Gray's day spoiled by rocky 5th, Cards' continued plate struggles

ST. LOUIS -- Approaching 90 pitches for the game and 30 pitches in Sunday’s fifth inning alone, Cardinals right-hander Sonny Gray wiped his brow, tugged at the sleeve of his jersey and then threw not one, but two balls out of play within a two-pitch sequence to buy himself some extra time.

What came next -- an RBI single by Dodgers shortstop Miguel Rojas on a spinning sweeper pitch -- ultimately ruined the day that Gray considered to be a step in the right direction for him.

With St. Louis' offense becoming increasingly unable to generate much by way of long balls or extra-base hits on a consistent basis, Gray’s fifth-inning hiccup proved to be the difference between victory and defeat for the Cardinals. Ultimately, St. Louis lost, 2-1, to the Dodgers, lost the series and lost even more ground to NL Central-leader Milwaukee, who comes to Busch Stadium to begin a three-game series on Tuesday.

A fifth loss in the past six games -- this one largely the result of the Cardinals generating just one extra-base hit and not registering one knock with runners in scoring position -- left them searching for explanations of a season that continues to slip away from them.

“If we had the answer, we’d have been doing it the last 100-something games,” said Paul Goldschmidt, who had one of St. Louis' five singles. “We’ll continue to work and hit the ball hard. That’s what we’ve been trying to do, but we haven’t done it enough -- primarily, probably more than anyone else, myself. We just have to keep working and try to play better over this last stretch.”

What rallies the Cardinals' offense did generate on Sunday were usually short-lived. Lars Nootbaar, who has recently been moved into a platoon role with second-year outfielder Jordan Walker, smacked the second pinch-hit homer of his career in the eighth inning. But the scoring ended there. The Cardinals grounded into three double plays, including one by veteran third baseman Nolan Arenado to end the game.

“We didn’t drive the baseball and didn’t have extra-base hits,” manager Oliver Marmol said. “At the end of the day, this is just going to come down to if we hit enough. If we drive the baseball, if we slug, if we situationally hit and execute with runners in scoring position once we create those scoring opportunities. Today, we weren’t able to do that.”

The Cardinals have six games remaining with the division-rival Brewers and four against the Padres -- one of several teams they are chasing for one of the final Wild Card spots -- but their odds of returning to the playoffs for the first time since 2022 continue to shrink as the losses pile up. The Cardinals fell a season-worst 11 games back of the Brewers in the NL Central, and five games back in the chase for a Wild Card spot.

Generating offense -- something they were unable to do on Sunday versus Clayton Kershaw and have struggled to do all season against left-handed pitchers, who had held them to a .657 OPS this year prior to the set finale -- could be the key to any hopes for a revival.

“Slugging is a huge part of the game, and especially facing [Kershaw], slugging is going to be important because stringing a lot of hits together is tough,” Nootbaar said. “We have to trust that guys will put good at-bats together and it will turn.”

Sunday’s game turned for Gray in the fifth inning. He kept the Dodgers off the scoreboard for the game’s first four frames, but he struggled mightily in a 32-pitch fifth. Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani jumped on a first-pitch curveball and drilled a homer that left the bat at 113.5 mph, per Statcast.

Then, following a walk to Mookie Betts and a long at-bat by Gavin Lux that ended in a single, Gray struck out Teoscar Hernández on a 3-2 count. But he seemed agitated and exhausted during the Rojas at-bat and twice threw balls out of play. What followed was the single that made it 2-0 and prompted a visit from pitching coach Dusty Blake to try to cool off an upset Gray.

“The at-bat with Lux -- where you could sum up our day as a team -- where he battles and he battled a lot of really good pitches and it was a super-weak-hit ball and [Goldschmidt] misses by this much and [Brendan Donovan] misses by that much,” Gray lamented.

Gray knows the Cardinals need their luck -- and their execution -- to improve if they are going to make the playoffs.

“We have to go on a run, plain and simple,” Gray said. “It feels like we need one of those eight-game win streaks or something like that. Maybe it’s coming.”