The pitch count numbers from Cardinals’ left-hander Matthew Liberatore in Wednesday night’s game almost defied logic.

Liberatore needed just 46 pitches as he breezed through the first four innings of the game, a count that was aided by a seven-pitch first inning and a five-pitch third inning.

However, Liberatore’s pitch count in the fifth inning – 43 pitches to get three outs – spoke to how the game got away from the left-hander who had pitched exceptionally in his previous two starts against the Dodgers and Padres.

Reining American League Rookie of the Year Nick Kurtz reached Liberatore for an opposite-field grand slam and the Cardinals were plagued by 10 runners left on and 1-for-9 hitting with runners in scoring position in a 6-2 loss to the Athletics in West Sacramento.

"Kurtz took a really good swing on him -- deep in the count and a slider kind of down and away, but he gets a really good swing on it," manager Oliver Marmol told Cardinals.TV. "He made us pay for it."

The Cardinals had 13 hits, but they left runners on base in six of the first seven innings. Alec Burleson had three hits, while JJ Wetherholt, Masyn Winn and Nathan Church had two hits apiece. However, Marmol was unhappy that Winn got picked off third and Church was caught stealing to kill rallies.

"We did a lot of things that cost us and I feel like this is one of the first games where I felt like we handed them the game instead of them beating us," Marmol said. "We had opportunities and we created a ton of them. But we didn't cash in and we made some mistakes on the bases that cost us."

Still, it wasn’t nearly enough offense to overcome a disastrous fifth inning for Liberatore. He allowed just five hits over a scoreless first four innings.

However, five of the first six Athletics' hitters reached to begin the fifth inning. After walking Shea Langeliers to load the bases, Liberatore kept a 2-2 slider away from Kurtz, but the powerful first baseman still drove it over the wall in left center to plate Darell Hernaiz, Michael Stefanic and Langeliers. The 405-foot shot, which left the bat at 100.3 mph, was the first grand slam Liberatore has allowed in his career, but the ninth long ball he has surrendered in 2026. 

Liberatore got a game-high 13 swings and misses with six of them coming on his slider. He allowed nine hits and nine hard-hit balls in five innings of work. He also landed 13 first-pitch strikes on the 24 batters he faced.

"(Liberatore) landed the curveball really well early and that was a big pitch for him," Marmol said. "He was in the zone quite a bit with the rest of his other stuff to give himself a shot. But that (fifth) inning they piled it on pretty good."

The Cardinals got within 4-2 in the seventh inning when Pedro Pages and Wetherholt reached on singles and Ivan Herrera delivered with a sacrifice fly to right field. Burleson smacked his third hit of the night, but Jordan Walker struck out on a sweeping curveball with two on and two out.

The Cardinals fell to 14-8 on the road -- still MLB's second-best road record behind only that of the NL East-leading Braves (16-7). They also dropped to 3-3 on the seven-game West Coast swing, with the finale coming on Thursday afternoon against the Athletics. 

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