Feisty Cardinals thunder back to clobber Phillies 14-7 in nightcap, split doubleheader

Cardinals shortstop Masyn Winn, right, rounds the bases after hitting a home run against Phillies starting pitcher Aaron Nola during the fourth inning on the second game of a doubleheader Wednesday, May 14, 2025, in Philadelphia.

Matt Slocum, Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA — Of the many and varied and nail-biting ways the Cardinals have found to win during their May surge, they had to show they were capable of a new one late Wednesday.

They had to win an old-fashioned, sometimes sloppy slugfest.

Down by four runs before they got a second crack at Philadelphia starter Aaron Nola, the Cardinals traded uppercuts in the early innings before pounding away for a technical knockout in a 14-7 victory against the Phillies on Wednesday night at Citizens Bank Park to split a doubleheader. The Cardinals’ nine-game winning streak ended earlier in the day in a sharp game but a 2-1 loss to the Phillies. No such pitching duel emerged in the second game.

The Cardinals stung the Phillies with a season-high 19 hits.

It was the first time they scored a baker’s dozen this season, and then they added one more.

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The top three hitters in the Cardinals’ order combined to go 9 for 15 with seven runs scored and six RBIS. Masyn Winn had three of them and a home run. Lars Nootbaar homered to start the Cardinals’ defining, five-run comeback in the third inning, and Brendan Donovan had three hits. Alec Burleson contributed four RBIs, including the two-run homer to retake the lead in the third inning and a two-run double that assured they wouldn’t lose the lead in the fourth inning. All of that offense covered for Sonny Gray’s most difficult start as a Cardinals.

And the bullpen followed with 5 1/3 scoreless innings, combining to hold freeze the Phillies at seven runs and allowing only two hits after the fourth.

The first game Wednesday was a tight, riveting chess match between two starters who left each lineup so little room to maneuver. All three of the runs in the game came in the seventh inning, and the deciding runs scored on an infield single and a bloop that was just out of the reach of Winn.

The second game was a bloated box-score mess.

Right down until the final innings, the game tested those famously patient Philadelphia fans. The ones, you know, whose previous generation booed Santa. Grab a cheesesteak, this could take a bit. To wit: In the top of the eighth inning, the Cardinals scored three more runs – and how they did it was the ugly part. Phillies center fielder Brandon Marsh camped under a fly ball to deep center field and whiffed. That loaded the bases. A wild pitch brought one run home and then positioned another to score on a sacrifice fly.

The two starters in the game combined to allow 16 runs on 20 hits.

Each allowed three home runs.

Oh, and neither finished the fourth inning.

Gray allowed seven runs in 3 2/3 innings – the most runs he’s allowed in any of his previous starts with the Cardinals. His line looked relatively calm compared to Nola’s. The two right-handers were two of the best starters in the majors and also free agents at the same time. Nola re-signed a seven-year, $172-million deal with the Phillies a few days before the Cardinals signed Gray to a three-year, $75-million contract. Pitted against each Gray, Nola’s difficult season continued.

At 1-6 coming into the game, Nola allowed nine runs on 12 hits in his 3 2/3 innings. He allowed more home runs (three) than he struck out Cardinals (two). His ERA mushroomed from 4.89 on Wednesday afternoon to 6.16 after he spectacularly squandered a four-run lead gifted him by his teammates after the first inning.

Cardinals taketh, Gray giveth

It took two pitches for Gray to lose the lead the Cardinals worked so furiously, so powerfully to regain in the top of the third inning.

It took him even fewer to lose a hunk of the next lead, too.

In back-to-back innings, the Cardinals rumbled in the top of an inning to take the lead only to get one or two pitches into the bottom of the inning and see the Phillies answer with a home run off Gray. The Cardinals got home runs from Nootbaar and Burleson to hoist a five-run rally in the third inning. Burleson’s two-run shot traveled 404 feet and not only answered all of the damage that Phillies did in their five-run first inning but it gave the Cardinals a one-run lead.

Kyle Schwarber led off the bottom of the inning with a solo homer to tie the game, 6-6, on the second pitch Gray threw in the inning.

A home run from Winn regained the lead and then four consecutive singles added to it. Burleson collected his third and fourth RBIs in two innings with a two-run single that widened the lead to 9-6 in the fourth inning.

One pitch into the bottom of the inning – another Phillies homer.

Alec Bohm hit this one, and rather than match or overtake the Cardinals’ lead it only trimmed it down to two runs. But each time the Cardinals grabbed a lead for their No. 1 starter, he gave all or part of it back.

The Cardinals turned two singles and a groundball into a 1-0 lead in the first inning. That seemed notable given the first game of the day had gone six innings without either team scoring, and both of the first two games in the series were decided by one run. Within the span of five batters, Gray had misplaced that slim lead under a deluge that would become five runs. Nick Castellanos tagged Gray with a two-run double, and J. T. Realmuto punctuated the inning with a two-run homer.

The Cardinals had not allowed any runs in the first inning during their nine-game winning streak, and they’d gone since May 5 without allowing runs to the opponent that early in the game. The Cardinals had also gone seven consecutive games – including Wednesday’s first game – allowing two or fewer runs. Both of the streaks were vaporized in the first against Gray. It would take the offense to pull him out of it. And again. And again.

Forecast called for deluge

The starters in Wednesday’s first game took a shutout through six innings, and Cardinals starter Erick Fedde extended his scoreless streak to 14 2/3 innings. That clean run through a game was a stark contrast to what followed in the first four innings of the night game.

Thrust into a doubleheader by relentless rain that continued through Tuesday and into a soggy Wednesday morning at Citizens Bank Park, the Cardinals and Phillies combined for 16 runs and 21 hits before the evening game was four innings old.

There were six homers hit in the first four innings.

The teams combined to send 46 batters to the plate before the fifth inning. There were only 68 batters total in the first game.

Contreras ties career-best

A few hours after Game 1 starter Fedde paused an answer to make sure he gave a “shout out” to Willson Contreras’ play at first base, the right-hander had another example of the play from the former catcher and the corner infield. Contreras stretched and reached for a throw in the dirt from shortstop to get a welcome out in the later innings of Wednesday night’s slugfest.

Defense isn’t the only time Contreras is spending a lot of time at first base.

With a walk and a hit in the first game of the doubleheader and single in the fourth inning of the night game, Contreras extended his on-base streak to 26. That matches his career-best for any streak reaching base within a season. Entering play Wednesday, Contreras was batting .345 in his previous 24 games with a .571 slugging percentage and an on-base percentage (.455) that trailed only Aaron Judge in that same span.

Photos: Cardinals rout Phillies to split doubleheader