Rockies vs. Cardinals Today: How to Watch, Fredbird Plush, and Why Iván Herrera Keeps DHing

ST. LOUIS — The Rockies stole five bases on Iván Herrera Saturday night. He threw out none of them. He has not thrown out anybody since Sept. 1, 2024.

How to watch Rockies at Cardinals

• Matchup: Colorado Rockies (46-71) at St. Louis Cardinals (58-59)
• First pitch: 1:15 p.m. CT / 2:15 p.m. ET, Sunday, Aug. 9
• Venue: Busch Stadium, St. Louis
• Cardinals TV: Cardinals.TV
• Rockies TV: Rockies.TV
• Radio: KMOX 1120 AM / 104.1 FM
• Probables: Michael Lorenzen, RHP (3-10, 6.94) vs. Michael McGreevy, RHP (4-9, 3.59)

Cardinals lineup: JJ Wetherholt 2B, Iván Herrera DH, Alec Burleson 1B, Jordan Walker RF, Jimmy Crooks C, Masyn Winn SS, Nathan Church CF, José Fermín 3B, Bryan Torres LF. Michael McGreevy starts.

Rockies lineup: Jake McCarthy RF, Cole Carrigg CF, TJ Rumfield 1B, Hunter Goodman DH, Mickey Moniak LF, Kyle Karros 3B, Willi Castro 2B, Brett Sullivan C, Ezequiel Tovar SS. Michael Lorenzen starts.

Walker and Herrera swapped spots in the order shortly before first pitch. No scratches.

Sunday is for the kids

Three promotions today.

• Build-A-Bear Fredbird plush — first 10,000 kids 12 and under, presented by Build-A-Bear Workshop. Available only at Busch Stadium.
• Kids Run the Bases — postgame, all kids 12 and under with a ticket. Kids Club All-Star members get front-of-line access.
• Kids Sunday at Ford Plaza — DJ, crafts, games, Fredbird and Team Fredbird appearances, and free Prairie Farms ice cream.

Giveaways go out when gates open, first-come, first-served, while supplies last. Children under three need a ticket to receive one.

The bat is not the problem

Herrera is an All-Star and one of the best right-handed hitters in baseball. He is slashing .258/.292/.468 over his last 15 games. He is the fourth piece of a real lineup — Wetherholt, Walker, Burleson, Herrera — and the Cardinals want that bat in the order every day.

He can run, too.

The arm is

He has started 72 games at designated hitter this season and 44 behind the plate. The reason is one number.

Opposing runners are 35-for-35 against him in 2026. Not 35-for-36. Perfect.

Bernie Miklasz laid out the full length of it Sunday morning: Herrera has now allowed 57 consecutive stolen bases without a caught stealing. His last successful throw was Juan Soto on Sept. 1, 2024 — and Miklasz’s own parenthetical was “was Soto jogging?”

His caught stealing above average sits at -6, second-worst in baseball, and that was before Saturday.

In 2024 he allowed 55 steals and threw out four. Across five seasons and more than 1,100 innings behind the plate, runners have succeeded roughly 94 percent of the time against a league average near 78.

Josh Jacobs of Redbird Rants reports the arm was not an issue in the minors. Shoulder and knee injuries appear to have taken the strength, and he spent last winter recovering from elbow surgery.

Saturday was the whole thing in one night. Kyle Karros twice, Jake McCarthy twice, Cole Carrigg once. Four off Matthew Liberatore, one off Peter Strzelecki.

There is no official MLB record for consecutive steals allowed. Miklasz notes Mike Piazza gave up 155 in 1996 alone, and that Deacon McGuire holds the career mark at 2,558 between 1884 and 1912 — though McGuire also holds the career record for caught stealings, hit .278 with 1,750 hits, and stuffed raw meat in his mitt to protect his hand.

The worst moment

Herrera told Derrick Goold about a throw at Yankee Stadium that ended up in center field — an attempt on a runner already standing on second.

The same tweet has resurfaced on Josh Jacobs writeup for RedbirdRants.

“In my head it was like, ‘What’s the worst that can happen?’ And I mean that’s literally the worst that can happen,” he said. “I tried to look cool, but it wasn’t cool. We’re in Yankee Stadium trying to be like Derek Jeter there.”

It has been visible internationally since 2022

For Panama, Herrera played at both corners. The Caribbean Series record is its own document.

Santo Domingo in 2022. Caracas in 2023. Same story, different country.

By 2024 in Miami, he was the one stealing — off Robinson Canó.

Baseball without borders

Here is the part St. Louis coverage skipped entirely.

Herrera did not play for Panama at the 2026 World Baseball Classic. He could not get cleared.

Tournament rules require medical and insurance sign-off for players recovering from recent operations. After offseason surgery to remove bone spurs from his elbow, the approval stalled and underwriters would not back him. The Cardinals kept him in Florida to continue rehabbing.

He called it one of the saddest moments of his career.

Leonardo Bernal caught for Panama instead. The Cardinals’ own catching prospect started four games in the Classic, going 4-for-17 with a walk and a stolen base, sharing the position with the Cubs’ Miguel Amaya.

Bernal is 22, born in Panama, switch-hitting, and could be catching in St. Louis by 2028.

That Panama roster was thick with major leaguers — José Caballero, Edmundo Sosa, Christian Bethancourt, Johan Camargo, Enrique Bradfield, José Ramos, Leo Jiménez. Herrera’s absence was conspicuous.

Behind Bernal is Rainiel Rodríguez, the top catching prospect in baseball, who played in the Futures Game last month in Philadelphia.

The rest of the international roster: José Fermín, at third today, is Dominican. Pedro Pagés is Venezuelan, as is Everson Pereira, claimed off waivers from the White Sox this week. Bryan Torres, in left, is Puerto Rican. César Prieto is Cuban. Luis Gastelum, who pitched for Mexico in the Classic, and Ramón Urías are Mexican.

Colorado brings Ezequiel Tovar of La Sabana, Venezuela, and Willi Castro of Puerto Rico.

Which is why Jimmy Crooks catches today

Michael McGreevy is the opposite problem.

He has allowed three stolen bases in 120.1 innings this season, with four Defensive Runs Saved and a perfect fielding percentage. Across three seasons he has allowed three steals total and caught three runners — a 50 percent rate.

McGreevy is the best defensive pitcher on the staff, he does not let runners get comfortable, and today he throws to Crooks.

The infield has been the other reason to watch. St. Louis turned three double plays Saturday and two Friday — Wetherholt to Winn and Winn to Wetherholt, both directions, with Burleson digging throws out of the dirt. Five in two games.

What Saturday cost

The Cardinals lost 8-6 after Friday’s 3-2 win, and the bullpen math explains both.

Kyle Leahy went five innings Friday and got the win, but he is on a season innings limit — so Justin Bruihl, Caleb Ferguson, Ryne Stanek and Riley O’Brien covered the last four. Saturday started thin.

Liberatore gave up nine hits and five runs in five. Luis Gastelum allowed a two-run home run to McCarthy. Strzelecki finished it.

The reaction afterward was merciless. The honest number belongs alongside it: Liberatore has allowed five or more runs in six of 23 starts and one or fewer in eight. Boom or bust, as Cardinal70 put it, rather than uniformly bad.

Walker hit his 23rd home run in the eighth, which the crowd of 29,204 needed. He leads the club with 82 RBI.

The Contreras comparison

St. Louis has been here before — one year ago — and the other guy is having a season.

Willson Contreras caught for the Cardinals in 2025 — a bat the club valued more than the position it came with. He is in Boston now, generating headlines for a Red Sox team at 64-52.

Herrera is the same puzzle, one year later and four years younger. He is 26, under club control, and exactly the kind of piece a front office moves once it decides the position will not hold.

Fans did not want to see him leave at the deadline. He did not leave.

Coming up

Philadelphia comes to Busch on Tuesday at 6:45 p.m. CT for Fredbird’s Garage Sale — buy a special theme ticket and choose three previous theme-ticket giveaways to take home, first-come, first-served while supplies last.

And Aug. 15 is the date to circle. That is the earliest the Cardinals can call up Joshua Báez, keep him for the rest of the season, and preserve his rookie eligibility for 2027.