Once the Padres lineup found a way to get on base in the early innings of Thursday’s series finale against the Cardinals, ºüÀêÊÓƵ starter Sonny Gray kept his plan of attack and mindset clear while navigating through his outing.
“Just stay committed to filling up the zone,†Gray said. “We worked through a lot of stuff this week, and we had a really good plan going into it as far as what we wanted to do. It was continuing just to stay with that. It was a good week of preparation, for sure. I kind of went through all different scenarios throughout the week. Just trying to draw from that.â€
Gray retired the first seven Padres batters he faced before catcher Kyle Higashioka reached base on a ground-rule double with one out in the third inning. Gray struck out Tyler Wade looking on a 3-2 sinker that caught the low, inside corner of the strike zone. The Cardinals’ headline free-agent signee from this past offseason followed that by inducing a flyout from Luis Arraez — a two-time batting champion and former teammate of Gray’s while with the Twins.
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“(I) made some big pitches in some 3-2 counts,†Gray said. “One to Wade ... that was a really, really big pitch, if you’re being honest. (If you don’t) make that pitch, you end up putting him on. Now you’re first and second with (Arraez) coming up.â€
Gray followed the scoreless third inning by working around a one-out double from Jake Cronenworth in the fourth to keep San Diego scoreless as he tossed six innings and allowed one run to help the Cardinals to a 4-1 win in front of an announced crowd of 26,553 at Busch Stadium. After Gray’s departure, relievers Ryan Fernandez, Matthew Liberatore and Ryan Helsley completed a scoreless inning of work each. Helsley’s efforts earned him his MLB-leading 41st save of the season.
ºüÀêÊÓƵ received an RBI apiece from Paul Goldschmidt, Masyn Winn, Ivan Herrera and Luken Baker in Thursday’s win. Baker’s and Goldschmidt’s contributions came in the third inning and gave the Cardinals a 2-0 lead they never relinquished.
The win earned the Cardinals (67-67) a four-game series split after and got them back to .500 ahead of a six-game road trip that begins Friday and features three games each against the American League East-leading New York Yankees and the National League Central-leading Milwaukee Brewers.
“It was important to win these last two. We played them well at their place,†said Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol, whose club won two out of three in San Diego to begin April. “They played us extremely well here. Every game was tight, but losing the first two and staying locked in enough and present enough to take the last two games is good. We’ll focus on New York when we get there. It’s just one game at a time. No different.â€
The win put the Cardinals at 6½ games behind the Atlanta Braves in the chase for the final wild-card spot in the NL with 28 games left in ºüÀêÊÓƵ’ regular-season schedule. The Braves had not completed their Thursday matchup against the Philadelphia Phillies by the time of this writing
The Brewers’ 6-0 win over the San Francisco Giants kept the Cardinals at 10½ games behind the Brewers for the division lead.
“We all know we need to win games, especially going to New York to play another good team,†said Winn, who went 2 for 4 with a solo home run. “... Sonny went out there and did his job. (Andre) Pallante did his job yesterday. It’s very comforting knowing our pitchers are going to help us out whenever you know our bats aren’t doing the best, especially against two great pitchers in the last two days.â€
Entering Thursday’s start having allowed 13 runs in his previous three starts, Gray kept the Padres scoreless and limited them to three hits and no walks through four innings of work. The lone run Gray allowed came on a leadoff home run Padres rookie center fielder Jackson Merrill belted on the first pitch he saw from Gray to begin the fifth inning.
Gray followed the leadoff home run by retiring the next six batters he faced before handing the game to the bullpen.
“He’s our guy, and he’s going to continue to be on the attack,†Marmol said of Gray’s start. “He’s just so prepared, man. You watch him day to day, and you watch how he prepares for his start, and it’s impressive. He knows what’s on the line, and he’s going to give you his best shot every time.â€
As Gray kept the Padres to the one run, the Cardinals filled up the base paths and worked up San Diego starter Michael King’s pitch count. King entered the afternoon with baseball’s fourth-best ERA (2.85) as a starter with at least 180 innings pitched since the start of the 2023 season and a 2.29 ERA in six starts since the All-Star break.
King, who threw 103 pitches in 4â…“ innings, stranded runners on second and third base to end both the first and second innings.
The Cardinals offense finally peeked through in the third inning when they once again had runners on second and third base after Alec Burleson led off the inning with a walk and Nolan Arenado reached second base on a ground ball that rolled into the left-center field gap after being misplayed by Wade.
Baker drove in Burleson on a groundout to third base, and Goldschmidt drove in Arenado two batters later when he doubled to left field.
“Getting out and scoring before they do always feels good, especially when you have that guy on the bump,†Baker said.
Winn’s home run in the sixth inning extended the Cardinals’ lead back to two after Merrill’s homer. An RBI single in the eighth inning from Herrera provided some insurance for a win that provides some “momentum†before the Cardinals head to New York and Milwaukee.
“Momentum is always good,†said rookie Victor Scott II, who went 2 for 4 with a double. “... We bring that excitement into the next game and see how it goes from there.â€