TORONTO (AP) — José Berríos pitched seven strong innings to win his seventh straight start, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. drove in his 500th career run and scored twice, and the Toronto Blue Jays beat the St. Louis Cardinals 7-2 on Saturday.
Guerrero went 1 for 3 with a walk, maintaining his batting average at .320, the third-highest in the AL.
“This year he’s separated himself and been on a different level offensively,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said of Guerrero. “He’s a really good hitter who understands how to drive in runs.”
Guerrero, 25, is the youngest player in Blue Jays history to drive in 500 runs. He reached the mark in 806 games.
Davis Schneider went 3 for 4 with a home run and drove in two as Toronto won its second straight.
Addison Barger had two hits and an RBI and Alejandro Kirk drove in a pair as the Blue Jays handed the Cardinals their first series loss against an AL East opponent in more than two years.
St. Louis lost for the fifth time in eight games and fell back to .500 at 74-74. The Cardinals began the day seven games out of the third NL wild card.
“I’m not really looking at the standings,” Cardinals third baseman Nolan Arenado said. “I’m not too worried about it. Just try to take care of business and we’ll see where we end up. Obviously we’ve dug ourselves a hole and we need teams to play bad for us to get to where we want to go.”
Berríos (16-9) allowed one run and two hits, walked two and struck out four. He’s 3-0 in five career starts against St. Louis.
“Offensively, we just didn’t string anything together all day,” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said. “Berríos did a nice job against us.”
Arenado praised Berríos for making at least 30 starts in each of the past six full seasons, excluding 2020.
“He doesn’t get a whole lot of credit around the game for how consistent he really is, just posting and putting innings up,” Arenado said. “He’s probably one of the more consistent pitchers in the game that people don’t talk about. His ball moves a lot.”
Roy Halladay won a Toronto-record 11 consecutive starts in 2003.
Ryan Burr worked the eighth and Luis Frías finished for Toronto.
Jordan Walker hit a solo home run, his third of the season, for the Cardinals. St. Louis came in 9-4 against AL East foes. They last lost a series to an AL East team by dropping two of three at Boston in June, 2022.
Arenado stayed in the game after an insect stung his left pinkie while he was fielding in the eighth.
“A bee flew near my ear, I wiped it with my glove,” Arenado said. “I thought it was gone, I put my glove on and got stung. It got stuck in my glove and it stung me on my pinkie. When I pulled my hand out after it stung me, the stinger was on my finger.”
Arenado had some mild swelling but said he expected to be available Sunday.
Walker opened the scoring with a two-out homer in the third, but Schneider tied it by connecting off Cardinals right-hander Kyle Gibson in the bottom half for his 11th home run and first since June 22.
Toronto took the lead with a four-run sixth. After the Blue Jays used a single and two walks to load the bases, Gibson exited after shortstop Masyn Winn’s throwing error on Ernie Clement’s grounder allowed the tiebreaking run to score.
Ryan Fernandez came on and gave up Kirk’s RBI groundout, and run-scoring singles by Barger and Schneider.
Gibson (8-7) allowed five runs – one earned – and four hits in 5 1/3 innings. He walked three and struck out one.
“It’s unfortunate how the outing ended,” Gibson said. “Overall I felt pretty good, just wish I could have avoided those two walks there in the sixth.”
TRAINER’S ROOM
Blue Jays: SS Leo Jiménez was scratched from the lineup because of a right index finger contusion and replaced by Clement. … OF Joey Loperfido departed after four innings because of left adductor discomfort, the team said.
UP NEXT
RHP Yariel Rodríguez (1-6, 4.42) is scheduled to start for Toronto Sunday as the Blue Jays look for the sweep. RHP Miles Mikolas (8-11, 5.55) starts for the Cardinals.
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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
Ian Harrison, The Associated Press
