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Cardinals reliever Kyle Leahy had a sense of when he might enter Friday’s game at Busch Stadium against the Brewers. Part of that was because teammate Phil Maton gave him a heads up while the two were in the bullpen and Matthew Liberatore neared the end of his start.

“(Maton) said, ‘Be ready for this, for the second hitter of the inning,’ � Leahy recalled.

What Maton said could be a possibility based on his read of the matchup became a reality for Leahy. Leahy was called from the bullpen in the seventh inning of a 3-1 game to face Rhys Hoskins, a right-handed hitter, with no outs and Sal Frelick on second base after Frelick doubled against the left-handed Liberatore.

Later that inning, Leahy, a 27-year-old righty, found himself in a spot with the bases loaded and no outs after Hoskins singled and Isaac Collins walked. Leahy escaped the frame with one run allowed as he retired the next three batters he faced following Collins to maintain the Cardinals’ lead. Following Leahy’s appearance, Maton, who worked out of a jam in the eighth inning, and closer Ryan Helsley finished off a 3-2 win over Milwaukee with an inning of work apiece.

The bullpen’s effort secured a win for the Cardinals (11-15) after they jumped to a 3-0 lead by the fifth inning with RBIs from Nolan Gorman, Brendan Donovan, and Lars Nootbaar. The runs scored in the middle innings backed the six innings and two runs (one earned) allowed by Liberatore.

“That was a good win,� Leahy said. “That was tight and (against) a division rival team. … I wanted to get that run off the board for (Liberatore), but kept us in a winning position, and (Maton) came and did his thing, and Helsley did his thing.�

When the bases filled up with no outs in the seventh inning, Leahy said his approach to take the game “one pitch at a time� helped him limit the damage to one run.

The right-hander retired the first batter he faced, pinch hitter Jake Bauers, on a ground out to second base that scored Frelick and moved Hoskins and Collins to third base and second base, respectively. Against Caleb Durbin, a Washington University in St. Louis product, Leahy induced a ground out to shortstop that prevented Hoskins and Collins from advancing on the base paths.

Leahy had Brice Turang in a 3-1 count before getting a changeup for a called strike on the fifth pitch he threw to Turang. Leahy’s 3-2 pitch, a 93.5 mph fastball, caught the low-and-inside corner against the left-handed Turang and was lifted to center field, where it was caught for an out by Victor Scott II to end the inning.

“For the amount of years in the big leagues, a young guy, for him to stay under control the whole time, he’s continuing to show the ability to do that,� Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said of Leahy. “He’s really good regardless of the situation. (He) makes pitches. He’s had a heavy workload. He’s done a really nice job with it.�

Marmol described Leahy as being “soft spoken,� “very confident,� and as someone who “wants the ball in the toughest situations.� Having logged 67 innings in the majors since his debut in 2023, Leahy said he’s always had a “slow heartbeat� when it comes to his demeanor on and off the field.

Leahy said the process for him to control high-pressure moments like Friday’s comes with gaining experience.

“Going back to what I said, my goal is every inning, regardless of the situation, even last year when I was in 10-run games or losing games or whatever, the goal was still to put up a zero,� Leahy said. “You do that by making one quality pitch at a time.�

Maton, a veteran reliever with nine seasons in the majors and over 400 big-league innings over his career, knows what the process looks like.

“Oh, yeah, for sure. The game slows down a lot,� Maton said of the differences from pitching in big moments early in his career compared to now. “It’s very fast when you’re young, and we didn’t even have the pitch clock when I came up, and it felt like it was just lightning fast. It feels a lot slower — the clock management with the guys on. Just trying to run it down as much as possible. Try to just bring the game to a standstill. Try to kill as much momentum as possible.

“I feel like that’s just kind of what I tried to do. I think just reps. That helps out a lot. Eventually, you just kind of get used to it, and it just becomes a little bit more natural to you.�

When he entered to pitch the eighth inning, Maton allowed singles to Jackson Chourio and William Contreras that put Chourio on third base and Contreras on first with one out in the inning.

Facing Frelick, Maton had the left-hander in a 1-2 count but had four of the next five pitches fouled off before Frelick put a 2-2 cutter in play. Frelick chopped a ground ball to the third base side that was snagged by Nolan Arenado, who was positioned on the edge of the infield grass and ranged to his glove side to make a play on the ball. While his momentum took him in the direction of first base, Arenado threw across his body to deliver an accurate throw to home plate to get Chourio out as he tried to score.

“Frelick digging in there and just having a grindy at-bat was really tough,� Maton said. “Having lots of thoughts on how to try to get him on the ground. Tip my cap to him, it was an outstanding at-bat. Very fortunate that we got that ball on the ground. (Arenado) made an outstanding play like he always does.�

Despite putting Hoskins in a 3-1 count with two outs and runners on first and second base after Frelick’s at-bat, Maton got back-to-back swings-and-misses — one on a sinker and one on a curveball — against the Brewers slugger for a strikeout that secured Maton a hold and bridged the game to Helsley, who notched his fourth save.

“Those guys did a really nice job in some tough lanes,� Marmol said of the bullpen after his club secured its first one-run win of the season. “To be able to get that play at home and then get Hoskins there. Talk about a slow heartbeat, that’s another guy (Maton) that has done it for a while.�