By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
The St. Louis Cardinals have had quite the hot hand against the aces of teams pitching rotations this season, and that continued Monday against the Houston Astros and starter Framber Valdez, on way to an 8-3 win for St. Louis.
After throttling the Astros the Cardinals’ surging, new-look offense has beaten All-Star pitchers Paul Skenes, Aaron Nola, Zack Wheeler and Valdez in the past week. Led by a four-hit night from Brendan Donovan and a three-hit performance from Nolan Arenado, the Cardinals didn’t just beat Valdez on Monday -- they knocked him around and knocked him out of the game before a batter was retired in the fifth inning. The Cards tagged Valdez -- an American League All-Star pitcher in 2022 and ’23 -- for 10 hits and six earned runs in just four-plus innings.
The scoring off Valdez got started in the bottom of the third inning. After Lars Nootbaar walked, a single from Luken Baker advanced Nootbaar to third base. Nootbaar came around to score on the very next batter as Willson Contreras grounded into a force out, Astros shortstop Jeremy Peña throwing out Baker at second, but Contreras reached first safely.
The Cardinals put up three spots in both the fourth and fifth innings. In the fourth, Donovan led off with a single before Jordan Walker hit a ground rule double, forcing Donovan to stop at third base. Donovan and Walker later scored on a double by Pedro Pagés. After Victor Scott II struck out, Pagés came home with a single from Nootbaar.
Then in the fifth inning, Contreras singled to start the inning, followed by a double from Arenado that drove Contreras in to score. After Donovan hit a double of his own to score Arenado, Donovan advancing to third base on a throwing error by right fielder Cam Smith, that was the end of the day for Valdez. A sacrifice fly by Nolan Gorman scored Donovan later in the inning. Arenado put up the final St. Louis run in the seventh inning, with a solo home run.
The Astros put up all their runs against the Cardinals bullpen in the ninth inning, all on a three run home run by Peña that drove in Jake Meyers and Zach Dezenzo.
Sonny Gray improved to 3-0 on the season for St. Louis, pitching seven shutout innings, striking out four batters while walking one and giving up three hits. Donovan was a perfect 4-4 at the plate with one RBI, while Arenado was 3-4 with one home run and two RBI's.
St. Louis and Houston continue their series tomorrow. Erick Fedde takes the mound for the Cardinals against Hunter Brown for the Astros. First pitch is at 6:45pm, pregame coverage will be joined at 6:35 on KY 102 (102.5 FM).
You can follow Matt on X @KfeqMatt and St. Joseph Post @StJosephPost.