A quality start from right-hander Sonny Gray and RBIs from four different Cardinals hitters gave the Cardinals what they needed to climb back to a .500 record on Thursday at Busch Stadium.
Gray allowed one run across six innings and struck out four batters in a 4-1 win over the Padres. Gray did not walk a batter in the win. The lone run he allowed came in the fifth inning in the form of the leadoff home run from Padres rookie center fielder Jackson Merrill, who belted a first-pitch sweeper from Gray to center field for San Diego’s lone run in the series finale.
Paul Goldschmidt, Masyn Winn, Luken Baker and Ivan Herrera had RBIs for the Cardinals (67-67) to earn the series split in front of an announced crowd of 26,553.
Baker’s and Goldschmidt’s RBIs came in the fifth inning and gave the Cardinals a lead they did not give back.
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Winn’s RBI came on a solo home run in the sixth inning off left-handed reliever Yuki Mastui. Winn’s homer was his 12th of the season. Herrera’s RBI provided an insurance run it the eighth inning.
The Cardinals entered the series finale seven games behind the Atlanta Braves in the National League wild-card standings and 10½ games behind the Milwaukee Brewers for the lead in the NL Central.
Gray notched his first quality start since Aug. 6. He had allowed 13 runs in three starts since then. Gray totaled 16 innings and allowed six home runs in that stretch. The winning decision over San Diego improved Gray to a 12-9 record. The winning decision was his first since his Aug. 6 start vs. the Tampa Bay Rays.
Behind Gray, the Cardinals received scoreless relief appearances from Ryan Fernandez, Matthew Liberatore and closer Ryan Helsley, with each completing one full inning. Helsley’s scoreless inning earned him his league-leading 41st save.
Sonny faces little stress
Coming off a stretch of three starts during which he allowed 13 runs over 16 innings, Gray kept San Diego limited to two hits through his first four innings of work. The two runners to reach base against Gray in that stretch were Kyle Higashioka and Jake Cronenworth — both of whom doubled.
Higashioka’s double came with one out in the third inning on a ground-rule double that hopped over the wall down the right field line. Gray recorded the inning’s second out with a strikeout of Tyler Wade, who was frozen with a 3-2 sinker that caught the low, inside corner of the strike zone. Gray stranded Wade on second to the end frame by getting Luis Arraez to fly out to right field.
An inning later, Cronenworth doubled to right field with one out to give the Padres a base runner in scoring position with their Nos. 4 and 5 hitters due up. Manny Machado, who came into Thursday’s game with a .367 average and a .633 slugging percentage in 30 career at-bats vs. Gray, grounded out to second base, allowing Cronenworth to advance to third base with Donovan Solano on deck.
Gray got Solano to chase a high fastball for a strikeout to end the inning and leave Cronenworth on third base.
3rd-inning offense
After the Cardinals left runners on second and third base to end the first two innings, a third consecutive chance at a similar scoring opportunity was not wasted.
A leadoff walk from Alec Burleson and a ground ball from Nolan Arenado that was misplayed by the shortstop Wade gave the Cardinals runners on second and third base with no outs in the frame.
Baker, the Cardinals’ designated hitter in the series finale, broke open the scoring with a groundout to shortstop that allowed Burleson to score. Following a groundout to third base from Brendan Donovan, Goldschmidt brought Arenado in to score from second base on a double he pulled to left field.
Before Baker and Goldschmidt opened the scoring in the third inning, Donovan struck out looking to end the first with Burleson and Baker on second and third base. In the second inning, Winn hit a soft groundout to Padres starter Michael King to end the inning and leave Herrera, who had singled, and Victor Scott II, who reached on a ground-rule double that hopped over the center field wall, stranded.
Leaving them loaded
The Cardinals offense in the fifth inning created another scoring chance and knocked King out of the game after he completed 5⅓ innings on 103 pitches — the most he'd thrown in a game since throwing 105 on July 27.
The fifth-inning threat began with a one-out walk from Baker and was followed by a Donovan double that advanced Baker to third base. With first base open and Goldschmidt due up, Padres manager Mike Shildt intentionally walked Goldschmidt and called left-hander Matsui from the bullpen to face the left-handed-hitting Lars Nootbaar.
Against Matsui, Nootbaar’s former Samurai Japan teammate during the 2023 World Baseball Classic, Nootbaar flied out to left field. Nootbaar’s flyout was not deep enough for Baker to attempt to tag up and score. In the at-bat that followed, Herrera popped up to first base to end the inning with the bases loaded.