Pirates can make sure the Cardinals’ playoff hopes die with theirs this weekend

The Pittsburgh Pirates’ own postseason hopes are barely flickering at this point. That doesn’t mean their remaining games have to be meaningless. In fact, they have an opportunity this weekend to make life considerably more miserable for one of their oldest division rivals.

The St. Louis Cardinals enter their three-game series against the Pirates clinging to the outskirts of the National League Wild Card race. At 67-68 entering Friday, St. Louis sits 5.5 games behind the San Diego Padres for the final playoff spot with the Arizona Diamondbacks and Miami Marlins also standing between the Cardinals and October.

That deficit is difficult enough to overcome with barely a month remaining. Losing a series to Pittsburgh could make it close to impossible. A sweep, in fact, could effectively finish the job.

The Cardinals have already reached the point where every loss is magnified. They need to play exceptionally well in September while simultaneously getting help from the teams ahead of them. That’s where the Pirates come in.

Pittsburgh has spent most of this season imagining itself on the other side of this equation. The Pirates entered 2026 expecting to contend, remained within striking distance of a Wild Card spot deep into the summer and even added major-league help around the trade deadline. Then injuries, inconsistency and another brutal August changed the conversation.

If Pittsburgh can’t make its own September meaningful, ruining St. Louis’ would at least provide something worthwhile.

Pirates can play spoiler to Cardinals' playoff dreams and shake up NL Central standings

Playoffs aside, the Cardinals aren’t comfortably looking down at the Pirates in the NL Central standings. Pittsburgh is close enough that a strong weekend could allow the Pirates to jump them entirely.

That makes this more than the standard late-season “spoiler” storyline where a last-place team occasionally inconveniences a contender. The Pirates can directly contribute to sending the Cardinals from desperate to essentially finished — while simultaneously passing them in the standings.

Winning two of three would force St. Louis to burn another precious weekend without gaining ground. A sweep could leave the Cardinals several games below .500 with roughly a month remaining and needing an increasingly absurd combination of victories and collapses elsewhere.

For Pittsburgh, that would hardly salvage a season that was supposed to produce something much bigger. But rivalry games are supposed to matter even when the standings say otherwise.

The Pirates spent months watching their own playoff chances slowly disappear. This weekend, they have the opportunity to make sure the Cardinals experience the same thing.

Misery loves company. And if the Pirates are going to be home in October, they might as well help make sure St. Louis is, too.

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