Having beaten up on the Pirates and Dodgers in recent days, the Cardinals took it to the back-to-back-to-back NL Central Division champion Brewers 6-3 on Monday night at Busch Stadium. The Cards have won seven of eight.
ST. LOUIS – Facing a division rival for the first time in 2026, the Cardinals coolly and efficiently swept the Pirates in Pittsburgh last week.
Back at home and facing one of the first real measuring-stick tests of the season against the back-to-back champion Dodgers, the Cardinals didn’t blink in taking two of three in that series.
On Monday night, in their first game against a Brewers team that has dominated them and the rest of the NL Central while winning three straight division crowns, the Cardinals showed again that the quality of the opponent across the way doesn’t seem to be much of a deterrent in their recent run of success.
The Cardinals used Ivan Herrera’s three-run double, a two-RBI night from standout rookie JJ Wetherholt and one-run pitching over 5 1/3 innings from Kyle Leahy to beat the rival Brewers 6-3 at Busch Stadium.
“We’re basically just evaluating how we’re going about it, and with the way we’re playing right now, I’m comfortable playing just about anybody,” said manager Oliver Marmol, whose Cardinals have won seven times in the past eight games. “It has more to do with our consistency right now more than anything.”
A day after seeing their season-best six-game winning streak ended by the Dodgers, the Cardinals got back on the winning track with a complete effort where seven players had hits and five players scored runs. At 21-14, they returned to seven games over .500 for the second time in three days. Additionally, the Cards improved to 7-4 in a stretch of 17 games in 17 days.
Cards applying pressure with their offense
The Brewers, which got star outfielder Jackson Chourio and slugger Andrew Vaughn back on Monday, were the latest team to feel the pressure applied by a Cardinals offense that cranked out 11 hits and had runners on base in seven of the eight times they came to the plate.
“Like I keep saying, game after game, we’re just keep putting lots of guys on,” said Herrera, who drilled a 2-0 pitch into the left-center gap after the Brewers had walked Wetherholt to get to him. “Today, we kept putting guys on taking professional at bats. (Hitting coach Brant Brown) tells us all the time, ‘There’s a time to hit and time to slug.’ We’ve been doing that and it’s been fun to watch.”
So, when a foe brazenly walks a rookie to load to the bases and to get to the next batter, is that a time to hit or a time to slug?
“If you get in a 2-0 count, yeah, it is (time to slug),” Herrera said through a hearty laugh.
Leahy, who is still working to make the transition from the bullpen to a starting role, pitching brilliantly early in the night and stranded seven Brewers over the first five innings. As has been the case all season, Leahy encountered more sixth-inning struggles – not ones brought on by fatigue, but instead because of the familiarity of facing a lineup three times.
This season, Leaky has faced 10 hitters in sixth innings. Eight of them have recorded hits and five have scored.
“The thing that helps hitters the most is familiarity, and if they’ve seen pitches multiple times through and have seen my curveball three or four times …,” Leahy said before trailing off in a different direction. “If I’ve gotten them out on curveball the previous two at bats, it’s the read of, ‘Can I get them out on another curveball? Or is it time to throw something else? Then, it’s the order of everything? What did I start the at bat with and what the hitter’s approach is? It’s about reading the character of hitters and using that against them.”
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