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Following each inning he completed Tuesday night vs. the Rockies, Cardinals starter Matthew Liberatore thought back to the plans he and the Cardinals’ training staff had in place in case he felt out of sync and needed to get his mobility back.

When he returned to the mound for the fifth inning after surrendering two runs on a 442-foot two-run homer from Hunter Goodman in the fourth inning, Liberatore said he did not experience any stiffness or tightness. He felt there were no indicators that his velocity might noticeably dip.

How the fifth inning started told him otherwise.

“I went out and threw the first pitch of the inning and it (the velocity) wasn’t there,� Liberatore said. “... At that point, you’ve just got to try and compete and make pitches. Unfortunately, a long at-bat turned into a walk and a single, and then I’m out of the game.�

Already at a season-high in innings pitched for a big-league season, Liberatore completed four innings before being removed two batters into the fifth inning and after 80 pitches in the Cardinals’ 3-0 shutout loss to the Rockies. The 25-year-old lefty notched three strikeouts in his first frame and completed three perfect frames before two hard-hit balls in the fourth inning led to two runs.

Liberatore walked Brenton Doyel on 10 pitches to begin the fifth inning and allowed a hard-hit single to Kyle Karros in the next at-bat as his fastball velocity dipped to 91.7 mph during his at-bat vs. Karros.

“Great until it wasn’t,� Liberatore said of his start. “I felt awesome to start the game. I felt awesome through the first three innings, and then velo dropped again and guys started taking better swings.�

The three runs put the Cardinals (61-60) in a hole that they could not climb out of as Rockies starter Kyle Freeland induced 11 groundouts in 7 1/3 innings. The Cardinals grounded into three double plays, including one in the first inning from Willson Contreras after they opened the frame with back-to-back singles by Brendan Donovan and Ivan Herrera.

Contreras left the game in the sixth inning with a right foot contusion after he was hit by a pitch from Freeland in the fourth inning. Marmol said X-rays on Contreras’s foot came back “clean.�

The start raised Liberatore’s innings total this year to 117, nearing the 149 2/3 innings he threw between the majors and minors in 2022 and the 126 1/3 innings he totaled in 2023 between the two levels before logging 86 innings in 2024 as primarily a big-league reliever. The lefty had his first start following the All-Star break pushed back as the Cardinals looked to monitor his second-half workload after he reached 100 1/3 innings before the break.

Before Tuesday’s start, Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said the Cardinals would continue closely monitoring Liberatore’s workload. The lefty’s ability to sustain velocity and his ability to pitch deeper into starts are factors part of the conversation that could shape what his role in the rotation looks like through the remainder of the season.

Having a reliever “piggyback� off Liberatore is an option if the Cardinals go that route.

“Obviously, you want him to get through five, get through six innings,� Marmol said Tuesday night. “That’s kind of your barometer if it went well or not, but it’s more so, how many pitches can you go with holding it (velocity)?�

Marmol said Liberatore will take his next scheduled start following Tuesday’s outing.

A difference in velocities from the lefty’s Tuesday start compared to his Aug. 6 start against the Dodgers was noted by Marmon as an area the Cardinals felt was an improvement.

In that start in Los Angeles, Liberatore threw 72 pitches, 31 of which were fastballs. His average fastball came in at 92.2 mph, per Statcast. The pitch dipped to 89.4 mph and at time was clocked at 91 mph to 92 mph 40 pitches into the start. Against Colorado, Liberatore’s average fastball velocity was 93.6, per Statcast. That pitch dipped to a low of 91.7 mph on his 79th pitch of the night.

“We had a pretty good increase from 40 (pitches) to 70 today, so we feel good about that,� Marmol said. “This is the best he’s felt going into the start. We’ll see how he recovers. Have another conversation and move from there.�

Liberatore said there has been “trial and error� in the work to find a solution to the dips in velocity. He said Tuesday night there was not “one clear-cut� reason he could point to that would be a reason for the fades in velocity.

The 25-year-old said he dialed back his workload this week to ensure he was recovering well and his throwing arm was in a “good spot� to make the start. He felt “everything seemed like it was working, until it wasn’t,� even if the baseball leaving his hand hasn’t felt much different.

“It all feels the same until it leaves my fingers,� Liberatore said. “The best way I can describe it is it just loses the crispness that it had at the beginning of the game. Physically, I don’t feel like I’m doing anything different. I’m not thinking anything different. I don’t think my mechanics are changing that drastically. It just doesn’t feel the same when it leaves my fingertips.�