ST. LOUIS – One of Andre Pallante’s top goals going into his first start of the 2026 season on Tuesday night was to be less predictable with his pitches.

Without question, no one could have predicted what Pallante would do the star-studded Mets lineup after the way he finished a nightmarish 2025 season.

Pallante limited the Mets to just three hits over five-plus scoreless innings and snapped a 10-start winless streak in the Cardinals’ 3-0 defeat of New York at Busch Stadium on Tuesday night.

“(Being unpredictable) is the whole point of what I’m doing,” Pallante said. “You look at (teammate Michael) McGreevy and he does a phenomenal job of being unpredictable. My goal was, ‘How can I get closer to (being less predictable)?’ I threw some two-seamers to lefties, more curveballs to righties and that plays a role, especially when I was 90 percent four-seamers to rights for most of my career. So, the development of other pitches plays a role in being less predictable.”

Pallante, who spent most of his offseason reevaluating his arsenal and developing a kick-change off-speed offering, won for the first time since July 28, 2025. He went 0-8 with a 7.10 ERA over his final 10 starts of 2025 – a winless drought that often left him glum and at wit’s end with his inability to find success. This time around, however, Pallante looked more at ease on the mound.

“When you are tense in the mind, the body tenses up and you try to do too much and you can’t command what you are trying to dd,” he said. “Tonight I felt like my mind was relaxed and I was able to just pitch.”

Pallante got all the run support he would need from a two-run double by Iván Herrera and a solo homer from Ramón Urías. Standout rookie JJ Wetherholt had two more hits and showed off his high baseball IQ with a stellar base-running play during St. Louis’ two-run third inning.

Pallante, 27, scattered three hits – two of them being hard-hit balls by superstar left-hander Juan Soto. Of his 88 pitches, he induced 38 swings, 14 called strikes and 10 whiffs. All three hits came off Pallante’s four-seam fastball – a pitch he purposefully shied away from in hopes of being less predictable on the mound. He threw 27 sliders, 20 sinkers, 10 knuckle-curves and six changeups to keep the Mets off balance all night.

Said Herrera, who was as excited about catching a shutout as he was driving in two runs with a double: “I hope Pallante keeps having confidence in himself because in this game if you have doubt things are going to hit you really fast. He did awesome today and I hope he builds from it. He’s been grinding and working on that changeup.”

After liking what he had seen from Pallante in Spring Training, Marmol predicted that Tuesday would look a lot different than a 2025 season filled with frustration for Pallante.

“He’s pretty self-aware and honest with himself when it comes to that feedback loop whether he did well or didn’t and wondering what he can do better,” Marmol said. “Once you are done with that process you have to layer in confidence and then attack things again. That’s what we’re seeing that is a little different now than last season.”

The Cardinals got some help from the Mets to rally for two runs in the third inning. Luis Robert Jr. misplayed Victor Scott II’s drive to center to lead off the third inning, allowing the speedster to reach second base. From there, Wetherholt laced a single to center and kept going around first base when Robert Jr. missed the cutoff man on his throw home.

From there, Herrera made the Mets pay for the defensive gaffes with a 107.4 mph rocket off the wall in left field to plate Scott and Wetherholt for a 2-0 lead.

“My swing started to feel better (on Monday) and I’ve just been trying to attack, but I’ve been missing,” said Herrera, who won the first two ABS strike-to-ball challenges of the season for the Cards. “All my misses have been ground balls, so I’ve just tried to stay back and hit the ball up the middle. Now, my swing is feeling better.”

Not surprisingly, one of the biggest defensive plays of the game came from Gold Glove-winning shortstop Masyn Winn in the sixth inning. Positioned perfectly for a ball hit back up the middle, Winn snared a liner off the bat of Jared Young and used his plus-throwing arm to fire to first to double off Bo Bichette. The play stranded Juan Soto at third and preserved St. Louis’ 2-0 lead.

“You need a massive cannon (of an arm) to finish that play and he did it,” Marmol said.

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