ST. LOUIS – Sonny Gray didn’t need to see Pete Alonso round the bases to know the damage had been done. The crack of the bat told him everything he needed to know. On a 0-2 count, Gray threw a pitch he later admitted was the result of overthinking. Alonso crushed it — a 417-foot, two-run homer to center field that marked the turning point in the St. Louis Cardinals’ 6-3 loss to the New York Mets on Friday night at Busch Stadium.
“I just didn’t execute,” Gray said bluntly after the game. “With Alonso, got him 0-2, and I think I was probably trying to be too cute there. I called something that is not normally what I would do — maybe trying to overthink it, or do something different — and it wasn’t right.”
Gray’s mistake was costly, and it sparked a big fifth inning for the Mets. Following Alonso’s blast, Brandon Nimmo and Jesse Winker singled, prompting Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol to pull Gray. Nimmo would later score on a fielding error by first baseman Willson Contreras, which prolonged the inning. Francisco Alvarez capped off the rally with an RBI single off reliever Chris Roycroft. In total, the Mets sent nine batters to the plate and turned a 3-2 deficit into a 6-3 lead — one they never relinquished.
The loss marked the fifth straight for the Cardinals against the Mets this season, including a four-game sweep at Citi Field in April. The streak extends to nine consecutive losses dating back to April 28, 2024, the longest such skid for St. Louis against New York in franchise history.
“They’ve won a lot of games for a reason,” Marmol said postgame. “They can hit, they can pitch. They do a lot of things well, and they did a lot of that tonight. To be quite honest, they took some really good swings off of Sonny.”
Gray endured his shortest outing of the season, lasting just 4 1/3 innings. He gave up a season-high nine hits and six runs, although only four were earned. He walked three and struck out six.
“Just overall, it just wasn’t very good in general,” Gray admitted. “First inning was good, but other than that, just wasn’t very good.”
The Cardinals had taken an early lead thanks to some timely hitting, but it wasn’t enough to keep pace with the Mets’ relentless lineup. As has been the case throughout this season series, New York capitalized on every mistake.
“We made a mistake,” said Marmol. “You do
