CLEVELAND -- Maybe it was only fitting that -- on a day when Cardinals left-hander Matthew Liberatore was dominating on the mound -- his primary source of run support came from childhood friend and teammate Nolan Gorman.
Gorman smashed his sixth home run of June -- this one a three-run clout in the first inning off lefty Logan Allen -- and Liberatore pitched six-plus scoreless innings as the Cardinals rolled to a 7-0 victory and a three-game sweep of the reeling Guardians.
“I think about it every time he’s on the mound and I’m playing in that game -- I get to go supply runs for this guy and I get to watch him dominating on the mound,” Gorman said of Liberatore, a pitcher he’s known since their Little League days back in Arizona. “I’ve been watching that for a really long time, and it’s really cool to still see it at the highest level.”
The Cardinals, who have a one-game lead over the Padres for the third Wild Card spot in the National League, also got a two-run homer from Victor Scott II and Nolan Arenado’s 1,900th career hit and 400th double on a two-hit day. They won for the 10th time in 13 games to surge to a season-best nine games over .500. The sweep was their fifth of the season and first over Cleveland. Additionally, a Cardinals team three games into a nine-game road trip won away from home for a sixth straight time -- its longest road spree since 2021.
“It’s unbelievable how we’re playing,” said Arenado, who joined Paul Goldschmidt, Freddie Freeman, Jose Altuve, Andrew McCutchen and Manny Machado as the six active players with at least 1,900 hits. “I always knew we were going to play good defense, and I thought our pitching would be fine. But offensively we’re just finding a way to scrap, and it’s been fun to be a part of. We just never feel like we’re out of it, and that’s a great feeling.”
Gorman and Liberatore said the great feelings they experience of reaching baseball’s summit together never get old.
Gorman, a native of Scottsdale, Ariz., grew up playing youth baseball on many of the same teams with Liberatore, a Glendale, Ariz., native, and they competed against one another at rival high schools. Liberatore was selected by the Rays as the No. 16 pick of the 2018 MLB Draft, while Gorman was taken three picks later. They were reunited in January of 2020 when Liberatore was traded from Tampa Bay to the Cardinals. Also, their MLB debuts came one day apart in May of 2022, with Gorman reaching the big leagues a day before his buddy.
The statistical odds of that happening are astronomical, Liberatore figured, and even four years later he is still awed that he is on this journey with his friend.
“Sometimes it’s a little overlooked on our part because we’re trying to win ballgames and we’re playing every day,” Liberatore admitted. “But when you take a step back and see what’s happening and in today’s game -- with him starting us off with the left-on-left home run -- it’s pretty surreal that we’re doing this at the highest level.”
Gorman, who was out of the lineup early in the season following a hamstring strain, has been a key player during the Cards’ stirring run of late. Iván Herrera’s hamstring injury created opportunities at DH for Gorman, who has used this month to jump-start his season. He is hitting .267 with six home runs and 16 RBIs in June -- by far his best month.
“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t proud, but I think it’s because I’ve done a good job on the mental side keeping myself in check and still investing in the work I put in in the offseason and at the beginning of the year when I wasn’t playing much,” Gorman said. “So I’ve done a good job with that. … That’s a credit to everybody that surrounds me in [the clubhouse] or off the field.”
Liberatore needed 26 pitches to get through the first inning, but he ultimately worked out of a bases-loaded jam. After breezing through the second, third and fourth, Liberatore allowed two to reach in the fifth before getting Steven Kwan to pop up and then striking David Fry out. Liberatore allowed just three hits and struck out five.
Liberatore said he felt the momentum from Sonny Gray’s one-hit, 11-strikeout performance on Friday and carried it into Sunday’s start.
“Sonny’s outing was the best I’ve seen in my life -- in person or on TV -- so there were a zillion things to learn from that,” Liberatore said. “There are things he did that I try to implement into my game. It shows what can happen when you attack guys.”