Starter Spotlight: Gray Clouds to Blue Skies

4-8-2025 – By Michael Castrignano – @412DoublePlay on X

With Paul Skenes set to start for the Pirates today, you always have to feel good about your chances of winning but opposing him is no slouch as Sonny Gray will toe the rubber for the Cardinals in Game 2 of the series.

A familiar foe for the Bucs, Gray has started against Pittsburgh 11 times across his career, posting a 4.20 ERA with 70 strikeouts and 17 walks through 64.1 innings.

His most recent outing came on September 18th when he was unable to get out of the 6th inning, allowing 4 runs off 9 hits with 8 Ks and no walks in his final start of the 2024 campaign.

We have covered Gray previously ahead of both his outings last year (see here and here) but big thing to know about him is that he attacks the strike zone and misses bats.

Since the start of 2024, only a pair of Cy Young winners have a better K-BB rate among qualified pitchers in that span.

The veteran’s sophomore Cardinals season is off to a slower start this season, holding a 5.73 ERA over his first two starts but the stuff is still there as he has 15 strikeouts to just 3 walks in that stretch.

Gray’s fastball isn’t going to light up the radar gun – as it averages around 92 MPH – but it places it effectively and mixes in his mid-80s sweeper and high-70s curve, which he locates on the edges and gets chases when he drops out of the zone.

Given this pitching matchup and predicted temperature at start of game tonight expected to be in the low-30s, I imagine this could be a very low-scoring game. 

Try to work counts against Gray to get him out as early as possible to take shots against the struggling St. Louis bullpen.