Their meeting on the mound in the fifth inning was the timely and public continuation of a conversation that happened out of sight an inning early and a promise, right there, that the manager made to his debuting ace.
Sonny Gray completed four scoreless innings on 53 pitches. He had outwitted the Phillies at times and overpowered the Phillies when needed. The Cardinals were about to break a scoreless tie with Nolan Gorman’s solo homer, and Gray knew himself well enough to recognize how strong he’d feel the gravitational pull of a good, old-fashioned pitcher’s duel. But he had not pitched in a genuine game in more than 30 days, not since tearing his hamstring.
He had a plan. He had a pitch limit.
And he needed a promise from manager Oliver Marmol.
“Don’t let me talk you into some type of way to do something stupid,†Gray recalled telling his manager before the start of the fifth inning.
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“You want to call it now?†Marmol replied.
The right-hander asked how many pitches he had thrown.
Fifty-three of a planned 65.
“No, no,†Gray recalled saying. “Let me go and have a quick one.â€
And so he did.
A debut delayed by injury was not to be a debut denied as Gray delivered an authoritative five shutout innings on 64 pitches Tuesday at Busch Stadium. His final pitch, one shy of the hard-out, got him a double play ball that completed the inning and qualified him to get a win in his first start for the Cardinals. Four relievers, including a fierce JoJo Romero with four strikeouts and closer Ryan Helsley with a 102-mph fastball and his fourth save, carried the lead and completed the first shutout of the season with a 3-0 victory against Philadelphia. It happened in front of the smallest night game crowd (31,972) in a non-COVID year ever at Busch Stadium III.
What that audience watched: A dozen days after he was supposed to be the Cardinals’ opening day starter, Gray (1-0) showed why the Cardinals pursued him to be just that – their No. 1 from Day 1.
“What he did was pretty incredible and there is a lot to be excited about with having him healthy again,†Marmol said after the win about the club's $75-million starter. “Because he hasn’t pitched in front of a crowd in a while, and to go out there and control his overall emotions and not try to do too much. He was under control the whole time. Landed six pitches for strikes. That was pretty dominant. That was a lot of fun.â€
Gray punctuated the evening with alliteration.
“I felt more calm, cool, collected, confident than I have in any rehab (outing),†he said.
Nowhere was that clearer than in the fifth inning, on the mound, as Marmol made his appointment visit to the mound to follow the plan. The Cardinals and Gray agreed to a specific pitch count so that the right-hander could build his arm strength on the job. They recognized going into the game that if the first few innings went sideways, it could set him back on the schedule to climb toward 100 pitches and roll from there. Ideally for them and for his schedule, he would get through five innings on 65 or fewer pitches, and here was on the brink of 65 with two outs to get.
Gray allowed back-to-back singles on his 57th and 62nd pitch of the game.
Marmol told him he had one more hitter.
He had two outs to get, three pitches remaining.
He needed only two.
“He told me, ‘Sinker, right here, and we’re going to get him,’†catcher Ivan Herrera said. “And that’s what he did.â€
Gray got ahead with a 93.5-mph sinker to Johan Rojas. He followed that with a 94.2-mph sinker – the last he threw was the fastest pitch he threw – and got the groundball to shortstop for the double play. Gray had watched the Cardinals’ defense make such plays all week, and he got to experience being in the middle of the blitz package on Tuesday. Nolan Arenado had a barehanded play on a slow roller for an out in the third inning. Gray faced the minimum through the first seven batters in part because of a double play turned at shortstop by Masyn Winn.
Only two of the 15 outs Gray got came from beyond the infield.
Both were by slugger Kyle Schwarber.
The defense informed Gray’s approach right that 64th and final pitch.
“Defense has been insane; it truly has,†Gray said. “The plays that they made are the reason that I was able to go out there and throw five innings on a pitch thing. They work on it. You watch them work on it. They take pride in it. It’s fun to be a part of. It makes me even more confident in a situation like that in the fifth inning to absolutely try and get a ball to their hands and force contact, knowing that there is going to be a play made behind you.
“I was just gripping my best sinker and letting it rip as hard as I could,†he explained about that 64th pitch. “And I was just trying to get in (on) his hands and get soft contact on the infield and let our defense play.â€
The Cardinals’ original plan was to have Gray start Tuesday night for Class AAA Memphis or Class AA Springfield in a rehab appearance. The right-hander’s return to the majors from a torn hamstring had taken him through the back fields of Jupiter, Florida, and a simulated game in Springfield, Missouri. Despite all the miles and mimicked innings, the one thing the past 36 days had lacked for Gray was also the one thing he stressed to reporters he needed before feeling ready to rejoin the rotation in the majors.
A game.
He did not appear in an actual game, complete with a crowd and opponents paid to have ill-will toward him. He had faced only minor-leaguers wearing a similar uniform as his. What changed the Cardinals plan was Gray making the case, in person, that he was ready without that game. He made his case in a meeting with Marmol, pitching coach Dusty Blake, and John Mozeliak, president of baseball operations. He had a point. They authored the plan.
“I completely – this is an understatement – trust his preparation and his honesty, I mean, if he’s not ready,†Marmol said. “And if he says, in his words, that ‘I’m 100% physically ready and mentally ready to compete and deliver up here,’ then I trust that. And he delivered.â€
His pitch count wasn’t a secret, so the Phillies could tuck that into their approach against Gray and one of the finest sliders in the game.
To start the game, Schwarber worked Gray into a full count before lifting a fly ball to right field. Four of the first six batters Gray faced saw at least five pitches. Usually an aggressive team at the plate, three of the first four Phillies batters – each of them an All-Star, each of them recipients of MVP votes – got Gray to a full count. The one who did not, Trea Turner, popped up on the first pitch. Gray finished the first inning with a curveball that plummeted 59 inches and under the swing of Bryce Harper for the right-hander’s first strikeout and a first swing and miss as a Cardinal. It also finished his first inning on 15 pitches.
“You’re looking at if they grind out at-bats early,†Marmol said. “We wanted to be super-cautious about what the workload looked like in the second and third innings for him. But he was able to get back on track and get some pretty quick outs and get us through the fifth. Yeah, some of those first at-bats you’re wondering – 65 pitches, what is that going to get us to?â€
Gray didn’t have another inning that long in terms of pitches.
It took him 11 to retire the side in the third despite the first Phillie of the game getting into scoring position thanks to a sacrifice bunt.
By the end of the fourth, he had five strikeouts, including two from Harper. What made that all possible was Gray’s feel for all six of his pitches. He threw four different pitches at least 10 times. He got a swing and miss with four of them. His two strikeouts in the fourth inning came on his sweeping slider. He had two different fastballs averaging around 92 mph, a slider at 84 mph, and a curveball at 78 mph. Herrera said Gray had “everything working, even the changeup.†His sixth pitch got a whiff, too.
Asked if the length of the first inning helped the get all the pitches spinning, Gray shrugged and said: “Maybe.â€
He spun a baseball in his right hand as he spoke at his locker.
“That’s who I am as a pitcher,†he said. “I mix my hand. I mix my hand with all pitches. I throw a lot of pitches at a different clip – 20% roughly of four or five different pitches is who I am and what I do. I mix my hand with the baseball.â€
His debut was later than imagined but just as advertised.
Within limits.
Next time out he’ll reach for 80 pitches.
And then close in on 100.
Right back where he wanted to be all along.
“It feels better being here than it would have been anywhere else,†Gray said. “I just felt at home, to be honest with you.â€