Usually Cards' stopper, Gray sees start unravel in big inning

MILWAUKEE -- Sonny Gray came into Thursday night’s series-opener against the rival Brewers riding one of the best streaks of his Cardinals career, and through four innings he had surrendered just three hits and one run.

However, Gray knew something that no one else at American Family Field did at that point in the night.

“Even in the first four [innings], I didn’t feel great, and I felt like I was just getting by,” admitted Gray, who entered the night riding a 13-inning scoreless streak. “Then, the fifth [inning] happened.”

What happened was very out of the ordinary for the Cardinals’ ace, who had shut out the World Series champion Dodgers over 6 1/3 innings just six days earlier. Gray allowed the first six Milwaukee batters of the fifth inning to reach -- on three singles, one walk, one double and one homer -- leading to the Cards’ 6-0 loss to the Brewers.

St. Louis’ stopper, who spoke recently about the pride he takes in being able to end losing streaks, couldn’t prevent the Cardinals’ fifth straight loss -- one that knocked them into third in the National League Central division behind the Brewers.

“I don’t know, I don’t know … it wasn’t good, I wasn’t good, we weren’t good and we’re not playing good,” said Gray, who surrendered eight hits, one walk and six runs in 4 1/3 innings. “Just nothing good.”

It was a bad night for the Cardinals’ ace to not have his best stuff considering that Brewers rookie Jacob Misiorowski hung up zero after zero in his MLB debut. The Grain Valley, Mo., product got 13 swings and misses and used 41 four-seam fastballs that topped out at 102.2 mph and averaged 99.1 mph.

Misiorowski, who admitted before the game that he found it amusing that he would be facing a Cardinals organization he grew up watching as a child in his first MLB start, didn’t yield a hit over five-plus innings but had to leave the game with cramping in his right calf and quad muscles. He also appeared to have injured his right ankle after his third pitch of the sixth inning as he walked backward up the mound.

“I remember being in a combine with [Misiorowski] back in 2022, and I got to see him throw a bullpen and I thought it was a good fastball then. And it was a really good fastball today,” said Cardinals center fielder Victor Scott II, who came out unscathed even though Brewers reliever Aaron Ashby drilled him in the helmet behind his right ear in the eighth inning. “[Misiorowski] went out there and just competed. I thought he did a good job. He gets down the mound pretty good. And of course, he’s a tall, whippy guy, so it gets there on you quickly.”

Added Cardinals catcher Pedro Pagés, who grounded into a double play in the third inning after Nolan Gorman led off with a walk: “He’s got good stuff, and everybody knows that. I think next time we see him, maybe we’ll have a better approach against him. But he has a very good fastball that plays up, and with that [slider], you can’t really pick up the spin on it. He has good stuff, and it was a happy day for him.”

It was anything but happy for Gray, who came into the game 3-0 over his previous four starts.

Gray seemed sharp in the early going, retiring the Brewers on just 10 pitches in the first inning. In the second inning, he set down the first two hitters and appeared to have Isaac Collins struck out twice with balls that clipped the top of the strike zone, but he didn’t get either call. Collins ultimately tripled on the eighth pitch of the at-bat, and he scored on Brice Turang’s infield single.

Gray set down the Brewers in order in the third and the fourth, but he wouldn’t retire another batter as he allowed the first six to reach to start the fifth inning. After Collins walked and was picked off, Turang and Caleb Durbin racked up hits, Joey Ortiz tallied an RBI double and Sal Frelick plated two runs with an opposite-field single. Clearly on the verge of being knocked out of the game, Gray hung a sweeper right down the middle to Brewers star Jackson Chourio, who blasted it a Statcast-projected 410 feet to straightaway center for a two-run homer.

“I just didn’t feel right and didn’t feel comfortable,” said Gray, who has yet to beat the Brewers as a member of the Cardinals and saw his ERA swell to 3.64 in 99 career innings against Milwaukee. “Like I said, I felt like I was just getting by, and then it unraveled on me.”