After Sonny Gray allows three homers, Athletics add on to sink Cardinals in 11-3 loss

Daniel Guerrero, St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Sep 1, 2025

Published in Baseball

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ST. LOUIS — Having had trouble limiting home runs during the second half of the season, Cardinals starter Sonny Gray couldn’t keep the Athletics grounded Monday at Busch Stadium.

Through six-plus innings, Gray gave up three homers and allowed a total of 10 hits as the Athletics pushed across seven runs vs. the right-hander. Gray departed with no outs in the seventh inning after walking a batter and allowing a single and an RBI double. He allowed a two-run homer in the third inning, gave up a solo homer in the at-bat that followed and surrendered a third home run two innings later in the Cardinals’ 11-3 loss to the Athletics.

In nine starts since the All-Star break, Gray has allowed 13 home runs. He’s allowed multiple homers in three of those nine starts. The seven runs allowed Monday raised Gray’s ERA to 4.43 over 28 starts this season.

While Gray had trouble limiting the Athletics, the Cardinals (68-71) were held to two runs and five hits against Athletics starter Luis Morales, who totaled 5 2/3 innings. The first of the two runs the Cardinals pushed across vs. Morales came on a solo home run by Ivan Herrera in the third inning.

The Cardinals pushed across another run against Morales in the sixth inning on a single from Masyn Winn that scored Lars Nootbaar from third base. Batting from the leadoff spot, Nootbaar was responsible for three of the Cardinals’ eight hits in the series-opening loss. Brought in off the bench in the ninth inning, Jose Fermin collected an RBI on a live drive to left field that plated Thomas Saggese.

Early swings cloud Gray's day

Having kept the Athletics scoreless through the first three innings after escaping a bases-loaded situation to end the first inning, a curveball Gray left over the middle of the strike zone to JJ Bleday was lifted to right field to open the scoring Monday. In the at-bat that followed, Zack Gelof's fly ball landed in the Cardinals bullpen in right-center field to add to it.

The pair of homers lifted the Athletics to a 3-0 lead. They came on a combined three pitches.

Against Bleday, Gray hung an 0-0 curveball over the middle of the plate that Bleday sent 381 feet. After Gelof caught a piece of Gray’s cutter for a foul tip to begin his at-bat, the Athletics second baseman jumped on a fastball Gray placed on the outer half of the plate.

When Bleday stepped up to bat in the sixth inning against Gray, the left-handed-hitting outfielder pulled an 0-0 fastball Gray threw on the inner half of the plate 428 feet to right field for his second homer of the afternoon.

K's keep coming

After striking out a combined 15 times Sunday in Cincinnati and 12 times Saturday, the Cardinals’ strikeout total reached double-digits for a third consecutive game as they went down with a strikeout 12 times vs. the Athletics.

Morales, who got a called strike or whiff on 12 of the 23 sweepers he threw, collected eight strikeouts on 91 pitches before he was removed from his start with two outs in the sixth inning. From the Athletics’ bullpen, Justin Sterner collected one strikeout in 1 1/3 innings, and Scott McGough struck out the side in order to complete the eighth inning.

Strikeouts by Saggese and Pedro Pages ended the second inning, and a whiff by Jordan Walker on a slider Morales located at the top of the strike zone made Walker the third consecutive batter Morales fanned between the second and third innings. Morales collected another two strikeouts to end the fourth frame when he froze Gorman on a 98.9 mph fastball placed on the outer half of the plate and when he got Winn to chase on a slider thrown low and away.

When the Cardinals faced McGough in the eighth inning, the righty got Willson Contreras to swing and miss on a 91.7 mph fastball placed at the top of the zone, then got Gorman and rookie Cesar Prieto to chase and whiff on change-ups thrown below the strike zone.

Herrera serves up homer

After the Cardinals fell into a 3-0 deficit on the homers by Bleday and Gelof, Herrera produced a home run swing of his own to get the Cardinals on the scoreboard.

Herrera’s homer came on the first pitch of his at-bat to lead off the bottom of the fourth inning. It traveled 418 feet, had an exit velocity of 113 mph and landed in Big Mac Land.

For Herrera, the home run was his 12th of the year but just his third since Aug. 4. In a 24-game stretch since he homered at Dodger Stadium earlier this month, Herrera slashed .236/.320/.326. Along with his homer vs. the Dodgers on Aug. 4, Herrera collected four extra-base in his previous 103 plate appearances entering Monday.