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A spinning, reaching defensive gem by Masyn Winn and Willson Contreras saved him a run and pried him loose from a problematic inning. A persistent offense, quieted in the first half of the game by familiar foe Clayton Kershaw, pecked away at a deficit late, chipping it down to two runs twice before the Los Angeles Dodgers pulled away late for a 7-3 victory at Busch Stadium. The loss kept the Cardinals from sweeping the weekend series from the defending World Series champions.

It did nothing to quiet the message sent.

“Shows we can compete,” Winn said. “We don’t have the payroll that a lot of teams do have. We have a lot of guys in here who are just grinders. We don’t have one standout superstar. For all of us to be pitching in, just being great players day in and day out.”

“It’s the guys just finding ways to win,” McGreevy echoed. “Even there toward the seventh inning we were sneaking up on them again, and it didn’t feel like, oh, even though we’re losing — no, we’re right in this game. Didn’t go our way. But they find ways to win.”

When last McGreevy was in the majors, he pitched relief as the Cardinals completed a doubleheader sweep of the New York Mets on May 4. They woke up that morning five games under .500, languishing in the standings, and off to a predictable start for a young, wobbly team openly advertising itself as in downturn year. All that’s happened since McGreevy’s last pitch in the majors is a revelation — the Cardinals won 22 of their next 32 games, asserted a defense that’s harder to get through than red tape, and showed a versatile, resourceful offense.

The Dodgers got an eyeful of those traits and then also starting pitching in their weekend visit to ӣ����Ƶ. Sonny Gray led a shutout Friday for a win. Winn dashed home aggressively for a pivotal run in Saturday’s win. And all weekend the offense hounded the Dodgers’ pitching while vexing one of the best lineup’s in the land. Until the first of Tommy Edman’s three RBIs on Sunday, the Dodgers were 1 for 29 with runners in scoring position.

Their only run in the first 19 innings of the weekend came on a wild pitch.

The series had an October feel with matchup decisions, claustrophobic scores, key hits, clutch outs, stars stymied, and two of the Cardinals’ three 40,000-strong crowds so far this season. Sunday’s tickets-sold crowd of 42,225 — the largest since opening day — saw the only Cardinals’ loss of the series. But the Cardinals twice got the tying run at least to the plate in late innings to keep the result in doubt.

“You are developing winning players, and that’s what I’m loving at the moment,” manager Oliver Marmol said. “These guys are learning how to win. I’ve said it quite a bit — that’s a good team across the way. And they felt us every inning of this series. Even up four. You could feel it. That is exactly the type of pressure and culture you want to create. Regardless of score, across the way they feel you coming. That is what this series was.”

McGreevy learned he was coming to ӣ����Ƶ for a start on Friday, and he got a text from his father Saturday that he’d be facing Kershaw.

The right-hander was 7 when Kershaw made his debut against the Cardinals in 2008. All he’s done since is carve and lacquer a Hall of Fame-bound resume that includes three Cy Young Awards, 10 All-Star nods, and five ERA titles. Some of the only welts on Kershaw’s career came in October against the Cardinals, and they welcomed him to Busch for his fourth start there since 2015 by playing the highlight of Matt Adams’ home run against him in the 2014 playoffs. Kershaw told reporters after the game that was “a little bush league” and that he doesn’t “expect anything less from these guys.” During the game, Kershaw (1-0) was closer to vintage than fall.

He pitched around two-out base hits in the first, second, and fourth innings to keep the Cardinals’ scoreless going into his fifth and final inning.

Meanwhile, McGreevy felt the singe of exit velocity.

Shohei Ohtani drilled the first pitch of the game 106.5 mph for a double. Mookie Betts lined out to third base, and Freddie Freeman scalded a lineout to first. Three boisterous outs and McGreevy escaped the inning without allowing a run. Six of the first eight balls in play against the right-hander left a Dodgers’ bat at 100 mph or harder, and the seventh was a 98.7-mph liner that Hyeseong Kim for a two-run triple.

Welcome back to the bigs, Michael. Just like last year vs. Texas, his first start of this year was against the reigning champions.

“I see a pattern here,” he joked.

After the Dodgers took a 3-0 lead and Winn’s spinning play to rob Betts of an RBI single ended the second inning, McGreevy returned to the clubhouse.

He needed a moment to reset.

Not just his pulse and approach, but his expectations.

“It was more of a mentality thing,” the 24-year-old right-hander said. “They’re great hitters. They’re going to hit even sometimes your best pitches. The first pitch of the game to Ohtani was a sinker on the black away, and he just turned on it to left-center. Sometimes you get cue shots that fall. Sometimes you get barrels that are caught. At the same time, you have to be more aggressive.”

McGreevy (1-1) was through his final four innings. He retired eight of the final nine batters, and the only run the Dodgers got came on that cue shot. Edman threaded a groundball down the third-base line for an RBI double that even had him grinning at his fortune.

McGreevy held the three former MVPs atop the Dodgers’ lineup to Ohtani’s double and that’s it as he struck out a total of five in six innings. All weekend, the Cardinals confined LA’s MV3, holding them to 11 for 39 (.282) but only one RBI. That came on Betts’ solo homer in the seventh inning Sunday as LA added on against the Cardinals’ bullpen. McGreevy had two of those Dodgers’ six strikeouts in the weekend.

Pitching that limited the top of the Dodgers’ lineup allowed the Cardinals’ offense to overtake LA Friday and Saturday and inch back into the game Sunday. Winn had an RBI double in the fifth, Alec Burleson lofted a sacrifice fly in the sixth, and Contreras’ roped a two-out, RBI single in the seventh. In sixth and seventh, after Kershaw’s five innings were over, the Cardinals got the tying run at least to the plate.

They sustained the pressure, but did not squeeze out a sweep.

“The overall takeaway,” McGreevy said of his start. “If you want to be a big leaguer you’ve got to face the best.”

A similar takeaway goes for the series.

If you want to be a contender you’ve got to beat the best.

Dodgers 7, Cardinals 3

Los Angeles AB R H BI BB SO Avg.

Ohtani dh 4 0 1 0 0 0 .293

Betts ss 5 1 1 1 0 1 .274

Freeman 1b 5 0 0 0 0 2 .345

T.Hernández rf 4 1 0 0 1 0 .266

Muncy 3b 4 2 2 0 1 1 .235

Smith c 5 2 2 0 0 2 .322

Conforto lf 3 0 1 0 0 0 .170

Edman 2b 3 1 2 3 0 1 .244

Kim cf 2 0 1 2 0 1 .414

E.Hrnándz ph-cf 1 0 0 0 1 0 .227

Totals 36 7 10 6 3 8

ӣ����Ƶ AB R H BI BB SO Avg.

Nootbaar lf-cf 5 0 0 0 0 3 .242

Winn ss 5 0 1 1 0 0 .275

Donovan 2b 5 0 2 0 0 1 .317

Contreras 1b 4 1 2 1 0 1 .250

Herrera dh 4 0 2 0 0 1 .316

Arenado 3b 4 0 0 0 0 0 .237

Burleson rf 3 1 2 1 0 0 .296

Pagés c 4 0 1 0 0 1 .223

Barrero cf 2 0 0 0 0 1 .150

Vilade ph-lf 1 1 1 0 1 0 .091

Totals 37 3 11 3 1 8

Los Angeles 030 100 120 — 7 10 0

ӣ����Ƶ 000 011 100 — 3 11 0

LOB: Los Angeles 8, ӣ����Ƶ 9. 2B: Ohtani (10), Edman (9), Donovan (20), Herrera (8), Winn (11), Contreras (14). 3B: Kim (1), Smith (1). HR: Betts (9), off King. RBIs: Edman 3 (32), Kim 2 (9), Betts (33), Winn (22), Burleson (20), Contreras (38). SF: Edman, Burleson.

Los Angeles IP H R ER BB SO ERA

Kershaw, W, 1-0 5 6 1 1 0 7 4.35

Trivino, H, 3 1 2 1 1 0 0 1.74

Dreyer, H, 6 2/3 1 1 1 1 0 2.83

Yates, H, 9 1/3 1 0 0 0 0 4.26

T.Scott 1 0 0 0 0 0 4.25

Kopech 1 1 0 0 0 1 0.00

ӣ����Ƶ IP H R ER BB SO ERA

McGreevy, L, 1-1 6 8 4 4 0 5 3.09

King 1 1 1 1 0 0 3.63

Svanson 2 1 2 2 3 3 3.95

Inherited runners-scored: Yates 2-1. HBP: Svanson 2 (Conforto,Ohtani). PB: Pagés (3). T: 2:55. Att.: 42,255.

Derrick Goold @dgoold on X dgoold@post-dispatch.com