By MATT PIKE
The St. Louis Cardinals bounced back from a performance on Friday where they managed just one run and five hits against the Texas Rangers, getting a 2-0 shutout win on Saturday afternoon at Globe Life Field.
Prior to the game, The Cardinals placed Jordan Walker on the 10-day injured list with left wrist inflammation, retroactive to Thursday. Walker had found his offensive stroke of late, batting .300 in his last 14 games played with a .792 OPS and 11 RBIs. In a corresponding move, the Cardinals selected outfielder Ryan Vilade from Triple-A Memphis. Vilade, was expected to arrive in the middle of Saturday’s game, was batting .280 with five home runs and 31 RBIs at Memphis. Vilade played in the big leagues in 2021 with Colorado and in 2024 with Detroit.
The Cardinals made a couple of pitching moves before Saturday’s game as well, optioning righty Gordon Graceffo to Memphis and recalling right-hander Roddery Muñoz. Marmol said Graceffo will remain in a relief role at Memphis with the idea of him being a multi-inning weapon out of the bullpen.
The Cardinals started their scoring in the second inning. Willson Contreras walked to open the inning and advanced to second on a wild pitch, before moving to third on a ground out by Iván Herrera. A sacrifice fly by Nolan Arenado drove in Contreras for the score. In the fourth inning, St. Louis scored their second run as Masyn Winn doubled, and was driven in on a ground rule double by Contreras.
Sonny Gray improved to 6-1 on the season with an ace-worthy, seven inning, shutout performance. He retired nine straight at one point, including striking out the side in the third inning. In the fifth, Gray found himself in a jam as the Rangers had two baserunners reach, but he ended that threat by getting Kyle Higashioka to fly out to center. Gray faced traffic again in the seventh, giving up a one-out single to Alejandro Osuna, but he finished his outing by striking out Jake Burger and getting Sam Haggerty to ground out. The strikeout of Burger was the 1,800th for Gray, who is one of just 10 active players to reach that mark.
Phil Maton pitched the eighth inning, walking one, but giving up no hits, before Ryan Helsley came on for the ninth, also giving up no hits and striking out two for his 13th save. At the plate, Winn led the way going 2-for-4 with a run scored.
St. Louis and Texas wrap up their series tomorrow. Erick Fedde (3-4, 3.90 ERA) takes the mound for the Cardinals in the finale against Jacob deGrom (4-2, 2.42 ERA) for the Rangers. First pitch is at 12:05pm with pregame being joined at 11:55 on KY 102 (102.5 FM).
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