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When struggles by Sonny Gray left the Cardinals in an early hole, the response their offense was looking for was provided and proved to be pivotal.

Trailing the Padres 2-0 after the top of the first inning, the Cardinals pushed across one run in the bottom half of the frame. They produced a six-run second inning that included a go-ahead three-run homer from Brendan Donovan and a second three-run homer from Willson Contreras off starter Yu Darvish. The six-run inning provided the Cardinals a lead their relievers held tight to protect in a 9-7 win over San Diego.

“I feel like we responded right there and had some big swings and some really good at-bats all down the line,” Donovan said.

The series-opening win kicked off a seven-game homestand at Busch Stadium that ends a day before Major League Baseball’s July 31 trade deadline. Thursday’s win moved the Cardinals to 2.5 games back of the final NL Wild Card spot held by the Padres, who they play six times in their next nine games, and comes after they began their second half with a 1-5 road trip that included stops in Arizona and Colorado.

“I think the most important day of a series is trying to win the first game of the series,” Donovan said. “We're trying to be short-minded. Still evaluate and learn from this past road trip. Today was a good response out of the boys.”

The Cardinals’ offensive output included a run in the fourth inning on an RBI single from Ivan Herrera and another in the sixth on a solo homer to center field from Herrera that had a 111.5 mph exit velocity, per Statcast. The production responded to the seven runs Gray allowed over five innings during his start.

Relief work from JoJo Romero, who struck out four batters in 1 2/3 scoreless innings, Phil Maton, and closer Ryan Helsley helped secure the series-opening win and manager Oliver Marmol’s 300th win of his managerial career.

“We needed it, especially after they punched early,” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said. “To answer back in the first and then to be able to do what we did in the second was extremely important, especially coming off that road trip, you wanted to come out a little stronger. We needed the offense to get going.”

Like Gray’s last start, the righty and the Cardinals fell into a hole after the first inning. Gray, who allowed three of a career-high nine runs in the first inning this past Saturday against the Diamondbacks, saw the Padres push across one run two batters into the game with a leadoff single from Fernando Tatis Jr. and a double from Luis Arraez. A one-out single from Jackson Merrill scored a second run before he could get five batters into his outing.

Between his previous two starts, Gray has allowed a combined five runs in the first inning. He’s surrendered four home runs, two of which came on Thursday from Tatis and Manny Machado, and has allowed 16 runs (14 earned) and 22 hits across 8 2/3 innings since the All-Star break.

“It hasn't been good for me the last two outings,” Gray said. “I will say this time, rather than last time, there was not a bone in my body that was giving in or that was conceding. I did feel deep in my core that I was continuing to try to press the envelope. There wasn't a give-in. ... It just didn't really go my way.

“But I will continue to work through that and take the things that maybe have went well and then learn from the things that didn't. I'm just thankful that the offense and the bullpen were able to pick me up the way that they did tonight.”

The offensive answers the Cardinals looked for after a disappointing performance in Colorado on Wednesday began with a leadoff single in the first inning from Donovan. A two-out double from Contreras later that inning was the second of 12 hits the Cardinals pieced together against San Diego. Contreras drove in the first of the nine runs that marked the Cardinals' largest offensive output since scoring nine runs in a comeback win in Cleveland on June 28.

The Cardinals (53-51) were held to 17 runs over six games since the All-Star break heading into Thursday’s opener

“We didn't miss mistakes. We made him (Darvish) work. I liked our approach today,” Marmol said. “Our focus was there, attention to detail was there, and overall execution was pretty darn high, but we didn't let him get away with a whole lot.”

With a lead in hand and the Cardinals calling on their bullpen to hold it, the role Romero played provided stability and a seamless path to how the final two innings would be covered.

Inserted into the sixth inning with one out and runners on first and second base, Romero froze Merrill for a called third strike on a 2-2 sinker and induced an inning-ending groundout of Xander Bogaerts to strand the two runners he inherited from Riley O’Brien. Romero’s flexibility to return for a second inning resulted in a 13-pitch frame where the lefty struck out the side to set up Maton for the eighth inning and Helsley for a chance to notch his 20th save of the season.

“I think just covering that extra inning was huge,” Maton said. “In hindsight, those were the tying runs on base. Getting those guys out was a big situation but going back out there and punching the side, that's huge from a momentum standpoint for us, but also just from a covering innings in a situation where me or somebody else would have to do a one plus to cover that, but he went out there, put his head down, did his job, and that was huge for us.

“That was a big reason why we won tonight.”