Sonny Gray's historic blunder capstones Cardinals horrific spring training game

In what was supposed to be a typical tune-up outing for St. Louis Cardinals' Opening Day starter Sonny Gray, the 35-year-old finished with just three innings pitched in the box score, but somehow appeared in five(?) different innings. How is that even possible?

I'm fairly confident that Gray just set an MLB-record today.

Sonny Gray's terrible performance was just the icing on the cake of an all around awful day for the Cardinals

Sonny Gray was pulled from the Cardinals' game four different times as he struggled to get any sort of feel for his stuff throughout the contest. Yes, you read that right. Oliver Marmol came to the mound to get Gray four different times while reinserting him into the game three different times. Gray allowed six hits, five walks, and eight earned rungs during the contest, giving up yet another home run to add to his growing total this spring.

While I am not one to take a lot of stock in spring training stats, it is hard to not be at least a little bit concerned with how Gray has pitched so far in camp. Gray had a major issue with the home run ball in 2024, so the fact that it has crept back up on him in camp is hard to ignore.

On top of Gray's own issues today, the Cardinals lost their contest with the Marlins by a score of 11-5, and the club's defense has been sloppy at various points in the game. While they only committed one error on the day, Victor Scott II's routes in center field have left a lot to be desired multiple times today.

Oh, and speaking of Scott, he's in the thick of a roster battle with the other Cardinal center fielder Michael Siani, and both managed to get picked off on the basepaths by Cal Quantrill in the same inning. Thankfully it was just a spring training game, as if that had happened in the regular season, I think Cardinal Nation would have had a complete meltdown.

The Cardinals are set to open the regular season against the Minnesota Twins next Thursday, and they aren't giving their fans much confidence in how things will look this season. The offense, while it is just spring training, remains a huge question mark, and both their rotation and bullpen have questions regarding the overall quality of the units.

What a horrific day for the Cardinals. I'll say it again, it is just spring training, but man, that performance was inexcusable.