When the Cardinals fell 2-1 to the Pirates on Thursday at PNC Park, it gave them 82 losses on the season. The Cards have had consecutive losing seasons for the first time since 1958-59, not counting the strike-shortened 1994-95 seasons.
With many of the St. Louis Cardinals’ leaders strongly of the belief that the 2026 season has been a success with the many questions they have answered at several spots on the youth-filled roster, their record officially stated otherwise on Thursday.
When the Cardinals fell 2-1 to the Pirates at PNC Park on Thursday, it gave them 82 losses on the season and clinched them having a losing record in the win-loss column. Combined with the 78-84 mark in 2025, it meant that the Cardinals have had back-to-back losing seasons for the first time since 1994-95 in two strike-shortened seasons. The last time the Cards had consecutive losing marks over full seasons: 1958 (78-82) and 1959 (71-83).
"You look at the standings, you look at the scoreboard, this isn't what we want to be and this isn't what you want to aspire to," president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom told Cardinals TV on Thursday. "But in terms of what we wanted to happen within this group and the ownership we wanted them to take and understand this is something they can build, I do think that's happening. There are a lot of really cool things that we envisioned in Spring Training, and they've now taken it and run with it."
Locked in a tied game for almost eight innings, the Cardinals allowed Pittsburgh to score the go-ahead run with a flurry of gaffes. Ryan Stanek walked Ronny Simon, threw wildly when his split-fingered fastball hit the dirty and then looked on as catcher Ivan Herrera sailed his throw into center field. That allowed Simon to scoot to third where he scored minutes later on a sacrifice fly by Spencer Horowitz to give the Pirates a 2-1 lead.
It was the fifth straight series lost by the Cardinals, who were officially eliminated from Wild Card contention last week. The Cards close the regular season with three games in Milwaukee this upcoming weekend.
Making his final start of the season, Kyle Leahy worked just two innings as the Cardinals continued to curtail his workload down the stretch. Leahy, who had a 12-start stretch where he allowed two or fewer earned runs during a midseason stretch, allowed three hits and a first-inning run. Leahy made a good pitch, but Brandon Lowe drilled it the other way to score Oneil Cruz, who led off the bottom of the first with a double.
Cooper Hjerpe, one of the 13 players and eight pitchers to make their MLB debuts with the Cardinals this season, followed Leahy and pitched well for the third time in his four MLB appearances so far. Hjerpe pitched out of a bases-loaded jam in the fifth inning and didn’t allow a run over 3 1/3 innings. He allowed three hits and three walks, but he struck out three and kept the Pirates off-balance with his herky-jerky throwing motion.
Cardinals' slugger Alec Burleson, who has a long history of seeing the ball well against Skenes, came through again in his first at bat of the day. Burleson drilled a first-pitch fastball from Skenes some 395 feet and into the right field seats for his 24th homer of the season. The homer pushed Burleson’s career slate against Skenes to 9 for 21 (.429).
"That was good competition," Marmol said of Burleson's work against Skenes. "Even our second time through against Skenes, I liked a lot of our at bats even though we didn't have a lot to show for it. We saw him much better and put some competitive at bats on him. And the at bat (in the fourth inning) where (Burleson) grounded out to second, it was good on good and fun to watch."
Skenes, who struggled at times throughout 2026, left the game in the seventh inning after catching Cardinals’ rookie Leo Bernal looking. It was his 200th strikeout of the season. In 6 1/3 innings of work, Skenes allowed just three hits and a run, while striking out eight and walking two.
Burleson’s homer also resulted in his 113th RBI of the season, giving him a three-RBI lead over Baltimore’s Pete Alonso and Cincinnati’s Sal Stewart. Burleson is hoping to become the first Cardinals player to lead the National League in RBI since Joe Torre, who had 137 in 1971. Also, he is attempting to become the first lefty-hitting Cardinals’ player to lead the NL in RBI since Enos Slaughter drove in 130 runs in 1946.
