By MATT PIKE
Willson Contreras homered and Alec Burleson’s two-run single highlighted a five-run second inning as the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Tampa Bay Rays 7-4 on Thursday night.
Trailing 1-0 going into the second, the Cardinals got run-scoring hits from Nathan Church and Lars Nootbaar before another run scored on a wild pitch and Burleson drove in two runs with a single to right field.
Burly brings home a pair of birds! pic.twitter.com/JMukvNNaBq
— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) August 22, 2025
Tampa Bay’s Yardy Diaz hit a two-run homer in the third. It was his 17th homer at Steinbrenner Field and 21st of the season overall. Ivan Herrera added an RBI single in the fourth for the Cardinals and Contreras hit his 18th homer of the season in the seventh off Bryan Baker.
WALLOPED by Willson! pic.twitter.com/oqeiwkEJox
— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) August 22, 2025
Sonny Gray earned the win, improving to 12-6 on the season, allowing three runs on six hits in five innings, with six strikeouts and a walk. Kyle Leahy, Matt Svanson and JoJo Romero, who earned his fourth save, combined to limit Tampa Bay to one run and five hits the rest of the way.
St. Louis and Tampa continue their series tomorrow. Miles Mikolas (6-9, 4.99) takes the mound for the Cardinals against Adrian Houser (6-4, 2.67 ERA) for the Rays. First pitch is at 6:35pm with coverage beginning around 6:25 on KY 102 (102.5 FM).
You can follow Matt on X @KfeqMatt.
