Ryan Helsley makes Cardinals history in win against the Guardians

The St. Louis Cardinals wrapped up an impressive three-game weekend series sweep of the Cleveland Guardians with a 7-0 win on Sunday afternoon. With the win, the Cardinals improve to 47-38 on the season and are three games back of the Chicago Cubs for first place in the NL Central. 

While today’s win was impressive, yesterday’s 9-6 win saw history made by Cardinals closer Ryan Helsley. In the ninth inning of Saturday’s win, Helsley struck out one batter and secured his 16th save of the season. It was also Helsley’s 100th save of his career.

Helsley has spent his entire seven-year career with the Cardinals and opened up about the milestone that he reached on Saturday.

“It’s pretty surreal because you’re not really thinking about it in the moment, but when you think about 100 saves, I don’t know how many people have done that over their careers, and it's probably not that many,” Helsley said. 

Helsley became the sixth pitcher in St. Louis Cardinals pitcher to reach 100 saves or more. Helsley joins a list of Cardinals pitchers that includes Jason Isringhausen, Lee Smith, Todd Worrell, Bruce Sutter, and Trevor Rosenthal. 

If Helsley stays with the Cardinals and isn’t traded at the July 31st trade deadline, he has the chance of passing Rosenthal for the fifth-most saves in Cardinals history, which is at 121.

Helsley certainly has the chance to break the mark this season, as last year he had 49 saves. This season, Helsley has appeared in 29 games with three wins, a 3.41 ERA, and 34 strikeouts.