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ANAHEIM, Calif. — Clinging to a tie game even as an inning threatened to slip away, Sonny Gray saw movement in the Cardinals’ dugout after he walked the No. 9 hitter to load bases. The right-hander had thrown 85 pitches, struck out eight, and was now about to face the Los Angeles Angels’ leadoff hitter for a fourth time in a 5-5 game.

It did not take PitchCom to relay the severity of the situation, and he figured the commotion in the dugout was a prelude to manager Oliver Marmol’s arrival on the mound.

Except it wasn’t.

Marmol did not budge.

Pitching coach Dusty Blake made the visit.

“I just assumed that Oli was coming out,� Gray said late Tuesday night. “I looked up and saw Dusty. And I was like, ‘Oh, I’m staying in this game.’�

He would deliver the pitches to decide if he lost it.

“That’s our guy, and he’s going to get through it,� Marmol explained. “There will be a time when I go get him. That wasn’t going to be it there. But I wanted him to know if someone was coming out of the dugout, it’s not the guy who is potentially grabbing the ball from you.�

Four pitches later, Gray (5-2) ended the inning with a strikeout, preserved the tie game, and was about to be rewarded with the win. All because the Cardinals stayed with their No. 1 starter in the moment that would decide the outcome of his game.

On the way to the Cardinals’ 7-6 victory Tuesday at Angel Stadium, there was a big lead taken, a big lead lost, and more than a few handfuls of sloppy baseball on the home side of the game. The Angels had two backhand shovel passes to no one at second base, allowed a run on a wild throw home, and completely botched a curious suicide squeeze meant to tie the game. Angels manager Ron Washington fumed after the game, telling reporters that Luis Guillorme’s failure to get the bunt down was the problem and that the infield “didn’t do the job. It wasn’t anything I did wrong. He didn’t do the job.� On the visitors’ side, there was a manager who stuck with two players for the residual benefit of that faith, regardless outcome. It paid off.

Alec Burleson remained in the game to hit against a lefty reliever brought in specifically for him, and Burleson slugged a two-run homer that broke the tie, got Gray the win, and provided the difference.

And then there was the classic commitment moment with Gray.

Let the ace deal the pitches that decide his game.

“There are times when I want to go out there and see if you’re good, you got another?� Marmol said. “That one? It’s his runs to give up, and I wanted to make sure he saw dusty coming out because there is that little bit if I walk out of, ‘Hey, are you leaving me in?’ I wanted him to know this is my guy and we’re game-planning for how we’re going to get him.�

“It meant,� Gray said, “get this guy. Give us a chance to win.�

The Cardinals seized a 5-0 lead before the end of the third inning with Dylan Carlson singling, walking, and scoring twice, one in each rally. By the bottom of the third, the Cardinals had six hits, three stolen bases, and runs scored on an error and a wild pitch. Rookie catcher Pedro Pages cleared the bases with his first big-league hit – a double in the third inning that gave Gray a five-run lead to work with. It was gone within a few innings.

The Cardinals’ right-hander allowed three consecutive two-strike hits in the fifth inning. The last of them was a three-run homer by catcher Logan O’Hoppe. Gray got ahead with two fastballs on O’Hoppe, and the right-handed batter had an uncomfortable swing against a cutter. Gray went to the sinker for the 0-2 pitch. Gray wanted to get the pitch in on O’Hoppe’s hands, and instead it was out and over the plate until it was out and over the wall. O’Hoppe’s three-run blast brought the Angels within a run. They’d tie the game on a sacrifice fly in the fifth.

In his final three innings of work Tuesday, Gray allowed six hits and eight baserunners, not including a runner who reached on a catcher interference.

For the first time all season, the Cardinals believe they have momentum offensively and would generate more runs if they could halt the Angels’ comeback.

“Sonny is going to give you a solid outing almost every time out,� Marmol said. “Even when a game goes like it did, you shouldn’t lose those games. You should still figure out a way to scratch and claw and find your way back in the ballgame and win. That’s a perfect example of that. Here a week ago, that’s an L (loss).�

In the sixth, Gray’s start continued its drift. He walked two batters in his six innings and both of them came in the sixth inning. A catcher interference put another runner on base, and with two outs and three on, Angels leadoff hitter Nolan Schanuel was due up. He already had two singles off Gray in the game and was about to get his fourth look at the right-hander.

The pitch count. The matchup. The score.

Plenty of the numbers suggested a call to the bullpen.

Marmol preferred the message to the team.

In Gray, they trust.

“Just get one guy and give ourselves a chance,� Gray said. “Pitching to win the game. That was where I went to. No matter what has happened, you’re not going to be overall thrilled with this outing in general. You talk about pitching to win the game. This is a moment where you can let all this other stuff go behind you and just pitch to win the game right here where you are in this moment. That’s kind of where I went. No matter what has happened, pitch to win the game right here.�

When Blake, not Marmol, arrived on the mound, the coach, pitcher, and Pages talked through the approach for a fourth at-bat vs. Schanuel.

They all agreed on one.

“Get back to your strengths,� Gray said.

Throughout the game, Gray used a variety of his fastballs. He threw five different pitches at least 13 times each, and the pitcher he used most was the breaking ball. But he suggested later that he could have thrown it more. He got seven swings and misses on the sweeping slider, and when he tucked it below the zone, hitters waved over it. He was just having difficulty throughout the game getting a second consistent pitch when he got ahead. He did not close out batters.

In his previous at-bats, Schanuel singled off the sweeping slider and the four-seam fastball. Gray went right back to both against him in the sixth. Schanuel ignored the first four-seam fastball for a ball. He fouled the next one off to get Gray back in the count. The next two pitches were both sweepers, one near the strike zone and the other plunging out of it and kissing dirt. Schanuel swung over it. Pages blacked it. Inning over.

Rally to follow.

“We went fastball away and then it was just spin,� Pages said. “He struggles with spin and Sonny’s spin is elite. It’s one of the best in the league and he trusts it.�

Which is what the whole moment was about.

Gray trusted his slider.

He trusted his catcher to block it.

His manager trusted him to deliver it.

“It’s called trust,� Marmol said. “One hundred sixty-two games. And what it does for the other four starters and for that dugout – and for a lot of reasons.�