DENVER — The start the St. Louis Cardinals imagined they would get from Erick Fedde during the late push of the regular season arrived Wednesday night long after the standings they thought he’d help shape had been decided.

But he still helped them avoid some icky history.

In his finest start for the Cardinals, the right-hander acquired at the trade deadline kept the Colorado Rockies uncomfortable through seven innings. The longest start for Fedde since joining the Cardinals included 10 strikeouts and so few threats as the Cardinals and their methodical offense chipped away at the Rockies for a 5-2 victory at Coors Field.

The win assured the Cardinals would not have a losing record, dodging what would have been a sour and historic turn to the season that already eliminated them from a playoff berth.

At 81-77, the Cardinals will not have their first back-to-back losing seasons since the late 1950s. Their run of 65 years without consecutive losing seasons in a full schedule is the second-longest in major North American sports history.

The Montreal Canadiens once went 80 years between doubling downers.

Of course, the win required Ryan Helsley’s involvement. The Cardinals’ All-Star closer tied the club record by collecting the final two outs of the ninth inning for his 48th save.

It took him one pitch to get the two outs.

Sam Hilliard hit a hotshot grounder back to Helsley that he spun into the double play that ended the game.

Helsley’s 48th save ties Trevor Rosenthal’s record set in 2015.

Fedde (9-9) struck out at least 10 for the third time in his career. When Charlie Blackmon opened the first inning with a single, Fedde shut it down with a double play. A leadoff walk in the fifth inning was quickly erased on another double play. Even the one inning that the Rockies cobbled together a run against Fedde included a double play. The right-hander struck out 10 and scattered six hits among five groundouts through his seven innings.

Cardinals catchers’ one-two combo

The Cardinals fit both of their young catchers in the lineup by starting Ivan Herrera at designated hitter Wednesday, though that did not limit the amount of offense coming from both catchers.

Herrera scored two runs and Pedro Pages, behind the plate for Fedde’s game, drove home two runs, and in the sixth inning they combined to widen the Cardinals’ lead.

In the second inning, against former Cardinals starter Austin Gomber, Herrera got the Cardinals’ first hit of the evening. He pulled a pitch from the Rockies’ lefty to left field. Rookie Thomas Saggese tagged a double to the far right-field corner, and Herrera was off to the races. The Cardinals’ DH wheeled around third, and though the throw from the outfield beat him home, the Rockies’ catcher, Jacob Stallings, could not glove the ball. Initially ruled an error for the throw, some reconsideration by the official scorer awarded Saggese with the RBI.

In the fourth, Pages singled home Jordan Walker to increase the Cardinals’ lead to 3-1 and continue the march of single-run rallies.

In the sixth, the combo of catchers contributed.

Herrera opened the inning with a double, and after Rockies reliever Jeff Criswell struck out back-to-back Cardinals, Pages capitalized on the inning with a two-out single and his second RBI of the game. Herrera’s run and Pages’ RBI gave the Cardinals a single run in five consecutive innings.

Winn continues to compile rare combos

Long about the seventh inning, with a triple and a double already in his pocket for the evening, Cardinals shortstop Masyn Winn took a run at the single he needed to eye a cycle.

He nearly outran a groundout to do so.

He had already run alongside some standout rookie totals.

With his fifth triple of the season in the third inning and his 30th double of the season coming two innings later, Winn became the latest rookie in the majors to have at least 150 hits, at least 30 doubles, at least 10 steals, at least 15 homers, and those five triples or more. It’s a combination of numbers that’s longer than a phone number, but the names on the list of rookies who have put together similar seasons is short and notable. Hanley Ramirez is on it along with Tony Oliva, Nomar Garciaparra, Devin White, and Fred Lynn, who did it the same year he won the American League’s Rookie of the Year Award and MVP for Boston.

This is the third consecutive season that a rookie in the majors has had that mix of numbers. In 2022, Kansas City Bobby Witt Jr. did and last season Arizona’s Corbin Carroll did on his way to the NL Rookie of the Year honor.

Winn is also the first Cardinals rookie since Johnny Mize in 1936 to have at least 30 doubles, 15 homers, and five triples in a season.

A day after his career-best four RBIs, Winn turned his extra-base hits into runs for the Cardinals on Wednesday. His triple in the third inning off the right-field wall set up Brendan Donovan’s sacrifice fly to double the Cardinals’ lead. Winn’s leadoff double for the fifth became a run on Paul Goldschmidt’s sacrifice fly.

How Colorado has treated Gomber

The most successful of the Cardinals sent to the Rockies in the Nolan Arenado trade, Gomber completed his season as the pitcher who contributed the most this season in Colorado.

The pitcher of record going into the ninth inning, Gomber, in his age 30 season, was set to slip to 5-12 with a 4.75 ERA in his 30 starts for the Rockies. The lefty allowed four runs on seven hits to his former team Wednesday night. He finished the season with 165 innings and had a chance to lead the Rockies in ERA as most of their usual starters clustered around 4.75.

Going into Wednesday’s game, Gomber was 28-36 for the Rockies since the trade ahead of the 2021 season. His overall ERA has hovered around 5.00 in 112 games. This season was his fourth consecutive for the Rockies with at least 17 starts and third in four years with at least 23. The fourth-round pick by the Cardinals in 2011, Gomber is set to be a free agent after the 2025 season.

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