Sonny Gray strikes out 9, Cardinals have 11 hits in win over Pirates

Sonny Gray seemed off at the start as the St. Louis Cardinals right-hander allowed the first two batters he faced to reach base.

After walking Andrew McCutchen and giving up a double to Bryan Reynolds, Gray struck out the next three Pittsburgh Pirates on his way to recording nine strikeouts over seven ruthlessly efficient innings.

Gray prevented the Pirates from capitalizing on runners in scoring position, and the Cardinals gave him the run support that was missing a night earlier when Miles Mikolas tossed seven shutout innings.

Behind a strong start by Gray and 11 hits, including three-hit games from Nolan Arenado and Ivan Herrera, the Cardinals cruised to a 4-2 win Wednesday night at Busch Stadium.

“You don’t see Sonny Gray out of the zone very much,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said on the SportsNet Pittsburgh postgame show. “We saw him out of the zone the first two hitters. After that, you see why Sonny Gray is an ace to a staff, why he has the ability to execute. … After the first two hitters, he was extremely sharp.”

Gray (8-4) allowed one run on four hits and a walk, punctuating his outing by getting a strikeout for the final out three times with a runner in scoring position. Where Gray threw 84 pitches over seven innings, Pirates lefty Bailey Falter (3-4) threw 82 over four, giving up three runs on eight hits and a walk with five strikeouts.

Gray relied on his breaking pitches, getting swings on 17 of his 24 cutters and 12 of 16 sweepers to keep the Pirates off balance.

“The challenge there is he’s throwing multiple,” Pirates catcher Henry Davis said. “It’s not like one shape that you can anticipate.”

After McCutchen and Reynolds put a pair of runners in scoring position in the first inning, Gray recovered to strike out Connor Joe, Oneil Cruz and Ke’Bryan Hayes to escape. The Pirates went 1 for 9 with runners in scoring position, stranding five.

Falter got out of a bases-loaded jam in the second, getting a favorable called third strike on Dylan Carlson with a fastball inside and Michael Siani swinging at a fastball atop the zone.

The Cardinals had only one extra-base hit, but it gave them an early 1-0 lead. Paul Goldschmidt hit a two-out single to right in the third then scored when Arenado dropped a double past a diving Reynolds in left field.

St. Louis added two runs to its lead in the fourth, when the first four batters reached on singles. Herrera stole third, then scored when Carlson hit a sharp grounder off Hayes’ glove. Siani dropped a bunt toward third to load the bases, and Donovan scored when Masyn Winn grounded into a forceout at second.

“I felt super unlucky,” Falter said. “I had a lot of weak contact. I just feel like things didn’t go my way.”

Pirates second baseman Nick Gonzales made a spectacular stop on Alec Burleson’s grounder for an inning-ending double play, then led off the fifth with a double to left and scored on a single to center by Michael A. Taylor to cut it to 3-1.

Taylor stole second base and advanced to third on Herrera’s throwing error to put another runner in scoring position with one out, but Gray answered by striking out Davis and McCutchen.

Carmen Mlodzinski replaced Falter for the fifth, but the Cardinals continued to get soft singles. Donovan poked one through short to drive in Arenado to increase their lead back to three runs.

Cruz hit an opposite-field double with two outs in the sixth to put another runner in scoring position, only for Gray to get Hayes swinging at a sweeper in the dirt for his ninth strikeout.

Once the Cardinals turned to their bullpen, bringing in Andrew Kittredge in the eighth, the Pirates pounced. Henry Davis drilled a 2-1 slider 412 feet over the left-center wall for a leadoff home run — his first of the season — to cut it to 4-2.

“Maybe the fact that that’s the first homer, now there’s a sigh of relief,” Shelton said. “The at-bat before he did a really good job. He took a really good swing and missed a homer by about 10 feet. Overall, very encouraging.”

Kyle Nicolas shut down the Cardinals by striking out five of the six batters he faced in the seventh and eighth innings, giving the Pirates a chance for another ninth-inning rally after Tuesday’s 2-1 win.

Cruz opened the ninth with a single to left off Ryan Helsley. After giving up two runs in the ninth a night earlier, Helsley got Hayes to line out to left and struck out Gonzales. Cruz advanced to second on defensive indifference, but Helsley got Edward Olivares to ground out to short to earn his 22nd save.

But the Pirates conceded that it was simply Gray’s day.

“When he’s got it going like that, it’s tough,” Shelton said. “You’ve got to make sure you do not miss the mistakes. He did not make a lot of them. He pitched really well.”