ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ

The verb, past or present, is shorthand for forget.

Don’t fixate.

Move on.

Long season. Clunkers happen. Don’t look back. Turn the handle. Flush.

A dud of a game when a depleted lineup fails to produce a hit until the fifth inning and the pitchers allow 18 hits by the end of the eighth has all the makings of a flushable evening, and yet there were the Cardinals on Friday after their 8-2 loss to the San Francisco Giants going not so fast. A team at a different spot in the standings might “flush� the loss. The Cardinals, with their emphasis on development and eyes on the horizon, talking about doing something else.

Learn.

“Regardless of where you’re at in the season or what you’re competing for, you still don’t want to just flush a game,� manager Oli Marmol said. “You’ve got to learn from. I understand what you’re saying. There are certain games where you’re just like, ‘Hey, forget it, keep going.’ With as young guys as we’ve got you have to make the most of every opportunity and make sure you’re not missing an opportunity to teach or grow. There are still games where you don’t want to say, ‘Don’t worry about it. Keep going.’ There are certain moments you can learn from.�

How that takes place, Marmol explained, requires digging beyond the line score and deeper into the box score. They’ve got to go granular.

“You have to individualize it,� he said. “And not get frustrated with the overall result.�

On Thursday night, catcher Jimmy Crooks went to pitcher Michael McGreevy’s apartment to watch football. ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ were together when the lineup for Friday’s game went out to players and read how they would be reunited from their starts together earlier this season for Class AAA Memphis. A “let’s goâ€� was likely said. Or two. McGreevy said Crooks left earlier than expected so he could start working on a scouting report to bring to the right-hander at the ballpark the next day.

Crooks’ preparation has already impressed the major-league staff in his first week with the Cardinals, and detail-oriented, individualized lens Marmol mentioned after a loss like Friday’s is a fit for how to view the rookie battery.

“This is part of our future,� Marmol said.

Crooks came prepared and helped McGreevy navigate a raucous start to the game by the Giants and some of the pitches that weren’t behaving. Crooks also broke up Carson Seymour’s no-hit bid and the shutout in the fifth inning. Crooks led off with a single and scored a few batters later on Victor Scott II’s RBI single. Scott’s diving catch on a line drive into the left-center gap keep the fourth inning for erupting more on McGreevy. But how the right-hander got to the fourth inning was a sign of the details, the improvements that Marmol mentioned.

In the first inning, McGreevy tucked a curveball under the zone, and San Francisco star Rafael Devers was able to pry it up for a solo homer. Three innings later, McGreevy went even lower with a pitch, and Devers elevated it too for an RBI single. Two snappy pitches below the zone and two base hits for a top big-league hitter.

“Baseball is a very cruel game,� said McGreevy (6-3). “I was like, wow, that’s an incredible swing on a good pitch. Tip the cap. The second one was even lower and even farther out — three balls down — and he hit it. That’s when you get a little more frustrated.�

Devers was not alone.

Three pitches after Devers’ solo homer in the first, Willy Adames hit a sweeping slider for a solo homer and a quick 2-0 lead for the Giants. Thirteen pitches into his start McGreevy allowed three extra-base hits and two runs, and he got one visit from pitching coach Dusty Blake and Crooks. From there, McGreevy found some traction. He struck out three in the span of seven batters, and he was able to retire the Giants in order in the third without the ball leaving the infield.

The Giants arrived in St. Louis after scoring 25 runs in three games at Coors Field. In four of their past six wins, the Giants scored at least 10 runs.

They surged for four runs against McGreevy in the fourth inning with five hits. He allowed nine hits total in four innings — and four went for extra bases.

“This is a guy who lives on the ground,� Marmol said. “They did a nice job of not doing that.�

Beneath the surface statistics, the individualized and detailed lessons for McGreevy could be pitch use or pitch movement. The right-hander described how he wasn’t able to locate his four-seam fastball consistently, and there were times he was also unable to get the preferred movement on his cutter. The cut fastball is a pitch that snaps bats at its best and finds barrels at its worst. McGreevy threw a dozen of them and got four swings and misses on them.

He also had four cutters put in play — at an average mph of 95.6.

“I just wasn’t locating it up and in,� McGreevy said. “I was at the top of the zone. It being up and away gives lefty that split-second longer to stay on the ball and at least put it in play.�

McGreevy allowed six runs on nine hits in four innings.

Yet, he was detailing what went awry with one pitch.

This wasn’t a flush.

This was a study.

The Cardinals trailed 6-0 before Crooks got them their first hit, and offense could be scarce all weekend against the Giants. The Cardinals are playing without four of their opening day starters. Willson Contreras began his suspension Friday, and Nolan Arenado, Brendan Donovan, and Alec Burleson will miss the entire series due to injuries.

Every Cardinal in the lineup was also someway in a position different from when they started the season. Masyn Winn was at shortstop, just as he was on opening day, but he hit cleanup. Around him were two fielders who began the year at Class AAA Memphis and Nolan Gorman making his first start of the year at first base.

Available reasons to dismiss Friday’s result or ample reasons to learn from it.

Marmol gave other examples of what can be mined from a ragged game like Friday’s. There were two double plays not turned, and in the seventh inning a fly ball that dropped between multiple Cardinals turned into a run when Jung Hoo Lee tripled for his third of four hits in the game. The game, Marmol explained, is only part of the evaluation. As he moves from position to position, Thomas Saggese — who started at third Friday — has been working before games to improve his fielding regimen. That ranges from when and where he takes groundballs to how he fits it into his overall pregame preparation.

He got feedback on that and any other plays immediately after the game from coach Stubby Clapp on Friday night.

Within the eighth inning, there was another individualized lesson plan. Reliever Chris Roycroft entered to face Devers and the heart of the Giants’ order. Roycroft buzzed a 97-mph sinker past Devers for a strikeout. Roycroft struck out Adames with a cutter. The two players who socked homers in the first inning turned back to the dugout against the Cardinals’ right-handed reliever. From two batters, Roycroft got two strikeouts. He would eventually strike out the side, but not before he couldn’t lockdown the inning with two outs.

He allowed two hits — a double and an infield bounder — and sandwiched a walk between them. That loaded the bases and the inning became wobbly. Roycroft went back to how he started the inning. He shoved fastballs, alternating between sinker and cutter through a six-pitch at-bat against Casey Schmitt. Five of the pitchers were strikes. The last one as a sinker biting low and in that Schmitt swung over.

The inning could have been a flush.

It turned out to be a lesson.

“There are little details that as we’re speaking right now they’re going over with (players) inside,� Marmol said. “So you’re looking at small details like that and making sure progress is being made. And you keep moving forward.�

Giants 8, Cardinals 2

San Francisco AB R H BI BB SO Avg.

Ramos lf 6 1 2 0 0 0 .269

Devers dh 4 1 2 2 1 2 .256

Adames ss 5 1 1 2 0 1 .230

Smith 1b 5 0 2 0 0 0 .287

Chapman 3b 4 1 1 0 1 1 .234

Lee cf 5 2 4 1 0 0 .267

Schmitt 2b 5 1 2 1 0 3 .241

Gilbert rf 3 0 1 1 1 1 .264

Bailey c 5 1 3 1 0 1 .219

Totals 42 8 18 8 3 9

St. Louis AB R H BI BB SO Avg.

Nootbaar lf 4 0 0 0 0 2 .240

Herrera dh 4 1 1 1 0 0 .283

Gorman 1b 4 0 1 0 0 0 .220

M.Winn ss 3 0 0 0 0 1 .253

Hampson ph-ss 1 0 0 0 0 1 .103

Crooks c 4 1 1 0 0 1 .182

Saggese 3b 3 0 1 0 1 0 .250

J.Walker rf 4 0 0 0 0 2 .215

Scott cf 2 0 1 1 0 0 .225

Fermín 2b 3 0 0 0 0 0 .281

Totals 32 2 5 2 1 7

San Francisco 200 400 200 — 8 18 0

St. Louis 000 010 010 — 2 5 0

LOB: San Francisco 11, St. Louis 5. 2B: Smith 2 (12), Schmitt (13). 3B: Lee (11). HR: Devers (16), off McGreevy; Adames (27), off McGreevy; Herrera (14), off Beck. RBIs: Devers 2 (41), Adames 2 (78), Gilbert (11), Bailey (43), Lee (49), Schmitt (33), Scott (36), Herrera (54). CS: Gilbert (1). SF: Gilbert. DP: St. Louis 1.

San Francisco IP H R ER BB SO ERA

Seymour, W, 1-2 5 2 1 1 1 2 4.25

Gage 1 1 0 0 0 2 2.33

Beck, S, 1-1 3 2 1 1 0 3 5.11

St. Louis IP H R ER BB SO ERA

McGreevy, L, 6-3 4 9 6 6 1 3 4.68

Graceffo 2 3 0 0 1 1 5.45

Fernandez 1 4 2 2 0 0 8.87

Roycroft 1 2 0 0 1 3 6.32

Granillo 1 0 0 0 0 2 4.71

HBP: Beck (Scott). T: 2:36. Att.: 25,837.