Cardinals 10, Rockies 8: Hjerpe's Debut Holds Coors Together

September 6, 2026 - Denver - Kyle Leahy is from Boulder. He had allowed two runs or fewer in each of his last 12 starts. Coors Field in the third inning did not care. Mickey Moniak hit a three-run homer to center, Leahy's night ended at 2 2/3, and the Colorado Rockies led 5-1.

Then a 25-year-old left-hander who had never thrown a big-league pitch threw four perfect innings. Cooper Hjerpe struck out six. He did not walk anyone. He did not allow a hit. The St. Louis Cardinals scored six in the fifth, three more in the eighth, and held on 10-8.

The first three innings were a Coors game

Jake McCarthy singled and scored on TJ Rumfield's double in the first. Moniak singled Rumfield home. 2-0. Nathan Church singled Thomas Saggese in for St. Louis in the second. 2-1. Then the third: Cole Carrigg on, Rumfield on, Moniak's 22nd homer, Leahy done. Five earned in a season-low 2 2/3. Fifty-five pitches. Six strikeouts that did not matter once the ball found the middle of the park.

Hjerpe had been recalled from Triple-A Memphis before the game. Twenty-second overall pick in 2022. The Associated Press had the bio. What the box score has is cleaner: 4.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 6 K, 54 pitches, first big-league win. He entered in the third after Cade Winquest recorded one out. From there to the seventh, Coors looked like a normal park.

That is the debut. Not a save, not a spotless ninth. Four innings in the thin air after the starter had already given the game away. St. Louis needed someone to stop the bleeding long enough for the lineup to have a fifth inning. Hjerpe was that someone.

Six in the fifth, then Gorman's swing

Tanner Gordon had lasted into the fifth. Then the Cardinals emptied the inning. Iván Herrera had already reached. Alec Burleson was on. Jordan Walker was on. Leonardo Bernal singled two in. Joshua Báez singled two more in, taking third on Cole Carrigg's error. 5-5.

Nolan Gorman hit the next pitch to center for a two-run homer, his ninth. Jimmy Herget (0-6) took the loss. 7-5. Six runs in the inning. Coors does this. The difference is St. Louis did it against a bullpen, then handed the baseball back to a debutant who kept the other side quiet.

Herrera finished 3-for-5 with a double, two RBI, and two runs. Burleson went 3-for-5 with a double and his team-leading 103rd RBI. Bernal drove in two in his sixth career game, his third multi-RBI night already. Saggese had two hits and scored twice. Fifteen hits as a club. That is how you win 10-8 instead of losing 8-5.

The eighth padded it. Herrera doubled Saggese and José Fermín home. Burleson singled Herrera home. 10-5. McCarthy's 15th homer in the bottom of the eighth made it 10-6. In the ninth, McCarthy singled two more in. 10-8, and George Soriano struck out Troy Johnston with a runner on second for his third save.

McCarthy and Moniak almost stole it back

McCarthy went 3-for-5 with a homer, three RBI, and two runs. Moniak went 2-for-4 with four RBI. Rumfield had three hits. Colorado struck out 16 times and did not draw a walk. That is a weird Coors line: 10 hits, two homers, eight runs, and zero free passes. St. Louis' staff punched out 16 and walked nobody. The game was decided by who stopped the bleeding first.

The Cardinals are 72-72. They took two of three in Denver and have won five of their last six road series. Michael McGreevy starts Monday in San Francisco against Logan Webb. That is a different park and a different problem. Sunday was the problem of a 5-1 hole in the third and a debutant who treated 5,280 feet like a Monday in Memphis.

The Rockies are 55-88. Gabriel Hughes starts Tuesday in New York against Cam Schlittler. McCarthy and Moniak gave them a Sunday that almost flipped. Hjerpe is why it didn't.

I am not calling four perfect innings a finished product. I am saying a first big-league outing that looks like that, in this park, after that start, is the kind of September surprise a .500 club can use.

AthX Engine after the baseball

AthX Engine put St. Louis at 15 team fantasy points, fourth on Sunday. Hjerpe's 20 pitching fantasy points landed him among the day's top arms, next to starters who threw twice as long. McCarthy led Colorado at 11 hitting fantasy points. Moniak sat at 8. Fantasy points measure the box. Price is what traders do with it tomorrow.

The Cardinals fly west. Hjerpe has a win in his first line. Coors did not get the last word.

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*Sources: ESPN box score; CBS Sports / AP recap; MLB.com schedule; AthX Engine daily fantasy points (September 6, 2026 game date). Information only; not financial advice.*