CLEVELAND -- Before he threw his first pitch of the game on Friday, Cardinals right-hander Sonny Gray stood behind the rubber and glanced to the Guardians’ dugout and locked eyes with manager Stephen Vogt, a former batterymate in Triple-A, the other half of their All-Star duo in the big leagues and one of Gray’s closest family friends in baseball.
Gray nodded, and Vogt knowingly nodded back. Then, Gray went out and authored the kind of jaw-droppingly dominant performance that Vogt had seen 10 years earlier at Cleveland’s Progressive Field when they were still teammates.
Over the next nine innings of Friday’s game, Gray was perfect for 4 2/3 frames, he allowed just one fifth-inning single and racked up a season-high 11 strikeouts while needing just 89 pitches in a complete-game 5-0 victory over Vogt’s Guardians.
When Gray’s finest performance in a Cardinals uniform was complete -- known throughout baseball as a “Maddux” because of his efficiency and dominance -- the right-hander with the commanding stuff couldn’t help but shake his head because of the full-circle nature of the night with his close friend nearby.
“I threw my warmup pitches before the first inning and [Steven] Kwan was getting into the box, and I had some time and I looked up to where I know [Vogt] stands and he was kind of looking at me and I was looking at him and we kind of stared at each other for a second,” recalled Gray, who proceeded to tell stories of he and Vogt’s children growing up together years earlier. “I gave him a little head nod, because I respect him.
“It’s kind of crazy how this game does that sometimes. In 2015 -- it’s been 10 years since I’ve thrown a complete game and it was to Stephen Vogt. It was the last day before the All-Star break, Vogt hit a homer and after that game we got in a sprinter van and drove over to Cincinnati to the All-Star Game together.”
The only thing more impressive than Gray’s dominance on Friday was the efficiency with which he pitched. Three times, he tore through the Guardians order with single-digit pitch totals for an inning. The third inning, when he threw one of the two three-ball counts all night, was his longest with 12 pitches. When his third double-digit strikeout night -- and the 20th such performance of his career -- was complete, Gray had ground up and spat out Cleveland in a tidy two hours and 11 minutes.
“That was as good a performance as I’ve ever played defense behind in my career,” raved 10-time Gold Glover Nolan Arenado, who had two RBI hits, including a double in the sixth inning. “It felt like we were running out there and then running back in [to the dugout] again.
“The way he located everything and commanded the zone, that was a masterclass of pitching.”
Gray, whose last complete game came on Aug. 7, 2015, was perfect for 4 2/3 before surrendering the first baserunner. Nolan Jones hit a 1-2 sweeper 110.1 mph, per Statcast, between first baseman Willson Contreras and second baseman Brendan Donovan for a clean single. Gray (8-2) struck out four hitters in a row at one point and had multiple strikeouts in three innings. As much as the 35-year-old Gray would have liked the no-hitter, he said he couldn’t be upset about the pitch he threw to Jones, because it, too, was a well-located sweeper.
“I knew the innings were moving along and I did know I was perfect through [4 2/3 innings], and I made a good pitch there when the guy got the hit and I was fine with that,” Gray said. “The innings were going and going and I was trying to not think about it. At one point, I got mixed up and I didn’t know if I was through five or six. I was like, ‘Whatever, it doesn’t matter; Just go out there and go throw.’ I did know when I went out for the ninth and that felt like just another inning, which was nice.”
No one was more familiar with the no-hit potential of Gray than Vogt, the catcher who has caught him the most in MLB -- 45 games and 272 1/3 innings. Gray’s stuff was so good on Friday that he got 16 swings and misses -- 10 with his sweeper.
"Whatever he wanted. He had everything working -- his command, where he was putting every pitch,” Vogt raved. “He was on the corners, at the top and underneath. Six different pitches, placing them exactly where he wanted. That was an unbelievable performance by Sonny."
Asked if he had ever seen Gray that dominant before, Vogt recalled the same memory as his friend.
“Here in Cleveland, in 2015. Two-hit shutout,” Vogt said, recalling the game they worked together a decade earlier.