51ºÚÁÏ

The Cardinals had a brief, fleeting instant early in Saturday’s game where they punched above their lineup’s current weight class and momentarily overpowered the New York Yankees to reset a game for their leading pitcher – and even went so far as to provide him with a three-run lead.

It was lost beneath the avalanche that followed.

The Yankees drummed the Cardinals for nine runs after the hosts took that three-run lead and rolled to a 12-8 victory at Busch Stadium. The lead was misplaced by starter Sonny Gray and the deciding runs came in the sixth inning as Kyle Leahy, one of the Cardinals’ most reliable relievers, allowed three runs and four hits while not recording an out.

Ben Rice, playing first base in place of Paul Goldschmidt, nearly matched the output from the Cardinals with seven RBIs to go with his three hits, which included a three-run double and the three-run homer off Gray that flipped the game. The Cardinals’ lineup has been thinned by injury and to reward the comeback for the lead, it needed a pitcher who could suppress the Yankees’ lineup. Gray allowed six runs on nine hits, and the Cardinals never led again after Rice’s homer.

The Cardinals went 4 for 4 with runners in scoring position against Yankees starter Max Fried, and in those at-bats they hit two homers and drove in seven runs.

Yet, they entered the ninth trailing by five runs.

The Cardinals did just enough to lure David Bednar into the game for a three-pitch save, his 20th of the season.

Already voluntarily choosing to play several days in a row without Brendan Donovan (toe) and Willson Contreras (foot) to avoid losing them for the mandatory 10 days on the injured list, the Cardinals were down a center fielder by the end of the sixth inning.

Victor Scott II sprained his ankle and had to leave the game in the sixth inning.

In the third, Scott dashed after Aaron Judge’s home run and got a bit of his glove on the liner over the wall. Scott also crashed into the wall, and sometime during that attempt or the landing he apparently twisted and injured his ankle. He remained in the game – even had a full-speed robbery of extra bases – until being lifted for a pinch-hitter in the sixth.

That left only Yohel Pozo on the bench.

If Scott is set to miss any time, even a few days, to recover from the injury the Cardinals would be forced to make a roster move of some type. Their hope is to have Contreras back in the lineup Sunday. Their unknown is when Donovan will be available – and far to let that question linger just to go without losing a total of nine games from him, by rule.

Former team gives Gray fits

The 1 ½ seasons and 41 games Gray spent in the Bronx was not a great fit for the right-hander coming out of Oakland and into the pressure cooker. He struggled to a 4.51 ERA, was in the rotation for 34 starts, but not always in the rotation, and finished his tenure with the Yankees rescued by a trade that took him to Cincinnati, where he thrived.

Pitching against the Yankees on Saturday went about as well.

Four of the first five Yankees Gray faced reached base, and before he could get a second out the Cardinals trailed, 2-0. Gifted a three-run lead by his teammates, Gray then misplaced it under a torrent of more runs. In the fourth, the right-hander was nicked by speedster Jose Cabellero’s bunt single that spurred a rally punctuated by Rice’s three-run homer. Rice crushed a 2-2 sinker from Gray that did not live up to its name. The ball rose and traveled 429 feet to flip the game and send the Yankees hurtling toward their runaway win.

Gray allowed six runs on nine hits through five innings.

He struck out seven, but it was the fifth time this season in 25 starts that the Cardinals’ No. 1 starter has allowed at least six runs.

Winn launches short-lived lead

It took two innings, but the Cardinals overcame the hole the Yankees put them in quickly against Gray in the first inning.

Alec Burleson’s second career triple netted the Cardinals a run in the first inning to cleave the Yankees’ lead in half. In the second inning, a leadoff walk and singles from the back-end of the Cardinals’ lineup tied the game. Scott had the single that brought home Nolan Gorman for a 2-2 score. Those hits also brought the game back around to leadoff hitter Masyn Winn. The shortstop was back at the No. 1 spot he relished a year ago with Donovan (toe) out and lefty Fried on the mound.

Winn injured a curveball from Fried.

He fouled off a cutter from the lefty.

When Fried went back to the same pitch and caught more of the plate, Winn lofted it into the left-field seats for a three-run homer. Winn’s ninth homer of the season catapulted the Cardinals to a 5-2 lead and did more than reset the game for Gray. It gave him cushion.

Within two innings it was gone.

Within four a rout was percolating.

Judge’s nearly unanimous decision

When he arrived in 51ºÚÁÏ for this weekend’s interleague visit, reigning American League MVP Judge had home runs in his career against every team in the majors but his team, the Yankees, and the Cardinals.

Well, now just the Yankees.

Judge completed the set of 29 teams with a home run to lead off the third inning. Judge’s first home run against the Cardinals – and, of course, first at Busch Stadium – came in his 10th game against the NL club. It was his 39th homer of this season, and it’s place in the game at the time was how close Scott came to catching it and whether the attempt would force him from the lineup with apparent knee or ankle pain.

Scott dashed to meet the ball at the right-center wall some 396 feet from home plate. Judge’s hit glanced off of the center fielder’s glove and then caromed into the crowd.

Scott crashed into the wall and dropped to the warning track.

On the scoreboard, Judge’s homer off Gray bit into the three-run lead the Cardinals crafted. On the field, Scott visited with manager Oliver Marmol and a trainer to determine if he could stay in the game. Scott stretched and tested the leg and ultimately remained in the game. Shortly after easing back out to center field for the fifth inning, Scott ran down a ball in left-center field to rob Ryan McMahon of a double.

In the sixth inning, Garrett Hampson pinch-hit for Scott, who appeared to be in more discomfort as the game progressed.

He was removed with a sprained left ankle, the team said late Saturday.

Earlier this season, Judge outpaced former Cardinals slugger Mark McGwire to be the swiftest slugger to reach his 350th career home run, doing so in his 1,088th game. That was nearly 200 games faster than McGwire, who got there in 1,280.

Judge’s first homer against the Cardinals was the 354th of his career.

51ºÚÁÏ’ own Williams quells uprising

The Cardinals bounced Fried from the game in the sixth with Gorman’s two-run homer. That narrowed the game to two runs again and forced the Yankees’ lefty back to the dugout before he could get an out in the sixth inning.

That, however, was where the Cardinals offense vanished.

Acquired by the Yankees from Milwaukee this past offseason and one of the leaders behind convincing the Yankees to change the facial hair policy, All-Star Devin Williams entered in the sixth – and pitched like the Yankees imagined he would in the ninth. The right-hander has struggled at times in the closer role in the Bronx. But back home in 51ºÚÁÏ, not too far from where he graduated at Hazelwood West, Williams struck out all three batters he faced.

He needed 19 pitches to sizzle through the bottom of the Cardinals lineup.

He finished all three strikeouts with his fastball.