How 2 Cardinals and 2 of the filthiest breaking balls in MLB twisted Dodgers into zeroes

The two pitches from two different Cardinals pitches that shaped Friday’s game and bent the star-studded Los Angeles Dodgers into a shutout also happen to be two of the best, most sinister breaking balls in the majors.

So, the question thrown late that night toward pitching coach Dusty Blake, was between Sonny Gray’s sweeper and Phil Maton’s curveball, which is better?

“That’s like asking me which one of my kids I like the most,” the coach said. “They’re both exceptional. They’re both exceptional in their own way.”

In every way, the Cardinals’ 5-0 victory against the defending World Series champions at Busch Stadium hinged on Gray’s ability to navigate one of the most difficult lineups of the past decade and Maton’s ability to unplug it fast. Gray did it with his sweeper, which is considered one of the most-effective pitches in the majors, and Maton snapped off a curveball that one teammate likened to a yo-yo, as if Maton could yank the string on it and bring it back to his hand.

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The Cardinals did not have to choose between two of the best breaking pitches in baseball at decisive moments.

“They’ve been able to do it for awhile for a reason,” manager Oliver Marmol said.

Gray (7-1) held an opponent scoreless for the third time in his previous four starts, and he was able to bebop around eight hits allowed because he threw the Dodgers off any rhythm or pattern he established with his pitches. Gray struck out five, three with runners in scoring position. A feisty changeup helped as LA had to respect it – knowing full well that Gray was going to lean into his sweeping slider. Gray got 16 swings and misses in the game, and he led all major-league pitchers Friday night with those total whiffs. He got at least one on six of his seven different pitches.

Five, however, came on his sweeper.

He only threw 11 of them, and the Dodgers swung at nine, missing on five.

Maton entered the eighth with two runners in scoring position, and he used his sweeper to set up his signature curveball. He threw seven of them and got four swings and misses. Two of those ended strikeouts that did not advance either runner. The Dodgers only put one of his curveballs in play – for a meek, inning-ending groundout.

“Phil coming in there and crushing any type of momentum they could have garnered, they could have gained,” Gray said. “That was a huge, huge, huge spot in the game to stop them in their tracks and not let a team like that get going. To stop them before they start to get going was a huge three at-bats.”

The marvel was mutual as Maton raved about how Gray got through a lineup that started Friday with six batters who had more home runs than the Cardinals’ leader in home runs.

“It takes everything to get through that lineup,” Maton said late Friday night when asked specifically about Gray’s sweeper. “I don’t know how he throws it. The hand speed that he’s able to get behind it and then also get the movement, the depth, and the vertical break. I can do that at 70 mph, and he’s doing it at 85 mph, 86 mph, playing it off his four-seamer and cutter. You just don’t see that type of pitch with that velocity. And it’s really hard to get strikeouts on sweepers from lefties. He’s just out there doing it.”

And doing it against the best.

Left-handed-hitting Freddie Freeman entered Friday’s game 5 for 14 against Gray in their careers for a .357 average and a .429 slugging percentage. In the first inning, after a double by Mookie Betts, Gray tied Freeman up with a series of crafty pitches – and finished the at-bat with an 85-mph sweeper. In the third, Shohei Ohtani and Betts singled to start the inning and put Gray in his most difficult bind of the evening. Catcher Pedro Pages’ two-run homer in the second inning gave Gray and the Cardinals a 2-0 lead at that point in the game, and Gray would later explain that pitching with a lead “made it a lot easier, to be honest” to challenge LA’s hitters.

In that spot, with Ohtani and Betts on base, Freeman came up as the potential go-ahead run. Freeman started the day with a .363 average, and the former MVP is coming off a World Series MVP and is having an even better season so far this year.

Gray struck him out again and it was on the same sweeper Freeman fished for. Gray came back against right-handed-hitter Teoscar Hernandez with another sweeper, at 86 mph, to finish that at-bat with a strikeout and neutralize any threat from that inning.

Those three outs started a run of 10 consecutive Dodgers retired.

Gray has the second-most outs in the majors on his sweeper this season, and no sweeper in either league has more strikeouts than Gray’s 40.

Maton has 17 strikeouts on his curveball.

That puts him in the top 25, but it requires context. As a reliever, he has the most strikeouts on his curveball of any right-hander with fewer than 400 curves thrown. For comparison, the noted curveball maestro Charlie Marton has thrown 962 curves in his 53 2/3 innings and has 24 strikeouts on the curve. Aaron Nola has thrown 863 curves in 49 2/3 innings and has 19 strikeouts. Maton has thrown 384 curves in 24 innings and has 17 strikeouts.

“It’s probably the highest spin rate curveball in the league,” Blake said. “If it’s not the highest, it’s definitely top 2% or 3%. And the shape of it is really unique based on how he spins it. The shape of his curveball – I don’t know another one that has that. The sweeper? Same thing. The depth of the sweeper Sonny throws with that horizontal movement plus the velocity – people aren’t throwing that big of a shape that close to their fastball.”

Gray yielded the mound to JoJo Romero in the seventh when Ohtani came up for a fourth time and the Dodgers had another runner on base.

Romero coaxed a double play groundout from the reigning National League MVP and maintained the shutout Gray started for his fourth consecutive quality start. Romero returned for the eighth inning and was quickly greeted by a single from Betts and a double from Freeman the moment Gray was no longer defying his bat with sweepers.

Encouraged by the shape and effectiveness of his sweeper in recent outings, Maton used that breaking ball to set up his curveball by giving the Dodgers another darting pitch to consider. The first pitch he threw was a sweeper and then three consecutive curveballs to strike out Hernandez. Max Muncy saw two sweepers, fell behind in the count, and then Maton spun him with back-to-back curveballs for a strikeout. Only four pitches in the entire game had a vertical break of 60 or more inches.

All four were Maton’s curveball.

“They knew what was coming,” shortstop Masyn Winn said in the team’s postgame ‘shoutout’ line filmed for the team’s social media. “Still couldn’t hit it.”

“Probably one of the biggest moments our bullpen has had this year, honestly,” closer Ryan Helsley told the Post-Dispatch. “I feel like Maton’s curveball gets to the plate and stops and goes back to the mound. It seems like it never gets there.”

So, which would he want to add to his mix?

“I’m going with Sonny’s sweeper,” Helsley said. “It’s electric.”

What the two elite breaking balls shared Friday night were pivotal strikeouts of hitters from both sides of the plate. In the third, Gray zipped the sweeper past left-handed Freeman and right-handed Hernandez for back-to-back strikeouts. In the eighth, Maton dropped curves past right-handed Hernandez and left-handed Muncy.

The best person to choose between the two breaking balls was then the person who called those pitches.

“They’re both great pitches,” the catcher said eventually. “That’s a tough question.”

He then took a deep breath and looked to the ceiling.

With no answer there, he exhaled.

“I don’t think I can pick one, honestly,” the catcher continued. “They’re both great, they both work differently, and it depends on the hitter at that point. That’s a hard one. That’s a really hard one. Tonight, I’ll take Phil’s. Ask me again tomorrow. I’ll probably say Sonny’s.”

Photos: St. Louis Cardinals defeat Los Angeles Dodgers in 5-0 win