Liberatore Gets the Ball as Cardinals Look to Build on Coors Comeback
The Cardinal Chronicle
Liberatore Gets the Ball as Cardinals Look to Build on Coors Comeback
St. Louis, MO
By Ray Mileur
The Cardinals found a way Friday night.
It was not clean.
It was not comfortable.
It was not the kind of win that makes anyone forget the concerns still following this club through September.
But it was a win.
After rallying in the ninth inning for a 7-6 victory over the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field, St. Louis returns Saturday night with a chance to take the series and move back above .500.
First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 p.m. CT, with left-hander Matthew Liberatore getting the ball for the Cardinals against Rockies right-hander Mason Adams.
The Cardinals enter at 71-71, back at .500 after winning three of their first four games on this nine-game road trip. Colorado comes in at 54-87, still buried near the bottom of the National League standings, but the Rockies showed again Friday why games at Coors Field are rarely simple.
The Cardinals led 4-1 after five innings.
Then the game turned.
Hancel Rincón, making his major league debut, struggled in the sixth as Colorado put together a five-run inning. The Rockies took a 6-4 lead, and once again the Cardinals were staring at a late deficit in a game they had once controlled.
This time, they answered.
Thomas Saggese opened the ninth with a walk and stole second. José Fermín reached on an error, putting two runners aboard. Then Iván Herrera delivered the swing of the night, sending a three-run homer to center field and turning a two-run deficit into a one-run lead.
Riley O’Brien handled the ninth for the save, and St. Louis escaped with a victory that was equal parts relief and warning.
That is life at Coors Field.
You can score early and still not have enough.
You can build a lead and watch it disappear in one inning.
You can be one swing from another frustrating loss and suddenly walk away with something to build on.
The Cardinals need to make sure Friday becomes more than survival.
That starts with Liberatore.
Liberatore enters at 5-13 with a 5.41 ERA, a 1.47 WHIP and 141 strikeouts. The strikeout total shows there is still swing-and-miss in the profile, but the results have not been consistent enough. At this stage of the season, the Cardinals do not need another reminder that the stuff can play. They need outs.
They need innings.
They need a start that does not put the bullpen in another high-stress spot before the game reaches the middle innings.
That is especially true at Coors Field, where every extra baserunner can turn into a crooked number. Liberatore cannot afford leadoff walks. He cannot pitch from behind all night. He cannot give Colorado extra traffic in front of the hitters who can drive the ball into the gaps or over the wall.
The Rockies may not have a winning record, but they do have bats that can make mistakes hurt.
Hunter Goodman remains the biggest power threat in the Colorado lineup. Warming Bernabel, Zac Veen, Jake McCarthy, Brenton Doyle, Jordan Beck, Braiden Ward, Blaine Crim and the rest of the group give the Rockies enough athleticism and contact ability to create pressure, especially in Denver.
Friday showed the Cardinals exactly what happens when the game gets loose.
The Rockies had only one hit with runners in scoring position, but they still turned traffic, speed and Coors Field chaos into six runs. That is why the Cardinals cannot play this like a normal road game in a normal park.
Liberatore has to keep the ball down.
The defense has to make the routine play.
The bullpen has to be ready, but it cannot be asked to cover half the game again.
Offensively, the Cardinals should bring confidence into Saturday.
Herrera’s ninth-inning homer was the headline, but the lineup got production from several places. Nolan Gorman drove in an early run. Saggese continued to give the Cardinals quality at-bats. Alec Burleson added another RBI. Jordan Walker drove in a run and reached the 100-RBI mark, joining Burleson in giving the Cardinals two middle-order bats with real run production.
That matters.
For all the frustration around this season, Burleson and Walker reaching 100 RBIs is not background noise. It is production. It is stability in the middle of a lineup that has often had to ask young hitters to grow while the team is still trying to win.
Walker getting to 100 also says something about how far he has come.
The Cardinals need that version of him now.
They need Herrera to keep giving professional at-bats. They need Burleson to stay steady. They need Joshua Báez to bring damage when pitchers make mistakes. They need Saggese, Gorman, Fermín, Ramón Urías, Leo Bernal, Nathan Church and the bottom half of the order to make sure the offense does not become too dependent on one late swing.
At Coors Field, the Cardinals cannot sit around waiting for the ninth inning.
They need pressure earlier.
They need to make Adams work.
Adams enters at 0-0 with a 3.00 ERA, a 1.44 WHIP and 10 strikeouts through his first nine major league innings. This will be only his third major league start, which makes the matchup interesting but not automatic. Young pitchers can be unpredictable. Sometimes they give you mistakes early. Sometimes they pitch with freedom because they have not been around long enough to carry the weight of the scouting report.
The Cardinals need to find out quickly which version they are getting.
Make him throw strikes.
Force him to pitch from the stretch.
Do not chase just because the ball carries in Denver.
Make the rookie work for every clean inning.
Friday was the kind of win that can help a club if it uses it properly. The Cardinals have now taken three of four since opening the road trip in Los Angeles, and they are back at .500 with a chance to move above it again. That has been the line all season.
Get to even.
Fall back.
Climb again.
Repeat.
September does not leave much room for that anymore.
The Cardinals are not in position to waste winnable games against a 54-win club, even on the road, even at Coors, even with a pitching staff that still has questions. They won the opener. Now they have to take advantage of it.
A win Saturday gives St. Louis the series and sets up a chance to sweep Sunday.
A loss hands the Rockies life and turns Sunday back into another pressure game.
The Cardinals have played too many of those already.
This one is straightforward.
Get a start from Liberatore.
Keep Colorado from turning one inning into a mess.
Make Adams work.
Keep the offense moving.
Take the series.
The Cardinals survived Friday.
Saturday is about building on it.
Game Info
Matchup: St. Louis Cardinals at Colorado Rockies
When: Saturday, September 5, 2026
First Pitch: 7:10 p.m. CT / 6:10 p.m. MT
Where: Coors Field, Denver
Probable Pitchers: LHP Matthew Liberatore vs. RHP Mason Adams
Liberatore: 5-13, 5.41 ERA, 1.47 WHIP, 141 SO
Adams: 0-0, 3.00 ERA, 1.44 WHIP, 10 SO
Records: Cardinals 71-71; Rockies 54-87
Broadcast: Cardinals.TV Presented by bet365 / Rockies.TV
Radio: KMOX
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