CINCINNATI -- All Sonny Gray could do Sunday was try to encourage the reliever who followed him, and then try to bolster his own confidence. It was a poor day on the mound for the Reds' starting pitcher during his club's 10-6 loss to the Cardinals. His struggles during a seven-run top of the fourth inning proved to be decisive.

As manager David Bell emerged to take Gray out of the game with one out in the fourth inning, the right-hander lingered on the mound as reliever Edgar Garcia approached. Before the ball exchanged hands, Gray gave Garcia some words of encouragement and a fist bump, then headed for the dugout.

"I’ve gotten to know Sonny really well. Just a great teammate in every way you could ever imagine," Bell said. "He felt like we still had an opportunity to come back and win that game just like all of us. He wanted to make sure Edgar came in and had the right mindset, which he did. Sonny wanted to do his part, and he continued to stay in the dugout and do that from there. He wasn’t happy with how it went for him, but he wanted to still win that game. That’s who Sonny is."

Gray allowed a season-high eight runs on eight hits with one walk and three strikeouts over 3 1/3 innings. He is 2-6 with a 4.50 ERA in 14 starts this season.

"I asked David, 'Can I stay up here and can I give the ball to Garcia?' He said, 'Yes, you can,'" Gray said. "I stayed up there and I gave David the ball and David gave the ball to Garcia. Then I gave him a pat and told him to pick me up. It’s hard in moments where things don’t go your way. In that moment, I just felt I needed to stay out there and pass the ball.

"I put the guys into a little bit of a hole, but the fight was there and the love was there. The care was there. That goes a long way with me."

The way events turned against Gray was sudden. St. Louis took a 2-0 first-inning lead on Tyler O'Neill's two-out, two-run homer to right-center field. But the Reds answered quickly in the bottom of the first against Johan Oviedo, when Joey Votto slugged a three-run homer to right field -- his 14th of the season.

Gray had retired seven of eight heading into the fourth inning, with only a squib single in front of the plate. O'Neill opened with a walk before Paul DeJong reached first, after his ground ball up the middle was stopped by Jonathan India in a great play. India's desperate flip to Kyle Farmer for the force play was late, giving DeJong a single. Tommy Edman just missed a homer with a drive to center field that hit the wall for a two-run double.

Then Harrison Bader didn't miss when he launched Gray's first-pitch fastball to the left-field seats for a three-run homer. Andrew Knizner followed with a double, and two batters later with one out, Dylan Carlson finished Gray's day with a two-run homer to right field.

“We were kind of cruising the first couple of innings," said Reds catcher Tyler Stephenson, who was 3-for-3 with two walks. "One bad pitch and O’Neill hit the home run. They just got some hits together and the one pitch to Bader. It was kind of frustrating, just because we felt we were kind of rolling and stuff. We couldn’t really get out of it.”

Garcia gave up a two-out triple to Nolan Arenado and a wild pitch to the inning's 10th batter -- O'Neill -- for the seventh run.

In two starts since the All-Star break -- and after an injured list stint with a right rib cage strain -- Gray has allowed 13 earned runs over only eight innings after he had a 3.19 ERA in 12 first-half starts.

"It was definitely a rough outing," Gray said. "I’ve said this in the past and I’ve said this when I’ve been at my best and I still believe it now, that I go through a bit of a stretch here. I think it’s all about being the [best] version of myself. … That’s pretty much it because the best version of myself is good enough. There’s nothing you've got to chase, nothing you've got to do, [no], 'I have to this, I have to do this, I have to do this.' I've just got to get back to being the best version of Sonny Gray -- the best version of myself is good enough. I think I’m taking a step in that direction, so it’s a good feeling."

The Reds chipped away at the Cardinals' lead with a run in the sixth inning on Stephenson's RBI single, plus a two-out, two-run double by Max Schrock in the seventh. However, with the bases loaded and no outs in the eighth inning, they came up empty.

Cincinnati missed out on a three-game series sweep of St. Louis. Bell wasn't worried about Gray bouncing back.

"He’s healthy. Sonny is going to be fine," Bell said. "I can’t wait until he gets back out there for his next start. Just wasn’t one of his best days. I’m not going to make anything more of it than that."