Central STL News

Sonny Gray, starting pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals, struggled to contain home runs in Monday’s 11-3 loss to the Oakland Athletics at Busch Stadium. Gray allowed three home runs during the game, increasing his total to 13 homers given up since the All-Star break and bringing his season tally to a career-high 23.

Gray began the game wearing a red long-sleeved shirt under his jersey but removed it after a challenging first inning that saw him throw 20 pitches and allow a hit and two walks. Despite changing his attire, Gray continued to face difficulties keeping opposing hitters from hitting home runs.

“This is one of those [starts] that hurts more than normal because I felt really good and my stuff was coming out good,” said Gray, who finished with seven earned runs on 10 hits over six-plus innings, raising his ERA to 4.43. “But I felt good. This is one of those that leaves you -- not baffled because you know what happened -- but frustrated because you did feel like you had decent stuff and couldn’t do anything with it.”

Despite recent struggles with home runs, Gray had performed well in August outside of an uncharacteristic six-run outing against the Yankees on August 16. In four other starts during the month, he posted a 2.08 ERA.

St. Louis has seen better results when Gray starts compared to other games this season; they are 19-9 in games started by him but just 49-62 otherwise.

Gray’s issues have not been limited to one pitch type. According to Baseball Savant data, he has allowed home runs across multiple pitches: five each on his four-seam fastball and sweeper, seven on his sinker, three on curveballs, two on changeups, and one on a cutter.

The game marked the sixth time this season—and fourth since the All-Star break—that Gray has surrendered multiple home runs in a single outing.

“Stay out of the middle of the plate, and I definitely didn’t do that, and I definitely stayed across the middle early in counts and they didn’t miss,” said Gray. “So, stay out of the middle of the plate and mix your [sequences]. I mixed my hands just fine, but maybe too many strikes in the middle of the plate early.”

Gray managed to escape trouble in a scoreless first inning by retiring Colby Thomas with two runners aboard. He pitched three scoreless innings before giving up back-to-back homers in the fourth—first to JJ Bleday off a curveball for a two-run shot followed by Zack Gelof’s solo homer off a four-seam fastball.

After another scoreless frame in the fifth inning, Gray ran into more trouble during an abbreviated seventh inning as Bleday hit another first-pitch homer—this time measuring 428 feet according to Statcast—which was Bleday’s longest homer of the season.

Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol commented on both Gray’s performance and team pitching approach: “You look at not just Sonny, but our staff in general, and we don’t have a ton of swing and miss in zone,” Marmol said. “You’re facing a team that is the most aggressive team as far as swing rate [on] 0-0 [counts] and they’ve got some guys with some pretty good power.

“Not letting Sonny get to two strikes is a good game plan, and these guys did exactly that. [Gray] got ahead of 27 out of 30 [batters] and usually that’s a good thing, but this team did a nice job of making him pay for it.”