Sonny Gray and four St. Louis Cardinals relievers combined to record 13 strikeouts and blank the visiting Philadelphia Phillies 3-0 on Tuesday.
Gray (1-0) made his Cardinals debut after recovering from a hamstring muscle tear during spring training. Working with a 65-pitch limit, he allowed five hits while striking out five batters with no walks.
Matthew Liberatore, Andrew Kittredge, JoJo Romero and Ryan Helsley combined to finish off the shutout. Helsley earned his fourth save.
Phillies starter Zack Wheeler (0-2) allowed three runs on six hits over seven innings. He struck out five and walked one.
Philadelphia catcher JT Realmuto exited the game in the seventh inning after a wild pitch hit him in the neck/jaw area underneath his mask.
The Cardinals’ Nolan Gorman hit a one-out single in the second inning and Alec Burleson delivered a two-out single, but Wheeler struck out Masyn Winn to strand the runners.
The Phillies’ Brandon Marsh hit a one-out single in the third inning and advanced on a bunt. Gray stranded him by retiring Kyle Schwarber on a fly out.
Philadelphia’s Trea Turner led off the fourth inning with a single and stole second base with one out. Gray then struck out Realmuto and retired Alec Bohm on a groundout.
Gorman put the Cardinals up 1-0 with his fourth-inning home run.
Gray capped his performance by escaping a fifth-inning jam. Nick Castellanos and Marsh hit one-out singles, but Johan Rojas grounded into a double play.
The Cardinals made it 3-0 in the bottom of the inning. Burleson hit a leadoff single, took third on Winn’s double and scored on Victor Scott II’s sacrifice fly. Brendan Donovan followed with a groundout that scored Winn.
Liberatore walked Schwarber and Turner to start the sixth inning as the Phillies had another scoring chance, but Harper grounded into a double play. Kittredge came on to strike out Realmuto.
Bryson Stott and Castellanos reached on one-out infield singles for the Phillies in the seventh inning. Romero walked Marsh to load the bases, then struck out Whit Merrifield and Schwarber.
–Field Level Media
