Cardinals complete the sweep against the Giants
ST. LOUIS, Mo. (KMIZ)
St. Louis broke out the brooms on Sunday afternoon in a 5-3 win over the San Francisco Giants. The Cardinals won three-straight, including a historic game at Rickwood Field on Thursday night, to capture the club's second sweep of the season.
Despite the win, the seventh inning brought some heartbreak for Cardinal baseball fans. Pitcher Sonny Gray had a bid for a perfect game going until Patrick Bailey stepped up to the plate and knocked out a 425-foot no-doubter to get San Francisco on the board.
Gray finished his day with a win to improve to 9-4 this season. He threw for 7.0 innings and allowed one run on just one hit, fanning eight San Francisco batters. Gray threw 80 total pitches, 57 of which were strikes. He has now thrown at least seven innings in his last three starts, recording a 1.66 ERA.
Just like Gray, the Red Bird bats were on fire on Sunday, as well. St. Louis got the scoring started with a three-run first inning, courtesy of a couple of RBI singles from Alec Burleson and Matt Carpenter, as well as an RBI ground rule double from Brendan Donovan.
Burleson has been one of the MLB's best hitters during the month of June and he continued that trend, as he sent another base runner home in the second inning to give his Cardinals a 4-0 lead. Burleson went 2-for-4 on Sunday, tallying a team-high two RBI along with one run.
After Bailey broke up Gray's attempt at just the 25th perfect game in Major League Baseball history, the Giants tried to make a run at a comeback. San Francisco plated two more runs in the eighth inning to get within two of St. Louis, however, Brandon Crawford poured ice on the ball game. In the home half of the eighth, Crawford hit an RBI double to right field to put his team up by two runs, once more.
After that, the MLB's saves king shut the door on the Giants. Closer Ryan Helsley collected his 26th save of the season, striking out two San Francisco batters in the ninth inning.
With Sunday's win, the Cardinals are now two games above the .500 mark for the first time in 2024, 39-37 overall. St. Louis still sits in second place in the National League Central standings, 4.5 games back from the first-place Milwaukee Brewers.
Up next - St. Louis swill continue its home stand with a three-game set against the Atlanta Braves. First pitch in game one is set for Monday, June 24 at 6:45 p.m.
