consecutive playoff teams in 2017-18, but it has been downhill for the franchise since. The Rockies are in the midst of their seventh straight losing season and on pace to lose 100 games for the third consecutive year.
With just 24 wins in their first 100 games, Colorado also is on pace to win just 38 games. If that holds true, they’d replace the 2024 Chicago White Sox as the team with the most losses in MLB’s modern era. This White Sox finished 41-121.
Only Kyle Freeland, German Marquez, Antonio Senzatela and Ryan McMahon remain from that 91-win team in 2018.
DJ LeMahieu, a Gold Glove winner at second and the 2016 National League batting champion, wasn’t re-signed. Arenado was traded to the Cardinals in February 2021 and shortstop Trevor Story left via free agency and signed with the Boston Red Sox.
“It was very good,” Freeland said of that team. “You look at that core of veterans who moved on and what they have done in the game, and you do wonder, ‘What could have been?’”