José Berríos pitched seven strong innings to earn his seventh straight win. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit his 500th career run batted in and scored twice, helping the Toronto Blue Jays defeat the St. Louis Cardinals 7-2 on Saturday.
Guerrero went 1 for 3 with a walk, keeping his batting average at .320, which is the third-highest in the American League.
“This year he’s separated himself and been on a different level offensively,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said about Guerrero. “He’s a really good hitter who understands how to drive in runs.”
At 25 years old, Guerrero is the youngest player in Blue Jays history to reach 500 RBIs. He achieved this milestone in 806 games.
Davis Schneider went 3 for 4 with a home run and drove in two runs as Toronto won their second consecutive game.
Addison Barger had two hits and an RBI, and Alejandro Kirk drove in two runs as the Blue Jays gave the Cardinals their first series loss to an AL East team in over two years.
St. Louis lost for the fifth time in eight games and fell to a .500 record of 74-74. The Cardinals started the day seven games behind for the third NL wild card spot.
“I’m not really looking at the standings,” Cardinals third baseman Nolan Arenado said. “I’m not too worried about it. Just try to take care of business and we’ll see where we end up. Obviously we’ve dug ourselves a hole and we need teams to play badly for us to get to where we want to go.”
Berríos (16-9) gave up one run and two hits, walked two, and struck out four. He is 3-0 in five career starts against St. Louis.
“Offensively, we just didn’t string anything together all day,” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said. “Berríos did a nice job against us.”
Arenado praised Berríos for making at least 30 starts in each of the past six full seasons, excluding 2020.
“He doesn’t get a whole lot of credit around the game for how consistent he really is, just posting and putting innings up,” Arenado said. “He’s probably one of the more consistent pitchers in the game that people don’t talk about. His ball moves a lot.”
Roy Halladay set a Toronto record with 11 straight wins in 2003. Ryan Burr pitched in the eighth inning, and Luis Frías finished the game for Toronto.
Jordan Walker hit a solo home run, his third of the season, for the Cardinals. St. Louis had been 9-4 against AL East teams before this game. Their last series loss to an AL East team was when they lost two of three games at Boston in June 2022.
Arenado stayed in the game after an insect stung his left pinkie while he was fielding in the eighth inning.
“A bee flew near my ear, I wiped it with my glove,” Arenado said. “I thought it was gone, I put my glove on and got stung. It got stuck in my glove and it stung me on my pinkie. When I pulled my hand out after it stung me, the stinger was on my finger.”
Arenado had some mild swelling but said he expected to be available for Sunday’s game.
Walker started the scoring with a two-out homer in the third inning, but Schneider tied it with a home run off Cardinals right-hander Kyle Gibson in the bottom of the third, his 11th of the season and first since June 22.
Toronto took the lead with a four-run sixth inning. The Blue Jays loaded the bases with a single and two walks. Gibson left the game after Masyn Winn’s throwing error on Ernie Clement’s grounder let the go-ahead run score.
Ryan Fernandez came in and gave up Kirk’s RBI groundout, along with run-scoring singles by Barger and Schneider.
Gibson (8-7) gave up five runs—one earned—and four hits in 5 1/3 innings. He walked three and struck out one.
“It’s unfortunate how the outing ended,” Gibson said. “I felt pretty good, just wish I could have avoided those two walks there in the sixth.”
