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But at Chase Field, Gray’s sights on helping the Cardinals respond to a deflating Friday night loss were met with friction that snowballed his start. Early swings and hard contact from Arizona’s lineup left the veteran right-hander with three runs in his first inning of work, two in the second, another in the third, and three in a fourth inning he could not finish.

Gray’s inability to silence Diamondbacks hitters sunk the Cardinals in a 10-1 loss and left the veteran right-hander with the most runs and hits he’s allowed in any start across his 13 years in the majors.

“Physically, I felt really good. Mentally… I was very weak mentally today, which is unfortunate, because after yesterday, you come back in the second half after the All-Star break, you want to go out there and give ourselves a chance and hopefully jump-start us to playing well,” Gray said. “I didn't do that. I put us in a big hole early, and it's just too big to climb out of there.”

Gray, 35, gave up a career-high nine runs (eight earned) and matched a career-high with 11 hits allowed over 3 1/3 innings on Saturday. Gray’s previous career-high in runs and earned runs was eight on July 25, 2021, in a start with the Reds against the Cardinals. The 11 hits he was tagged for were his most since giving up that many hits on April 17, 2015, during a start with the Oakland Athletics.

Gray has now allowed 11 hits in three starts over his career. During his latest such outing, two of the 11 hits were homers by Eugenio Suarez, and nine of the 11, including Suarez's two homers, had exit velocities above 95 mph. Eight of the hard-hit balls came off bats at 100 mph or higher, per Statcast.

“They had a good approach. They took some pretty good swings on him early. ... At the end of the day, they just beat him.” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said of Gray’s start. “They took really good at-bats. Eleven out of 15 balls in play were for hits. That's not a norm, but when that happens, it'll lead to a lot of runs. The combination of all of that led to his outing.”

Gray’s Saturday start began with a triple allowed on a 1-2 sweeper to Corbin Carroll that was hit with a 109.8 mph exit velocity. Carroll scored on a single hit at 103.3 mph from Geraldo Perdomo in the following at-bat after Gray went from working in an 0-2 count against Perdomo to a 2-2 count.

A double play on a groundball from Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and two called strikes to Josh Naylor put Gray a strike away from getting through the inning with the lone run allowed. But Naylor’s late swing against Gray’s 0-2 fastball resulted in Naylor’s bat hitting catcher Pedro Pages’ glove after Pages had already caught Gray’s pitch. A catcher’s interference was ruled on the play, allowing Naylor to reach first base.

Suarez, an All-Star third baseman and valuable trade chip heading into the July 31 trade deadline, capitalized on the prolonged inning by driving a 1-0 sinker from Gray to left field for a two-run homer that was his 32nd of the year.

“I don't think that's Pedro's fault or anything,” Gray said. “The guy swung when the ball was in his glove. It was literally in his glove, and he just — what do you do there as a catcher, right? He had already caught the ball, and then he swings.

“That was a big spot early in the game. Because if that doesn't happen and you give up one, you maybe feel like you can come and reset and maybe do something, but then you give up the homer after that, and then another single and... it's just kind of how the day was.”

While Gray could not limit damage, Cardinals hitters were held down by an Arizona starter for the second consecutive night.

After Brandon Pfaadt threw seven scoreless innings on Friday, right-hander Ryne Nelson limited the Cardinals (51-48) to one run, four hits, and one walk in six innings. The lone run the Cardinals scored off Nelson came in the sixth inning on a 443-foot home run from Alec Burleson.

The grounded Cardinals’ offense had one batter reach base in the second, third, and fourth innings. In each inning, the runner did not advance beyond second base.

Meanwhile, the Diamondbacks piled onto their lead as they collected three hits in the second inning, all of which were hit above 95 mph. They received a third-inning homer that marked Suarez’s second of the game, and totaled another three hits in the fourth, including a second triple from Carroll that had a 109.3 mph exit velocity as Arizona left Gray with perhaps the outing of his career.

“I'm just looking forward to getting back to having a normal week,” Gray said. “I'll be fine. I'll be fine. I'll just have a normal week and get back on the horse. Like I said, mentally, I just didn't feel there for whatever reason. I'm not making excuses. Just stating facts. Coming back from the break like that is not easy, especially not for me. I'll just have us have a normal weekend, and I'll be fine.”