Sonny Gray pitched for five innings in his first game for the St. Louis Cardinals, helping them win 3-0 against the Philadelphia Phillies on Tuesday night.
Gray, with a record of 1-0, gave up five hits, struck out five batters, and didn’t walk any. The 34-year-old right-hander threw 43 of his 64 pitches accurately.
Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol praised Gray’s performance, saying, “What he did today was pretty incredible… To go out and control his emotions and not try to do too much, he was under control the whole time and landed six pitches for strikes. That was pretty dominant.”
Gray, who signed a $75 million, three-year contract with St. Louis in free agency, missed the start of the season due to a right hamstring injury in a spring training game against Washington on March 4.
After Gray left the game, Matthew Liberatore, Andrew Kittredge, and JoJo Romero pitched for three innings before Ryan Helsley secured the ninth inning for his fourth save in five chances this season.
Philadelphia’s Zack Wheeler (0-2) gave up three runs and six hits in seven innings. He struck out five batters and walked one.
Nolan Gorman’s third homer of the season in the fourth inning put St. Louis in the lead. The Cardinals added two more runs in the fifth inning, with rookie Victor Scott II hitting a sacrifice fly and Brendan Donovan driving in Masyn Winn with a groundout.
Philadelphia had a chance to score in the seventh inning, but Romero managed to strike out Whit Merrifield and Kyle Schwarber with the bases loaded, ending the threat.
