Nolan Arenado's homer and Brendan Donovan's 4-for-4 performance propelled the St. Louis Cardinals to an 8-3 victory over the Houston Astros on Monday night. Sonny Gray pitched seven scoreless innings, allowing three hits while striking out four and walking one. Arenado doubled twice and scored two runs, while Donovan extended his hitting streak to 10 games.
Astros left-hander Framber Valdez (1-2) struggled, giving up seven runs in four-plus innings, with five of the 10 hits he allowed being doubles. Arenado hit his second homer of the season off Luis Contreras in the eighth inning. The Cardinals broke the game open with three runs in the fourth and fifth innings, with Pedro Pagés and Nolan Gorman contributing key hits.
Gray's strong performance included retiring Jose Altuve, Isaac Paredes, and Yordan Alvarez in order in the first inning. The Astros managed only one hit off Gray through five innings. The next matchup features Astros right-hander Hunter Brown against Cardinals right-hander Erick Fedde on Tuesday night.