Sonny Gray tried to step in and play the role of stopper and put a halt to the Cardinals’ losing slide, but even he couldn’t stem the tide against the National League Central Division-leading Milwaukee Brewers on Sunday afternoon.
Gray, a right-hander, gave a yeoman’s effort, including six scoreless innings to start his outing, but the two runs he allowed in the seventh were enough to keep the sputtering Cardinals offense at bay. The Cardinals were shut out for the second time this season in a 2-0 loss to the Brewers in front of an announced crowd of 40,715 at Busch Stadium.
The Brewers, who entered the day with the best road winning percentage in the majors (.818), swept the series and improved to 10-2 in road games. Meanwhile, the Cardinals (9-12) lost their seventh consecutive series finale.
A batting order shakeup did little to jolt a Cardinals lineup that came into the day scoring an average of 3.62 runs per game. They collected six hits and left 10 men on base. The lone extra-base hit, a double, came courtesy of Masyn Winn in the second inning.
Gray (2-1) allowed two runs on five hits and one walk. He struck out 12 in 6⅓ innings and took his first loss of the season.
Contreras brothers double up
The Cardinals moved catcher Willson Contreras up to the No. 2 hole in the batting order for Sunday’s game. First baseman Paul Goldschmidt dropped to the No. 5 spot in the lineup for the first time this season. He hadn’t batted anywhere other than the No. 2 spot this season.
With that change to the Cardinals lineup, that meant Willson Contreras batted second and started at catcher opposite his younger brother William Contreras, who started at catcher and batted second for the Brewers.
William Contreras, a 2022 NL All-Star and a 2023 Silver Slugger Award winner, entered the day among the top five in the majors in batting average (.372, first), on-base percentage (.444, third), RBIs (20, third), hits (29, fifth) and runs (18, fifth).
Through the first two games of the series, he went 5 for 11 with three RBIs against the Cardinals. His 10 multihit games at the start of the day tied him with the Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani for the MLB lead. William Contreras also had a 12-game hitting streak earlier this season.
Willson Contreras, a three-time All-Star and 2016 World Series champion, came into the day batting .309 and leading the Cardinals in on-base percentage (.441) and slugging percentage (.527). He also carried the longest active hitting streak in the majors into the game.
He extended that streak with a first-inning line-drive single into center field. He’s now hit in a career-best 14 consecutive games, and he’s reached base in 26 straight games dating back to September of last year.
Inches away from big inning
The Cardinals were positioned to get on the board and put Brewers starting pitcher Colin Rea on his heels early. The first two batters of the game for the Cardinals, Brendan Donovan and Willson Contreras, singled to give the Cardinals offense a solid foundation.
Donovan’s bunt single that rolled all the way until it hit the third base bag, was the first by a Cardinals leadoff hitter to start a game since Lars Nootbaar on May 6, 2023, against the Detroit Tigers. It also marked just the third bunt hit to lead off a game for any team in the majors in 2024.
After Contreras' single, Nootbaar jumped on a 2-0 fastball over the inner half of the plate and belted it 406 feet to center field. The problem for Nootbaar and the Cardinals was that Brewers center fielder Blake Perkins made a tremendous play by getting to the wall and reaching over the fence to steal what would’ve been a three-run home run from Nootbaar.
With runners on second and third, both tagged up and advanced on Nootbaar’s deep drive, Nolan Arenado walked, Goldschmidt hit a shallow fly ball to right field and Alec Burleson hit the ball 106.3 mph but hit it on the ground at the second baseman for an inning-ending force-out.
Brewers finally get to Gray
The Brewers scored their only two runs against Gray in the seventh inning.
Gray started the frame by recording his 12th strikeout of the day after he got a called third strike on a full count to Brewers cleanup hitter Rhys Hoskins.
Back-to-back singles by Perkins and Brice Turang prompted a mound visit from Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol. However, Marmol allowed Gray to stay in the game with runners on first and third.
Turang stole second base to put two men in scoring position, and Brewers first baseman Owen Miller singled to left field to drive in both men. Marmol then turned to left-handed reliever JoJo Romero and ended Gray’s outing.
The saga continued
After they stranded the bases loaded in the first inning, they left two men on base in the second after Winn’s leadoff double and a one-out walk by Michael Siani. However, Donovan got called out on strikes, and Contreras grounded out to shortstop to end that threat.
Through the first five innings, the Cardinals left seven men on base and went 0 for 7 with runners in scoring position. They finished the day having gone 0 for 9 with runners in scoring position.
The Cardinals fell 6-5 in extra innings against the Chicago White Sox on Saturday.
St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Sonny Gray (54) leaves the field in the seventh inning after the Milwaukee Brewers score two runs off of Milwaukee Brewers Owen Miller's (6) single during the seventh inning of a game Sunday, April 21, 2024, at Busch Stadium in St. Louis. Photo by Christine Tannous, ctannous@post-dispatch.com