Rookie Reliever Strikes Out Six in Historic Debut as Cardinals Rally Past Rockies
Making his MLB debut in relief, Cooper Hjerpe struck out six and pitched four perfect innings, and the Cardinals rallied from a four-run deficit to beat the Rockies 10-8 in the series finale. The Cards had 15 hits and went 7 for 11 with runners in scoring position.
Video Transcript
Cooper Jerpe, the first round pick from 2022 that the Cardinals have been waiting on for three and a half years, finally made his Major League debut on Sunday, and man, what a debut it was.
Jerpe came in in relief, pitched four perfect innings, struck out six, and then the Cardinals offense rallied behind him, and they ended up beating the Colorado Rockies 10 to eight at Coors Field to win the series.
Of course, it's been a great start to this road trip for the Cardinals.
They won two of three at Chavez ravine, at Dodger Stadium, and now they've won two out of three against the Rockies.
They still have three more on this trip.
And starting on Monday, they play three, three straight in San Francisco against the, the struggling Giants, and then come home for a nine-game home stand, which will be the final home game of the sea- home stand of the season.
I'm John Denton with Round Table Sports.
How about this for Cooper Jerpe?
He ha- he authored the second longest Major League debut in relief without allowing a base runner since St. Louis's own Max Scherzer, in 2008, pitched four and a third innings.
On this day, Jerpe was unbelievable.
With his crazy low arm slot on the left side, he threw 54 pitches, 41 of them for strikes.
Even though he didn't exceed 90.6 miles an hour on the day, with his velocity, he still got eight swing and misses.
He, of, of his six strikeouts, he got one on a sweeper, one on a sweeper, four-seamer, four-seamer, sweeper, changeup.
That's how he He, he mixed and matched his pitches really well.
Like I said, he threw 54 pitches.
41 of them were strikes.
Didn't walk a batter.
He had been walking a lot of batters.
I think he was 20% walk rate in Triple-A Memphis, but he threw strikes on this day, and it allowed the Cardinals to rally back.
They were down five to one.
Kyle Leahy, who came into the day with a 12-start streak of allowing two or fewer earned runs, had a rough outing back in Denver where he grew up, going to Rockies games as a kid.
He got knocked around in two and two-thirds innings.
Cade Winquist, God helped him get through that third inning, and then Jerpe took over the game and pitched four perfect innings.
The Cardinals rallied for one, two, three, four, five, six runs in the fifth inning.
They batted around in that inning.
Josh Baez had a big hit.
Rookie catcher Leo Bernal had a big hit in that inning.
And then Nolan Gorman hit a long home run.
That was Gorman's ninth home run of the season.
And it put the Cardinals into the lead.
Then they capped out, three more runs, in the eighth inning.
Of course, we've learned anything, it's that you gotta keep adding on when you're at Coors Field because a, a lead is never safe.
How about this for Cardinals designated hitter, Ivan Herrera?
He had three more hits today, three more RBI today.
In the six games against the Rockies this season, he has 15 hits, three home runs, and 11 RBI.
He had eight RBI in this three-game series alone.
And like I said, so JC had a couple more hits.
Gorman had the big home run.
A big day, you know, two RBI for Leo Bernal.
And, and Baez had two more hits.
So and then Alec Burleson was in a long hitting slump.
I think he was three for, three for his last 32.
He had three hits today, drove in his 103rd run.
So it was a big day all around.
But undoubtedly, the star of the day was Cooper Jerpe.
I mean, he, he, he became the first Cardinal reliever to d- debut with six strikeouts since Marshall Bridges in 1959 against the Phillies.
So it's historic what he did today, and it's gonna be interesting to see as hitters build up more film on Jerpe, if they can figure out that low arm slot.
I mean, he's gonna give lefties grief.
It's gonna be interesting to see if teams stack lineups with more right-handers.
But there's no doubt that this was an incredible debut for a guy who's had to battle back.
He had, elbow surgery his first year in pro ball after the Cardinals drafted him number 22 overall back in 2022.
And then he had to have Tommy John surgery in April of 2025.
So he's worked his way back and he pitched, you know, a, a great Major League debut with about 20 friends and family in the crowd.
I'm John Denton with Round Table Sports, and this is your Cardinals Recap for Sunday afternoon.
