By MATT PIKE
It was just one series ago the St. Louis Cardinals swept the Cleveland Guardians in a three game series, outscoring the Guardians 21-6.
But, in a series in Pittsburgh against their NL Central foes the Pirates, the Cardinals offense went ice cold, not scoring a single run over three games and falling in their series finale on Wednesday afternoon 5-0 at PNC Park as the Pirates outscored the Redbirds 13-0 over the three games.
Sonny Gray could not follow up his brilliant one hit complete game shutout performance where he struckout 11 Guardians against the Pirates, giving up a run in the second inning as former Cardinal Tommy Pham singled to drive in Oneil Cruz who doubled to lead off the inning and had stolen third base for his 28th stolen base of the year.
Gray seemed to settle in after the run however, retiring the next 14 batters, until the seventh inning when he walked Nick Gonzales, who later scored on a single again by Pham, driving in his second RBI of the day, and advancing Ke’Bryan Hayes to second base. Riley O’Brien replaced Gray on the mound and forced Henry Davis into a groundout that moved both Pham and Hayes another 90 feet, setting up two runners in scoring positon for Isiah Kiner-Falefa who singled to drive both in. Then on a single by Spencer Horwitz, Kiner-Falefa, who had advanced to second base on a wild pitch, came home to score the final run.
Gray took the loss, falling to 8-3 on the year, pitching 6 1/3 innings and giving up four runs on five hits while striking out six and walking one. At the plate, Alec Burleson was 1-for-2 with two walks for the Cardinals. Five other Redbirds had one hit each.
St. Louis is off tomorrow and travel to Chicago on the Fourth of July. Miles Mikolas (4-5, 4.76 ERA) will take the mound for the Cardinals in the Independence Day matchup while the Cubs starter is listed as TBD. First pitch is at 1:20pm, coverage will be joined near the start at 1:10 on KY 102 (102.5 FM).
You can follow Matt on X @KfeqMatt.
