LOS ANGELES – It took another pinch-hit single from the Cardinals' backup catcher to seize a lead for the new setup in the backend of the bullpen.

Yohel Pozo, one of the Cardinals' most reliable bats off the bench, poked an RBI single in the ninth inning to break a tie and give the Cardinals their third lead of the game. It was up to lefty JoJo Romero to secure the 3-2 win Monday at Dodger Stadium.

Romero, the only lefty in the bullpen and still the preferred option to close since all the veterans were traded, allowed a leadoff single to Shohei Ohtani to open the ninth before retiring three of the next four batters. Romero was helped by a sliding catch in right by Lars Nootbaar and the right fielder snaring a liner for the final out of the game against the defending World Series champions.

Romero is 2-for-2 in save opportunities since Ryan Helsley went to Queens.

Getting that lead needed a rally-saving swing from Pozo. The first two Cardinals of the ninth inning reached with singles to put the go-ahead run 90 feet away home. And the Cardinals were in danger of marooning him there.

Willson Contreras opened the inning with a single, and his pinch-runner Garrett Hampson skedaddled for third on Nootbaar’s single. The Cardinals had two chances to bring the runner home with a fly ball to the outfield or with another variety of ball in play. They got none of them as Masyn Winn popped up and Thomas Saggese struck out.

Enter Pozo.

The backup catcher flipped a single to right field that scored Hampson for the one-run lead. The single was Pozo’s sixth pinch-hit hit of the season and Hampson scored Pozo’s seventh pinch-hit RBI of the season. All of that in only Pozo’s 12th pinch-hit at-bat.

Sonny Gray was brilliant through seven innings with eight strikeouts and only one hit allowed. He turned a lead over to the bullpen thanks to Ivan Herrera.

The designated hitter drilled a pitch 428 feet to straightaway center field to break a 1-1 tie and vault the Cardinals back into the lead. Herrera’s eighth inning homer – his 10th home run of the season – sparked an exchange of runs that took both starting pitchers out of the decisions. In the bottom of the eighth, Teoscar Hernandez’s leadoff double allowed Los Angeles to turn two groundouts into an RBI and another tie game, 2-2.

Neither starter got the loss. Both pitched well enough to win.

Dodgers right-hander Tyler Glasnow held the Cardinals to three hits, and like Gray the only run he allowed was on a solo homer. Winn launched that in the second inning. Glasnow did not allow a baserunner after a walk in the fourth inning and finished with seven strikeouts.

Gray welcomes turn of the calendar

Free from the heat of July, Gray had one of his finest starts of the year.

The Cardinals’ right-hander spoke candidly about the difficulty he had pitching in the sweltering weather the past month. He soaked through jerseys. He tried sleeves to soak up some of the sweat only to feel hotter and ditch the sleeves. In a recent start, he abandoned some of the pitches he could not keep a grip on and threw more changeups because of the slippery feel of his fingers. All of that combined for a lousy month from Gray. In six July starts, Gray had a 7.81 ERA and allowed 43 hits in 27 2/3 innings.

He turned opponents into batting champs.

They hit .347 against him in this past month.

The month of July is traditionally the worst of his season, and he emerged from this past month with a 4.19 career ERA in July – the highest of any month.

In his first start of August, he was at his coolest.

Gray struck out four of the first nine Dodgers he faced. He set the tone by striking out Ohtani to open the game, and then he struck out Ohtani in the sixth as part of the finishing touches on his quality start. Gray faced 23 batters and only five of them got the ball out of the infield. The only run and hit he allowed was to the one Dodger who got a ball out of the park against him.

Winn lifts Cardinals to lead

Down by seven runs at the start of the ninth inning Sunday in San Diego, the Cardinals strung enough singles and walks together to bring the tying run to the plate with the bases loaded.

That batter? Winn.

His thinking?

He said he envisioned hitting a home run to tie the game.

He lined out to the pitch to end the game, but a day later and back at the plate for the first time since that game-ending out, Winn got that home run.

The shortstop drilled a 96.4-mph fastball from Glasnow for a solo homer in the second inning that put the Cardinals ahead 1-0. Winn ignored an elevated slider to get ahead in the count, and then catapulted a low fastball over the left-field wall for his eighth home run of the season. It traveled an estimated 389 feet and kept the Cardinals from coming up empty despite the traffic they created in the first two innings.

When the game began, the Cardinals’ lineup in their career had been 0 for 22 against Glasnow. Herrera improved to 1 for 1 in his career against the right-hander with a single in the first inning. Herrera stole second, but each of his next two teammates grounded out to second to end the inning.

Winn was the first baserunner against Glasnow in the second inning, and he circled them for the 1-0 lead. But the next two Cardinals also reached. Thomas Saggese poked a single to right field, and Pedro Pages worked a walk. Glasnow regained control of the inning from there – and his game.

Following the walk to Pages, Glasnow retired 17 of the next 18 Cardinals.

Freeman answers

That bought time for the Dodgers to find some way to solve Gray.

It only took one Dodger to halt his no-hit and shutout blitz through their lineup.

In the fourth inning, Winn kept Mookie Betts from an infield single with a blistering throw from short that beat the former MVP by a step at first. That proved essential when the next batter, another MVP in Freddie Freeman, lofted a ball to the right-field seats. Instead of overtaking the Cardinals’ lead with Betts on base, Winn’s throw assured that Freeman’s homer only tied the game. The homer was Freeman’s 13th of the season.

It was also the first hit Gray allowed.

The score remained knotted at 1 until Glasnow left and the bullpens got involved.

Replay malfunction

A technical issue with the replay system at Dodger Stadium meant both teams had unlimited crew chief reviews to use during the game, an MLB official said. The teams were notified of this option while the game was going on. Each team had the usual amount of manager challenges to use, if it wished, but because of the undefined technical issue in the opening moments of the game the access to replay was expanded.

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