Mathews Gets the Ball Against the Giants
The Cardinal Chronicle
Mathews Gets the Ball as Cardinals Try to Answer Giants in San Francisco
St. Louis, MO
By Ray Mileur
The Cardinals had a chance to take control of the series opener Monday night.
Instead, they left Oracle Park with another game that got away.
St. Louis returns to San Francisco tonight for the second game of a three-game series against the Giants, trying to rebound from a 5-4, 11-inning loss that pushed the Cardinals back under .500 and farther away in the National League Wild Card race.
First pitch is scheduled for 8:45 p.m. CT, with left-hander Quinn Mathews getting the ball for the Cardinals against Giants right-hander Landen Roupp.
The Cardinals enter at 72-73, while the Giants come in at 60-85. San Francisco leads the series 1-0 after Monday’s extra-inning win, and St. Louis now sits five games behind Arizona for the final National League Wild Card spot with 17 games remaining.
That makes the math uncomfortable.
It also makes the assignment simple.
Win tonight.
The Cardinals rallied from a late deficit Monday, tied the game in the ninth on a José Fermín sacrifice fly and took a lead in the 10th when Leo Bernal drove in the automatic runner. But San Francisco answered in the bottom half, then won it in the 11th when Shay Whitcomb’s infield single brought home Nate Furman from third.
It was not a blowout.
It was not an empty effort.
It was worse in some ways, because it was another winnable game that slipped through the cracks.
Michael McGreevy gave the Cardinals a competitive start, working 6 2/3 innings and allowing three runs, two earned, on six hits. Alec Burleson gave St. Louis its first run with his 22nd home run of the season, a solo shot into McCovey Cove in the sixth. Thomas Saggese had two more hits. Bernal came through in extra innings.
Still, it was not enough.
That has been too much of the story lately.
The Cardinals have had fight. They have had rallies. They have had moments from young players. They have had enough offense at times to make games interesting. But September does not reward interesting. The Cardinals need wins, and they are running out of games to keep letting wins slip away.
Now the ball goes to Mathews.
Mathews enters at 1-2 with a 4.38 ERA, a 1.58 WHIP and 24 strikeouts. This will be his sixth major league start, and it comes in a spot where the Cardinals need more than development. They need innings. They need strikes. They need a start that gives the offense time to get into the game without asking the bullpen to cover too much too early.
His last outing offered something to build on.
Mathews allowed one run on four hits over five innings against the Dodgers last Thursday, pitching well in front of family and friends in Los Angeles. The Cardinals lost that game 3-2, and run support has been an issue in his starts. St. Louis has scored only 12 total runs in his five outings.
That cannot continue tonight.
Mathews has never faced the Giants, but the matchup brings an interesting angle. Left-handed hitters have batted just .211 against him, while right-handed hitters have had more success. San Francisco will test that, especially with Rafael Devers and Bryce Eldridge sitting in the middle of the order.
Devers is the obvious danger.
He doubled twice Monday night, walked twice, scored a run and drove in another. He now has 36 doubles and 35 home runs this season, and he has been one of the hottest hitters in baseball over the last week-plus. Eldridge also hurt the Cardinals in the opener, driving in three runs with a double, a single and a sacrifice fly.
Those are the bats Mathews cannot let beat him with traffic on base.
No leadoff walks.
No free runners ahead of Devers.
No mistakes in the middle of the plate to Eldridge.
No innings extended by extra outs.
The Giants may be buried in the standings, but they are not playing like a team willing to roll over. They have now taken the opener of a series the Cardinals needed badly, and with six meetings between these teams over a 10-day stretch, San Francisco has a real chance to make life miserable for St. Louis down the stretch.
The Cardinals cannot allow that to happen.
On the other side, Roupp enters at 8-13 with a 4.17 ERA, a 1.29 WHIP and 137 strikeouts. His record is not pretty, but the recent trend is better. San Francisco has won his last two starts, and he held Arizona and Pittsburgh to two runs over 10 innings in that span.
The Cardinals cannot let him keep rolling.
Roupp has faced St. Louis once before, and the Cardinals got to him for six runs on nine hits over 3 2/3 innings in 2024. That does not win tonight’s game, but it is a reminder that the Cardinals should not treat this matchup like survival. They need to attack.
They need traffic early.
They need Burleson, Jordan Walker, Iván Herrera, Joshua Báez, Nolan Gorman, Saggese, Bernal and the rest of the order to make Roupp work from the first inning. They need better at-bats with runners on base. They need pressure before the game reaches the late innings and turns into another coin flip.
Herrera remains one of the most important bats in the lineup. Saggese continues to make the most of his opportunity. Burleson has been steady all season and homered Monday. Walker still gives the Cardinals the kind of middle-order power that changes how pitchers work. Báez can turn one mistake into instant damage. Bernal continues to make September interesting with his bat and defense behind the plate.
There is enough here to win games.
But enough on paper does not matter if the Cardinals keep waiting until the ninth inning to make their push.
The bigger picture is unavoidable now.
St. Louis is five games back with 17 to play. The Cardinals have lost 10 of their last 16. The schedule still gives them games against teams below .500, but Monday was the warning. A soft spot on the schedule only matters if a team takes advantage of it.
The Giants are not going to hand the Cardinals anything.
They proved that in the opener.
Now St. Louis has to answer.
Not with a speech.
Not with another reminder that tomorrow still exists.
With a win.
The Cardinals need Mathews to give them a start. They need the offense to get to Roupp early enough to matter. They need to control Devers and Eldridge. They need the bullpen to finish if handed a lead.
Most of all, they need to stop giving away games they cannot afford to lose.
September is no longer about waiting for the young roster to grow up someday.
It is about winning today.
Game Info
Matchup: St. Louis Cardinals at San Francisco Giants
When: Tuesday, September 8, 2026
First Pitch: 8:45 p.m. CT / 6:45 p.m. PT
Where: Oracle Park, San Francisco
Probable Pitchers: LHP Quinn Mathews vs. RHP Landen Roupp
Mathews: 1-2, 4.38 ERA, 1.58 WHIP, 24 SO
Roupp: 8-13, 4.17 ERA, 1.29 WHIP, 137 SO
Records: Cardinals 72-73; Giants 60-85
Broadcast: NBCS BA / Cardinals.TV Presented by bet365
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