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The fourth Cardinal to find a way to reach base against Cubs starter Shota Imanaga was what it took to edge the archrivals in a pitching duel that followed a delay.

Nolan Gorman rewarded starter Sonny Gray’s seven-inning gem with a two-out, RBI single in the seventh inning to nudge the Cardinals toward a 3-2 victory Sunday night at Busch Stadium to win the series.

And there’s video evidence the nation got to see it.

After three duds on national broadcasts, including Saturday’s loss, the Cardinals offered ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball a pitching duel and an opportunistic offense. The crowd that saw it in person was thin. The primetime game between two of the region’s oldest rivals drew 30,540 in paid-ticket attendance. The Cardinals announce the tickets-sold crowd and attendance may have been even lighter due to the storm that flooded the dugouts and delayed the start. The announced crowd was a precipitous drop from the 40,048 that filled the stadium on Saturday night.

This Sunday’s attendance was the lowest for a weekend Cubs-Cardinals game at Busch Stadium III in a year when capacity isn’t limited by a pandemic.

With the cuffs of his pants pulled up to reveal the ringtails of his socks, Gray was unfazed by the 53-minute rain delay. He pitched around two baserunners in the first inning and then started spinning the Cubs. Gray (11-5) struck out seven in his seven innings and allowed one earned run on five hits. He also picked off a runner at second base to defuse a Cubs’ rally.

The limited success the Cardinals had against Imanaga in the first six innings of the game came on back-to-back hits punctuated by Pedro Pages’ home run. Otherwise, the Cubs lefty defied the Cardinals. He struck out nine, and five of his first six innings were perfect — three up, three down, and only Pages brought any around. In the seventh inning, Imanaga was one out away from sending a tie game into the eighth.

Jordan Walker sent a single to center and stole second to get into scoring position for Gorman’s two-out base hit to right field. Walker scored to give the Cardinals a lead that the Cubs would threaten against lefty JoJo Romero, twice.

In the ninth, Pages threw Jon Berti when he attempted to steal second. That proved essential as the Cubs followed with two bases hits that would have certainly tied the game.

Romero got a groundout to end the game and secure his third save since the Cardinals traded away three relievers at the deadline.

Romero escapes jam

Part of the puzzle presented manager Oliver Marmol with his current bullpen setup is when best to use his one and only left-handed reliever, Romero. With another lefty in the mix, Romero is more likely to close games. But alone – more precision is required for his deployment.

Consider the eighth inning Sunday.

With left-handed batter Michael Busch due up second and Kyle Tucker looming as the inning’s fourth hitter if it got to him, the use of Romero had to be targeted. Marmol opted to go with Riley O’Brien to open the inning and get through right-handed batter Seiya Suzuki. A perfect inning and it would have ended there with Romero to face Tucker at the start of the ninth.

It was not a perfect inning.

Suzuki walked against O’Brien and that lured Romero into the eighth inning with a runner on base. When Tucker flared a single to center, the bind got worse. Romero had to get through right-handed batter Carson Kelly before another lefty, Pete Crow-Armstrong, arrived. Romero pitched Kelly predictably – seeing if he might tease the catcher out of the strike zone and into an out. The at-bat got to a full-count, and Romero got the groundout from Kelly that ended the inning with the Cardinals still leading by a run.

Duel of the Ks

The bottom of the second inning and top of the third inning juxtaposed the dizzying control each started established early in the game.

Imanaga struck out the side in order in the bottom of the second to continue his perfect breeze through the Cardinals’ lineup, and Gray answered striking out the top of the Cubs’ lineup in order without much fuss at all to begin the third.

Imanaga threw 12 pitches to get three strikeouts.

Ten of them were strikes.

Gray needed 15 pitches to get three strikeouts.

Twelve of them were strikes.

Imanaga struck out Alec Burleson on a sweeper, dropped an 82.9-mph splitfinger fastball under Jordan Walker’s bat, and then the lefty caught Nolan Gorman looking at a 91.4-mph fastball. Gray set each of the Cubs for the pitch they know is coming in that spot – and they still could do nothing about. All three of Gray’s strikeouts in the top of the third came on his sweeping slider. He got Michael Busch to chase after a 85.1-mph sweeper, tested Seiya Suzuki with four consecutive strikes and got him fishing for a sweeper in the dirt, and then Kyle Tucker watched a sweeper kiss the edge of the strike zone.

Tucker took issue with the called third strike and by the time he left the batter’s box to collect his glove for the bottom of the inning, Gray was a few strides shy of the dugout.

By the end of the sixth, both starters’ lines dovetailed. Imanaga had eight strikeouts to Gray’s seven. Gray needed 83 pitches to get his first 18 outs, and Imanaga got through six on 74 pitches. They had each allowed a home run and were knotted in a 2-2 game.

Pages lifts Cards to lead

Imanaga was flawless going into the third inning, and he quickly had two strikes on rookie second baseman Thomas Saggese. The Cardinals’ infielder fouled off two four-seam fastballs to hang in the at-bat and invite Imanaga to give him another look.

Imanaga tried the splitter, and Saggese pulled the low pitch hard and toward left field for the Cardinals’ first hit of the game.

Their second gave them the lead.

Catcher Pages drilled an 0-1 pitch 407 feet and beyond center field for two RBIs. Pages’ eighth homer of the season was not only the only runs the Cardinals got against Imanaga in the first six innings. They were the only baserunners against him before the seventh, too.

Defense blinks, Cubs pounce

The only runs allowed by Gray came in the fifth inning and their prelude was an error.

Gray coaxed a groundball to third base. But Gorman, getting a long look at the hot corner with Nolan Arenado recovering from a shoulder injury, misplaced his throw and committed his fourth error of the season. That put a runner on base ahead of No. 9 hitter Matt Shaw, and that meant Shaw’s home run was enough to tie the game, 2-2.

Gray got ahead in the count and did what he had three times in that third inning and so many times before against the Cubs and other teams.

He went to the sweeper.

This one remained elevated and whooshed into the strike zone before Shaw sent it 379 feet and into the tie game.