The Cardinals may have picked up a little bit of momentum with their comeback win on Saturday over the Giants. Today, it was a very well-pitched game. All runs were scored in one inning for each team. The Cardinals got all four of their runs in the fifth inning, while the Giants got their three in the sixth.
They loaded the bases with nobody out in the fifth, and Lars Nootbaar opened the scoring with an RBI single. Ivan Herrera followed with one of his own. A walk to Nolan Gorman made it a 3-0 game and then Masyn Winn grounded into a double play to make it 4-0. That proved to be the difference, as the Cardinals barely held off a sixth-inning rally from the Giants.
Gray wins 13th game
Sonny Gray drew the start for the Cardinals, and he wasn’t great, but he was drastically better than his last start against the Athletics. He took a no-hitter into the sixth inning and held the Giants at bay. Rafael Devers and Dominic Smith drove in runs to make it a 4-2 game, which ended Gray’s day, and another leftover runner scored after Matt Svanson took over.
Still, despite four walks, Gray only allowed two hits and recorded four strikeouts. No, it wasn’t a great performance, but it was far from a clunker, and if the Cardinals are going to play spoiler down the stretch against contending teams, they’ll need Gray to be his old self. But he certainly was better today.
Bullpen continues its dominance
There were some moments where things got a little bit interesting for the Cardinals, but the bullpen really did its job again today. The run that scored while Svanson was pitching was charged to Gray. He helped the Cardinals escape the sixth with the lead intact. He also escaped trouble in the seventh before giving way to JoJo Romero in the eighth.
Romero allowed a hit and a walk, but didn’t break, earning two strikeouts and turning things over to Riley O’Brien in the ninth. After a leadoff single from Casey Schmitt, O’Brien settled in. Nathan Church robbed Drew Gilbert of a base hit with a sliding catch, then O’Brien got Patrick Bailey to ground into a double play to end the game.
Despite the struggles of this team, you can’t deny that the bullpen has been truly outstanding. Even after the losses of Ryan Helsley, Phil Maton and Steven Matz, the rest of the pitchers have settled into roles quite nicely, and their mastery was on display yet again. This is another part of the team that will need to remain strong for the Cardinals to be able to play spoiler.
A crucial stretch begins tomorrow where the Cardinals will play the Mariners and then the Brewers. It’s a great opportunity to sour the playoff hopes of those teams.