Cardinals’ Lance Lynn sheds light on Sonny Gray’s early dominance

Said Lynn on his Cardinals teammate, “You know, you see his grow over the years. As a teammate with him in New York and just seeing him now, he’s in total control over everything that he does. Not only in between starts, day of start, pitch process, everything. He’s really taken his game to a level and you see it on the field.”

With the Yankees, Gray struggled throughout his tenure as a starter in 2018, eventually losing his rotation spot to the newly acquired Lynn after giving up seven runs in 2+2⁄3 innings to the Baltimore Orioles on August 1. Gray was traded to the Cincinnati Reds that offseason. Gray bounced back his first year with the Reds. Going 11–8 with a 2.87 ERA, 1.084 WHIP, and a career best 10.5 strikeouts-per-nine-innings rate, Gray placed 7th in the NL Cy Young Award voting.

Lynn, meanwhile, returned to the Cardinals on a one-year deal this offseason to not only reunite with Gray, but with the team that saw him make an All-Star team and win a World Series championship in 2011.

Cardinals break their losing skid

Nolan Gorman snapped an 0-for-19 slump with a two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth inning that gave the Cardinals a 5-3 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Monday night.

That win broke a four-game losing streak for the Cardinals.

It was the fourth home run this season for Gorman, who entered as a defensive replacement in the eighth. Paul Goldschmidt, who homered earlier, reached on an infield single before Gorman hit left-hander Kyle Nelson’s only pitch into the right-field seats for his first career walk-off RBI.

Lynn lasted five innings for the Cardinals, throwing 94 pitches. He allowed seven hits and three runs. Most importantly, he stranded eight baserunners in St. Louis’ first walk-off win for St. Louis since Aug. 30 of last season.

The Cardinals again host the Diamondbacks on Tuesday as they await word on Matt Carpenter’s injury. Carpenter received a pain-killing injection and will have no baseball activity for the next three days. At that point, he can then take part in batting practice. Carpenter went on the 10-day injured list on April 2.

He has missed 18 consecutive games for the Cardinals.