Right-hander Andre Pallante’s goal in his bullpen session between starts this past week was to take his knuckle curveball, the one that unlocks so many other areas of the strike zone, and let it rip.

He streamlined his focus.

Throw it harder.

Throw it more often.

Throw it harder, lower, and also harder.

“A little more with the intent to throw it hard,” Pallante described. “Not so much place it as keep my hand behind it, not to the side, so it comes out harder and sharper.”

A 4-3 loss to the New York Yankees on Friday night at Busch Stadium showed mostly how shorthanded Cardinals and their molting roster needed so much to go so right to still fall just shy of the visiting yacht club. But locked within the game was Pallante’s ability to improve his curveball on the go and buy time for

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