Cards make statement in shutout win over Dodgers

ST. LOUIS -- As if the Cardinals weren’t already one of the feel-good stories in baseball with their surprising surge into contention during what was supposed to be a developmental year, they have staked their legitimacy around their success rate against baseball’s best teams.

On Friday, the Cardinals -- one of three teams in the National League with a winning record against teams with better than .500 records -- showed again that they can hold their own against MLB’s upper crust by beating the superstar-laden Dodgers at Busch Stadium.

Pedro Pagés hit a two-run home run, Brendan Donovan drove in two runs and Sonny Gray pitched 6 1/3 scoreless innings as the Cardinals beat the Dodgers, 5-0, after a 77-minute rain delay.

“At the end of the day, we don’t really care who is on the other side,” said Pagés, who capped his Statcast-measured 422-foot homer with what he called the first bat flip of his two-year MLB career. “No offense to any other team, but we just want to compete and we only care about the day we’re in. It doesn’t matter who is on the other side, we have a good team, we’re hungry and we’re just going to keep competing.”

Losers of four of their last six games coming into Friday, the Cardinals got the kind of ace performance they needed from Gray, who limited the Dodgers to eight scattered hits. Not only did Gray strike out five, but he got 16 swings and misses, including at least one with six different pitches.

“He did exactly what a No. 1 does and that was exceptional,” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said of Gray, who extended his scoreless streak to 13 1/3 innings. “He was in the moment from pitch No. 1, he was able to pitch through some traffic and he did a really nice job of making pitches when needed. He went through a stretch where he retired 10 in a row and whenever he needed to make a big pitch, he did it.”

Another strong outing by Gray (7-1) helped the Cardinals improve to 21-14 against teams with winning records. They have three more such victories than the Dodgers and five more than the NL Central-leading Cubs.

As usual, Gray leaned on his sweeper -- statistically one of baseball’s most dominant pitches -- and he got five swings and misses with that pitch. But in studying the Dodgers all week, Gray said he realized that he couldn’t fall into patterns against a lineup as potent as that of the Dodgers. Accordingly, he threw 22 sinkers, 17 cutters, 17 four-seam fastballs, 12 curveballs, 11 sweepers and 10 changeups to keep Dodgers hitters guessing. And on this night, his stuff was so good that he got the NL’s top hitter, Freddie Freeman, to strike out twice.

“There are just no breaks against them or any innings where you feel you can go out there [and breeze], especially going through the top part of that lineup,” said Gray, who admitted after the game that he sweated through three jerseys on a very humid night. “To go to that lineup on a 1-2-3 basis is fairly rare, so you know there is going to be traffic and you’re going to have to bear down and make pitches.”

Pagés’ no-doubter of a home run came in the second inning against Dodgers left-hander Justin Wrobleski. Donovan, who ranks fourth in the NL in batting average (.315), second in hits (73) and third in doubles (19), padded the lead by driving in two runs with a two-out single in the fifth inning.

Lefty reliever JoJo Romero replaced Gray in the seventh and got Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani to hit into an inning-ending double play -- a play where shortstop Masyn Winn capped the twin-killing with an 88.9 mph throw to first, per Statcast. Nolan Arenado, who had three hits, had a sliding catch in foul territory to end an earlier threat.

“Masyn did a helluva job at short tonight and not many people finish that double play, and Nolan had a great play in foul territory,” Marmol added. “The guys continue to lock in every pitch and show that they’re the best defense in baseball, and it showed tonight again.”

Phil Maton, the Cardinals’ lone offseason signee, notched strikeouts of Teoscar Hernández and Max Muncy in the eighth inning after Mookie Betts and Freeman had reached.

“I was fortunate the last two days that my sweeper has finally found its way back and has some decent shape again,” Maton said. “I was fortunate to have that to play off the curveball. I have confidence in all my pitches, and I was able to use the sweeper to finish off at-bats.”