Minnesota pitcher Sonny Gray earned his first victory since April 30 as the visiting Twins defeated the St. Louis Cardinals 5-3 on Thursday.

Gray (5-4) had gone 15 starts without winning a game, an 0-4 stretch with 11 no-decisions.

He broke that streak by holding the Cardinals to two runs on five hits in seven innings. Gray struck out eight batters without a walk.

Griffin Jax dispatched the Cardinals in the eighth inning and Jhoan Duran closed out the ninth to earn his 19th save.

Michael A. Taylor hit a two-run homer and drew a bases-loaded walk to pace the offense for the Twins, who won for just the second time in eight games. Ryan Jeffers also hit a two-run homer.

Cardinals starting pitcher Matthew Liberatore (1-4) allowed the five runs on six hits with one strikeout and two walks in 5 2/3 innings.

Alec Burleson hit a homer and had three hits for the Cardinals, who lost for the fifth time in seven games.

The Twins took a 4-0 lead in the second inning. Jorge Polanco drew a leadoff walk and Jeffers launched his sixth homer of the season with one out.

Willi Castro followed with a double and stole third base before Taylor hammered his 13th homer.

The Cardinals cut their deficit to 4-1 in the bottom of the inning when Burleson hit a single and later scored on a double by Dylan Carlson.

Minnesota threatened in the third inning when Donovan Solano hit a one-out single and advanced on a wild pitch. But Liberatore retired the next two batters to strand him.

Liberatore could not get through the sixth inning. He allowed a leadoff single by Solano and a one-out single by Edouard Julien before walking Castro with two outs.

Reliever Drew VerHagen walked Taylor to make it 5-1, then he struck out Matt Wallner to prevent further damage.

The Cardinals got a run back in the bottom of the sixth on Burleson's homer, his eighth.

Burleson cut the lead to 5-3 in the ninth inning. He hit a leadoff single, moved up on a groundout, took third on a wild pitch, and scored on Carlson's groundout.

Andrew Knizner reached on an infield single to get the tying run to the plate, but Duran struck out Taylor Motter to end the game.

--Field Level Media