CLEVELAND (AP) — Sonny Gray didn’t know if he would throw a complete game again.
On Friday night, he did that and was one pitch away from a no-hitter.
Gray allowed only one hit and struck out a season-high 11 in St. Louis’ 5-0 victory over the Cleveland Guardians.
It is his seventh complete game, but first since 2017 with the Yankees. It was also the fifth shutout in Gray’s 13-year big-league career, with the last coming when he was with the Athletics in 2015.
“I did it a lot earlier in my career and it’s been a while,” Gray said. “You don’t know if you would be able to do it, especially the way the games kind of went, and especially with me like I don’t throw over 100 pitches very often.”
The right-hander, who improved to 8-2 on the season, needed only 89 pitches against the Guardians. It is the first time since 2021 (Atlanta’s Max Fried vs. Baltimore) that a pitcher has had a complete-game shutout and thrown less than 90 pitches.
Gray’s most taxing inning was the third, when he had 12 pitches. He had two innings where he threw eight or fewer pitches.
Gray’s only bad pitch came with two outs in the fifth inning, when Nolan Jones had a base hit to right field on a sweeper.
“I knew the innings were kind of moving right along. I did know that I was perfect through that long. I made a good pitch there when the guy got the hit, so I was fine with that,” Gray said. “When I was going out for the ninth it felt like just another inning, which was nice.”
Gray had 19 first-pitch strikes to the 28 batters he faced and of his 66 strikes, 16 were swings and misses. He retired 15 of Cleveland’s hitters on three pitches or fewer, including six on the first pitch.
“When you keep getting 0-1, the other team feels pressure of that. I think that helped in our benefit of just being able to attack these guys and get the quick outs,” said catcher Pedro Pagés, who got the Cardinals on the board with a home run to lead off the third inning.
Gray also stymied Cleveland with a familiar face in the Guardians’ dugout. Manager Stephen Vogt caught Gray for 45 games, more than any other catcher in Gray’s career.
“Whatever he wanted, he had everything working,” Vogt said. “The only pitch he left in the strike zone was when Nolan got the base hit. That was an unbelievable performance by Sonny.”
Gray and Vogt were roommates in the minors in the Athletics’ system, and still share a close bond and mutual respect.
“Through my warmup pitches before the first inning, I had some time and kind of looked up. I know where Vogty stands, and he was kind of looking at me. So I was kind of looking at him and we kind of stared at each other for a second, and I gave him a little head nod,” Gray said. “We have so many memories together. It’s just kind of crazy how this game does that sometimes.”
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