The St. Louis Cardinals aren’t going to the playoffs, but they also aren’t going to have a losing season.
St. Louis (81-77) guaranteed it will finish .500 at worst with Wednesday night’s 5-2 win over the Colorado Rockies. On Thursday afternoon, the Cardinals will try to ensure they will end with a winning record when they wrap up their three-game series against the Rockies in Denver.
St. Louis, which will go for a series sweep, will send right-hander Kyle Gibson (8-8, 4.13 ERA) to the mound against Colorado left-hander Kyle Freeland (5-8, 4.95).
Gibson will make his fifth career start against the Rockies and first since 2020. He is 2-0 with a 3.75 ERA in the previous four outings.
Not reaching the postseason is disappointing for the Cardinals, but there is reason for optimism. St. Louis has young players who are making an impact this year.
Masyn Winn and Jordan Walker, key contributors in Tuesday’s 7-3 win, are two of those. Both made their major league debuts last season, and Winn has been a staple in the lineup while Walker has played regularly since being called up in mid-August.
Winn, who has been hitting at the top of the order, homered, doubled and drove in a career-high four runs on Tuesday. He followed that with a double and a triple on Wednesday night.
“I’m pretty excited going into next year,” Winn said. “We’ve got a good, young group to really build around so much of the season. Obviously, this year we’re not going to be able to go anywhere, but going into next year, I think it’s great for our confidence.”
The Rockies (60-98) also are a young team but haven’t seen the success translate to the field often enough. They have played well in the second half of the season, going 28-35 after beginning the year 8-28, but the offense has struggled at times.
They are 11th in the NL in runs (655) despite playing at a hitter-friendly park and don’t have a player with more than 25 home runs this season.
“Offensively it hasn’t been the year we’ve hoped for,” manager Bud Black said after Wednesday’s loss. “When you start the season, you have expectations for the group, and big picture we’ve had some guys take a step back offensively and we had some guys take a couple of steps forward.
“To have a good year offensively, you need a significant number of the roster having a good year. This season there hasn’t been enough guys who are having the type of season we anticipated.”
Freeland is having a bounce-back season after starting roughly. He landed on the 60-day injured list after a few early starts and has pitched well since returning in late June despite dealing with a nagging blister issue on his pitching hand.
Thursday will be his 21st and final start of the season. He has faced St. Louis six times in his career, going 0-3 with a 4.54 ERA.
