Leahy Gets the Ball as Cardinals Try to Take Series at Coors Field
The Cardinal Chronicle
Leahy Gets the Ball as Cardinals Try to Take Series at Coors Field
St. Louis, MO
By Ray Mileur
The Cardinals had a chance Saturday night to take the series in Colorado.
Instead, they let another game get away in the middle innings.
Now St. Louis returns to Coors Field on Sunday afternoon with the series tied, the road trip still in good shape, and one more chance to leave Denver with a series win instead of another missed opportunity.
First pitch is scheduled for 2:10 p.m. CT, with right-hander Kyle Leahy getting the ball for the Cardinals against Rockies right-hander Tanner Gordon.
The Cardinals enter at 71-72, while Colorado comes in at 55-87. The series is tied at one game apiece after St. Louis rallied for a 7-6 win Friday night and Colorado answered with a 10-7 win Saturday.
That makes Sunday simple.
Win the game.
Win the series.
Get back to .500 before heading to San Francisco.
The Cardinals had the right start Saturday. Joshua Báez homered in the second inning. Iván Herrera added a two-run homer in the fifth. Matthew Liberatore retired 12 of the first 13 hitters he faced, and St. Louis carried a 3-0 lead into the bottom of the fifth.
Then Coors Field did what Coors Field does.
The game came apart quickly.
Colorado scored six runs in the fifth, helped by singles, stolen bases, wild pitches and defensive mistakes. The Rockies added four more in the seventh, and suddenly the Cardinals were chasing another game they had once controlled.
St. Louis did not quit. Nolan Gorman doubled in a run. Thomas Saggese added a sacrifice fly. José Fermín doubled home a run in the ninth. Herrera drove in another with a single. The Cardinals even got the potential tying run to the plate before Leo Bernal lined out to right to end it.
But effort after falling behind is not the same thing as finishing a game.
That has been the story too often.
The Cardinals have enough fight to make things interesting. They have not always had enough clean baseball to turn those games into wins.
Now Leahy gets the ball in a place that means something personally. He is a Colorado native, and he will be asked to help St. Louis steady the series after the bullpen had to cover too much work through the first two games in Denver.
Leahy enters at 10-4 with a 3.13 ERA, a 1.31 WHIP and 118 strikeouts. He has been one of the steadier arms on a staff that has needed stability all season, but he is also expected to work on a tight pitch limit. That makes the first few innings even more important.
The Cardinals cannot afford a stressful start.
Not at Coors Field.
Not with a bullpen that already has been asked to handle heavy innings.
Not with a road trip that still has three games waiting in San Francisco.
Leahy’s assignment is not complicated, but it will not be easy. He needs to throw strikes, keep the ball down, avoid free baserunners and make Colorado earn its traffic. The Rockies are buried in the standings, but they can still hit. Jake McCarthy has been one of their top performers. TJ Rumfield has swung the bat well lately. Hunter Goodman remains a power threat, and Colorado’s lineup just showed what can happen when one inning starts to move downhill.
The Cardinals cannot keep helping.
No extra outs.
No wild pitches that turn traffic into runs.
No defensive mistakes that extend innings.
No walks in front of hitters who can drive the ball into the gaps.
That matters everywhere, but it matters more in Denver.
On the other side, Gordon enters at 1-4 with a 5.18 ERA, a 1.40 WHIP and 72 strikeouts. The Cardinals should see this as a matchup they can attack, but that does not mean they can treat it like it will happen automatically.
They need pressure early.
They need Walker, Burleson, Herrera, Báez, Gorman, Saggese, Bernal, Fermín and the rest of the lineup to make Gordon work from the first inning. They need baserunners in front of the power. They need the kind of at-bats that force Colorado into its bullpen before the game can settle.
Walker still leads the Cardinals with 28 home runs and remains one of the biggest bats in the lineup. Saggese has been one of the hottest hitters on the club, going 11-for-20 with three home runs and eight RBIs over his last 10 games. Herrera has homered in back-to-back games and continues to give St. Louis important offense from behind the plate.
The Cardinals have enough bats to win this game.
They just have to stop making the offense climb out of holes created by messy innings.
Sunday is not about style points. It is not about making some grand statement. It is about taking care of a winnable game against a last-place team and keeping the road trip pointed in the right direction.
The Cardinals have already taken two of three from the Dodgers on this trip. They had Friday’s comeback win in Colorado. Even with Saturday’s loss, they are 3-2 through the first five games of the trip.
That is not bad.
But this is where good road trips become better ones.
A win Sunday gives the Cardinals a series victory at Coors Field, gets them back to .500 and sends them to San Francisco with something to build on. A loss gives Colorado the series and turns Saturday’s blown lead into the defining moment of the weekend.
The Cardinals do not have room for that.
September does not leave much room for explanations. The injuries are real. The pitching staff is thin. The bullpen is stretched. The lineup is still missing key pieces. All of that is true.
But the standings do not care.
The Cardinals need wins.
Leahy gets the ball.
Gordon stands in the way.
The series is there to be taken.
Now St. Louis has to play clean enough to take it.
Game Info
Matchup: St. Louis Cardinals at Colorado Rockies
When: Sunday, September 6, 2026
First Pitch: 2:10 p.m. CT / 1:10 p.m. MT
Where: Coors Field, Denver
Probable Pitchers: RHP Kyle Leahy vs. RHP Tanner Gordon
Leahy: 10-4, 3.13 ERA, 1.31 WHIP, 118 SO
Gordon: 1-4, 5.18 ERA, 1.40 WHIP, 72 SO
Records: Cardinals 71-72; Rockies 55-87
Broadcast: Cardinals.TV Presented by bet365 / Rockies.TV
Radio: KMOX
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