Masyn Winn and Brendan Donovan hit home runs to lead the St. Louis Cardinals to a 6-1 win over the Cincinnati Reds on Thursday.
Cardinals pitcher Sonny Gray (13-9) was flawless through five innings until Jake Fraley hit a single to start the sixth. Gray ended his outing allowing just one run on two hits and two walks, while striking out nine batters in six innings.
“From the very beginning of that game, he was locked in,” said Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol. “All his stuff was working. The cutter was good. His breaking stuff was good.
That sinker, he used it off the plate, but he also was able to get some strikes on the outer half to the righty. When he’s able to do all of that, it’s a tough at bat.”
Andrew Kittredge pitched 1 2/3 innings of scoreless relief before JoJo Romero got the final four outs for his first save of the season.
Thomas Saggese got his first major league hit in the sixth inning and later drove in Lars Nootbaar for his first career RBI in the eighth inning.
“It felt amazing,” said Saggese about his first major league achievements. “I was starting to feel a little pressure to get one, but it was really nice to get it out of the way.”
Donovan hit a two-run homer to right field as a pinch hitter for Jordan Walker in the seventh inning, increasing the Cardinals’ lead to 4-1. It was his first career pinch-hit home run and a career-high 12th home run of the season.
Winn scored on Nootbaar’s sacrifice fly off Carson Spiers (5-6) in the sixth inning to give the Cardinals a 2-1 lead.
Jonathan India tied the game 1-1 with an RBI single to left field in the sixth inning.
“Sonny was really good early,” Reds manager David Bell said. “We created the opportunity early there in the inning, and we weren’t able to come up with the big hit. Sonny did a good job of limiting the damage and pitching out of it.”
