Daniel GuerreroSt. Louis Post-Dispatch
ST. LOUIS —
The roll Cardinals ace Sonny Gray began midway through June continued Sunday at Busch Stadium against the Giants.
The righty, coming off back-to-back outings with seven or more innings pitched and two or fewer runs allowed, diced through Giants hitters as he completed seven innings, allowed one run and chased perfection in a 5-3 win that clinched a series sweep over San Francisco.
Having struck out 13 batters in his past 14 2/3 innings before Sunday, Gray collected eight strikeouts — six of which were swinging — and limited his opposition to one hit and no walks. The lone hit came in the seventh inning with two outs in the form of a solo home run off the bat of Patrick Bailey.
Before Bailey’s home run, Gray retired 20 consecutive batters and induced six ground outs. Gray completed the seven innings on 80 pitches (57 strikes).
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After JoJo Romero (2/3 of an inning) and Andrew Kittredge (1/3 of an inning) combined to get through the eighth inning, Ryan Helsley pitched a scoreless ninth inning to earn the save. Helsley’s save was his league-leading 26th save of the year.
The Cardinals (39-37) received RBIs from Alec Burleson (two), Brendan Donovan, Matt Carpenter and Brandon Crawford in the victory.
Crawford comes through vs. former club
As the Giants threatened to take the lead in the eighth inning, it was a former Giant whose quick decision on defense that ended the threat.
With runners on second and third base and the Cardinals leading by one run, third baseman Brandon Crawford fielding a grounder that hopped over the bag and was ruled fair by third base umpire Will Little. Fielding it from behind third base, Crawford raced to the bag and tagged it just before Wilmer Flores did as Flores slide feet first into the bag.
Little ruled Flores out. The Giants challenged the ruling on the field, and it was upheld to end the threat.
In the bottom half of the eighth, Crawford provided a clutch moment with his bat.
After Dylan Carlson singled with two outs in the inning, Crawford pulled a double to right field to give the Cardinals an insurance run against the team he spent the 13 seasons with.
Romero, Kittredge combine for 8th
With Gray removed from the game to begin the eighth inning, lefty Romero walked Matt Chapman to lead off the frame and put another base runner on when he walked Thairo Estrada with one out.
The shaky command and the Giants’ decision to bring in Flores, a righty, as a pinch hitter for Trenton Brooks led Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol to remove Romero in favor of righty Kittredge.
Kittredge could not silence Flores as he allowed a run on an automatic double on the first pitch he threw to Flores and saw another run score against him on a sacrifice fly from Austin Slater.
Getting to Webb early
With rookie Masyn Winn and second-year outfielder Burleson batting from the top two spots in the Cardinals batting order, the duo provided a first-inning spark that led to a three-run frame.
On the second pitch he saw from Giants starter Logan Webb, Winn belted a change-up to center field that one-hopped the wall and allowed a stand-up double. Behind him, Burleson jumped on a first-pitch change-up from the Giants ace and hit it to the opposite field for an RBI single to open the scoring.
Following a strikeout from Paul Goldschmidt and a fly out from Nolan Gorman, St. Louis received two-out RBIs from Donovan and Carpenter.
Donovan fell behind Webb 0-2 and worked the count full. In the seventh and final pitch of their first encounter on Sunday, Donovan hit a fly ball on a 3-2 change-up from Webb down the left field line that hopped over the wall and resulted in an automatic double.
Like Donovan, Carpenter went from being in an 0-2 count to a 3-2 against Webb. With the count full, the veteran infielder singled to right field to drive in Donovan from second.
St. Louis tacked on an additional vs. Webb in the second inning on a two-out RBI single from Burleson, who drove in Pedro Pages from first base after he singled with one out in the frame.
Running wild
St. Louis base runners were 4 for 4 on stolen base attempts with Webb on the mound and Bailey behind the plate for San Francisco.
Their thievery on the basepaths included two from Burleson, one from Gorman and another from Pages, swiping the first base of his MLB career. Burleson’s two stolen bases gave him his first multi-stolen base game in the majors a day after he had his first multi-home run game in the majors.
The last time the Cardinals stole four bases in a single game came on May 20 against the Baltimore Orioles.
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dguerrerro@post-dispatch.com
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