Rangers Lose Close Contest to Cardinals

Photo by Ron Jenkins/Getty Images

May 31, 2025

Cardinals 2, Rangers 0

ARLINGTON, Texas (May 31) — The Texas Rangers couldn’t build on their momentum from Friday’s 11-run outburst as they lost to the St. Louis Cardinals, 2–0, on a beautiful afternoon with the roof open. The Cardinals nailed down the victory with the help of an RBI ground-rule double by Willson Contreras in the fourth. The Rangers are really struggling as they have been limited to two or fewer runs in seven of their last 11 games. They will go for the series win on Sunday with first pitch scheduled for noon Central. Right-hander Erick Fedde (3–4, 3.90 ERA) will get the ball for the Cardinals, while the Rangers will counter with righty Jacob deGrom (4–2, 2.42 ERA).

Low Scoring Affair

The Cardinals struck first in the top of the second with lefty Patrick Corbin on the mound for the Rangers. Contreras opened the inning by drawing a free pass. A wild pitch to Ivan Herrera moved him to second. Herrera grounded to second, and Nolan Arenado followed with a sacrifice fly to center that scored Contreras.

They scored again in the top of the fourth. Masyn Winn led off with a double to left, his ninth of the season. He advanced to third when Brendan Donovan grounded to first.

Up next was Contreras, who scored Winn with a ground-rule double down the left-field line.

What Went Right for the Cardinals

The Cardinals put together a huge lead like the Rangers did on Friday, but they scraped together what they could to win on Saturday. A sacrifice fly isn’t the most exciting play, but Arenado made it seem exciting as it was the first play of the game that rippled the water.

Add in the ground-rule double by Contreras that drove in Winn and it was nothing but zeroes for both teams from that point on.

What Went Wrong for the Cardinals

While the Cardinals walked away with the win, they really didn’t have a lot of baserunners. They put together five hits and only two of them managed to cross the plate.

Good Effort, Bad Result

Rangers lefty Patrick Corbin took his fourth loss of the year despite allowing two runs, both earned, over 5 1/3 innings. He now owns a record of 3–4 with an ERA of 3.71. His final line was 3 H, 2 BB, 3 SO, 1 WP, 83 pitches/49 strikes. He yielded the sacrifice fly to Arenado in the second, ending a 16-inning scoreless streak by Rangers starting pitchers since the fifth inning on Monday against the Toronto Blue Jays.

Corbin has allowed three or fewer runs in a career-high 10 straight starts this season, besting a trio of nine-start spans with three or fewer runs allowed. He has lost two of his last three starts, receiving a total of two runs of support across those three outings.

Gray’s Outing

Cardinals starter Sonny Gray twirled a season-high seven scoreless innings to earn his club-leading sixth win of 2025 in his 12th start of the season. He improves to 6–1 on the year with an ERA of 3.65. His line was 4 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 10 SO, 91 pitches/64 strikes. He seems to enjoy pitching in Arlington as he has a career record of 11-5 against the Rangers. Gray also recorded his 1,800th career strikeout in the seventh (Burger), becoming the 10th active player to reach the mark.

His 10-strikeout performance equaled his season high and signaled the 19th time he’s logged double-digit strikeouts in a game. The Cardinals have won each of his six day starts this year and eight straight dating back to 2024. Gray retired nine consecutive Rangers batters after allowing a leadoff walk to Alejandro Osuna in the second. He struck out four straight batters during the streak. Gray has also not surrendered a home run in three consecutive starts. His seven Quality Starts rank seventh among NL pitchers this year.

After striking out two in the ninth, Cardinals reliever Ryan Helsley notched his 13th save of the year.

Bochy’s Postgame Comments

After the game, Rangers manager Bruce Bochy reflected on what made things so hard for his offense against Gray. “He’s so good at staying at the bottom of the zone,” he said. The split finger, breaking ball, and changeup were all working for him. He used both sides of the plate and changed speeds a lot. Our guys really couldn’t handle him. He also induces a lot of ground balls. We ran into a well-pitched game and came out on the wrong side, which is unfortunate because we pitched well.”