Liberatore Gets the Ball as Cardinals Look to Take Series From Rockies
The Cardinal Chronicle
Liberatore Gets the Ball as Cardinals Look to Take Series From Rockies
St. Louis, MO
By Ray Mileur
The Cardinals got back to even Friday night.
Now they need to keep moving.
St. Louis hosts the Colorado Rockies tonight at Busch Stadium in the second game of a three-game series, looking to build on Friday’s 3-2 win and move above .500 for the first time in this homestand.
First pitch is scheduled for 6:15 p.m. CT, with left-hander Matthew Liberatore getting the ball for the Cardinals against Rockies left-hander Kyle Freeland.
The Cardinals enter the game at 58-58 after winning four of their last five. Colorado comes in at 45-71, holding the worst record in the National League. On paper, this is still a series the Cardinals should control.
But Friday was a good reminder that “should” does not win anything.
The Rockies outhit the Cardinals 10-4 in the opener, had traffic most of the night, and still left Busch Stadium with a loss because St. Louis played cleaner baseball in the bigger spots. Colorado went 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position and 2-for-20 with men on base.
That was the difference.
Kyle Leahy gave the Cardinals five effective innings, allowing two runs on eight hits while striking out eight and walking none. It was another strong outing in what has become a very steady run for him. The bullpen took it from there, with four scoreless innings and Riley O’Brien closing it out for his 28th save.
That is exactly the kind of formula the Cardinals need more often.
Get a competitive start. Keep the game under control. Let the bullpen protect a lead instead of trying to survive a mess.
Iván Herrera supplied the biggest swing, launching a solo home run in the third inning to give St. Louis a 3-1 lead. It was his 13th homer of the season and just his third in his last 40 games, but the timing mattered more than the drought. The Cardinals did not have many hits, so Herrera’s swing carried extra weight.
St. Louis also scored twice in the second inning on back-to-back sacrifice flies from Nathan Church and Bryan Torres. Masyn Winn’s baserunning helped make the inning work, as he tagged from second to third on Church’s fly ball before scoring on Torres’ sacrifice fly one pitch later.
That is winning baseball when the bats are not overwhelming anyone.
Not flashy.
Useful.
Now Liberatore gets the chance to keep the series moving in the right direction.
Liberatore has had an uneven season, and the Cardinals need more stability from him as August starts to narrow the runway. The left-hander has shown flashes of being exactly what St. Louis needs, but the difference between his good stretches and rough innings has been too wide too often.
Against Colorado, the assignment is clear.
Throw strikes. Get ahead. Keep the ball in the yard. Do not give a struggling Rockies club free baserunners and extra chances to hang around.
That last part matters because even a bad team can make a game uncomfortable if a pitcher helps it. Colorado may be buried in the standings, but the Rockies still had 10 hits Friday night. They did not lose because they were harmless. They lost because they failed to finish innings.
Liberatore cannot count on that happening again.
Hunter Goodman remains the biggest power threat in the Colorado lineup. Mickey Moniak has enough pop to change a game. Jake McCarthy brings speed and contact. TJ Rumfield has been one of the Rockies’ better bats. Troy Johnston drove in both Colorado runs Friday, even if both came on groundouts.
The Cardinals should expect the Rockies to keep competing.
Freeland gives Colorado a veteran left-handed starter in Game 2. He enters after a strong recent outing and brings the kind of experience that can frustrate hitters if they get impatient. Freeland is not overpowering, but he knows how to pitch, change speeds and work through a lineup when opponents help him with early-count outs.
The Cardinals cannot do that tonight.
They need traffic early. They need to make Freeland work from the stretch. They need to force Colorado’s defense to handle the baseball. And when they get runners in scoring position, they need to finish the inning with more than just threats.
Friday’s win was important, but the offense cannot make a habit of winning with four hits.
The Cardinals need more from the lineup tonight.
JJ Wetherholt has to set the table. Herrera needs to keep giving the lineup quality at-bats. Jordan Walker returned to the lineup Friday after missing two games with a sore knee and singled in his return. Alec Burleson remains one of the club’s steadier bats. Winn’s glove, legs and baserunning continue to matter even when he does not fill up the box score.
Church, Torres, Blaze Jordan, Jimmy Crooks and the rest of the order also have to help make this lineup longer.
The Cardinals are at their best when the offense is not waiting around for one player to rescue the night.
That is especially true in a series like this. Colorado is a team St. Louis needs to beat at home. The Cardinals took two of three from the Yankees, came home, won the opener against the Rockies and got back to .500. That is progress.
Now the test is whether they can do something with it.
Getting back to even is not the goal.
Moving past even is.
The Cardinals are still outside the postseason picture, but they are close enough to make these games matter. That means the games against struggling teams become even more important. You cannot give away the winnable ones and then hope to make them up later against better clubs.
Tonight is about taking care of business.
A win gives the Cardinals the series and moves them back above .500. It would also put them in position to sweep Sunday and make this homestand feel like something more than just a brief recovery.
A loss would make Friday feel like a missed chance to build.
The formula does not need to be complicated.
Get a real start from Liberatore.
Put pressure on Freeland.
Play clean defense.
Win the series.
Game Info
Matchup: Colorado Rockies at St. Louis Cardinals
When: Saturday, August 8, 2026
First Pitch: 6:15 p.m. CT
Where: Busch Stadium, St. Louis
Probable Pitchers: LHP Kyle Freeland vs. LHP Matthew Liberatore
Freeland: 3-10, 6.81 ERA
Liberatore: 5-8, 4.97 ERA
Records: Rockies 45-71; Cardinals 58-58
Broadcast: Cardinals.TV / KMOX
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Photo Credit: Matthew Liberatore, St. Louis Cardinals | MLB