The Cardinals are staring down the end of the road after a series loss to the San Francisco Giants, and the math is getting brutal. St. Louis could be officially knocked out of wild card contention by the end of the day Thursday, and even if that doesn’t happen, a playoff trip is virtually out of reach.
What’s left is one final home series, and it comes against the Washington Nationals. After that, the Cardinals finish the season on the road with stops against the Pittsburgh Pirates and Milwaukee Brewers.
For this weekend at Busch Stadium, the pitching plan leans on a mix of short bursts, steady contact management and a couple of arms that have given St. Louis something to watch.
Kyle Leahy may be working with an innings limit, but he has still been getting the job done. His last outing was three scoreless innings against the Chicago White Sox, and the Cardinals can follow that with Cooper Hjerpe, who gave them four perfect innings in relief of Leahy in his major league debut on September 6, even though he struggled against the White Sox.
If Leahy can cover three or four innings, St. Louis can hand the rest of the game to Hjerpe.
Michael McGreevy takes the ball next, and while his second half hasn’t been as sharp, his most recent start was a good one: one run allowed over six innings in a win. Busch Stadium’s pitcher-friendly layout usually suits him well, especially because he works as a pitch-to-contact arm. He enters with a 3.83 ERA and will face a Nationals lineup that will make things uncomfortable in his final home start, but if he keeps the ball on the ground and lets the Cardinals’ defense do its part, he should be in decent shape.
Quinn Mathews rounds out the group, and he has been trending in the right direction. Against the Giants in his last start, he gave up one run, worked into the seventh inning and picked up the win.
That was another strong step for the left-hander, who is also more of a pitch-to-contact pitcher. Busch Stadium has helped him so far, and he’ll get one more chance to show fans what he can bring to the table for the future.
In Other News...
Cardinals Face A Real Decision On Jurrangelo Cijntjes MLB Debut
Jurrangelo Cijntje has forced his way into the conversation with the kind of Triple-A run that usually changes a teams thinking. Over his last seven starts, the Cardinals pitching prospect has posted a 2.86 ERA and piled up 41 strikeouts, production that has him near the top of the minor league leaderboard and squarely in view as a possible part of St. Louis future rotation.
For the Cardinals, the question is no longer just whether Cijntje is ready in the abstract, but whether it makes sense to bring him to the majors before the season ends. A late promotion could give the club a first look at where he stands, but it also comes with the usual roster and eligibility complications that can shape how aggressively a team handles a pitcher who may already be knocking on the door. [Read more 🡒]
Cardinals Nearing Elimination With One Late-Season Roster Question Looming
With the Cardinals close to elimination from playoff contention in 2026, the final stretch is shifting from chase mode to evaluation mode. One obvious place to look is Triple-A Memphis, where St. Louis has a few players who have at least put themselves into the conversation for a late-season look. Ledbetter has continued to make a case with his production, while Cijntje and Svanson have each given the organization more to think about as the big league club starts sorting out what matters most down the stretch.
For a team staring at an abbreviated finish, those decisions are about more than filling innings or covering absences. They are a chance to see whether some of those Memphis players can help answer questions that linger beyond this season, especially if the roster is going to need some fresh options in the final games. The Cardinals do not have much time left to make those calls, which is why the next wave of transactions could tell a lot about how they plan to approach the closing days. [Read more 🡒]
Cardinals Prospect Is Forcing A Huge Ceiling Debate Among Fans
Brandon Clarke has made himself impossible to ignore in the Cardinals pitching conversation this fall. The left-hander has already flashed a fastball that has touched 103.1 mph, putting him among the hardest throwers in the 2026 Arizona Fall League and giving St. Louis exactly the kind of arm talent it has been trying to emphasize more often in its development pipeline. Baseball Americas Geoff Pontes even drew a line to Brewers ace Jacob Misiorowski, underscoring just how electric Clarke can look when everything is working.
The question, of course, is how high that ceiling can actually go if the rest of the profile does not come with it. The Cardinals have leaned into bringing more high-upside pitchers into the system, and Clarke fits that mold as well as anyone, but the concerns around durability and control are still real enough to keep the debate going. Fans can see the stuff and imagine a future impact arm, but the gap between raw power and dependable major league production is where this story is still waiting to be written. [Read more 🡒]