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Cardinals starter Sonny Gray spun perfectly through his first look at the San Francisco lineup, allowed one ball out of the infield as he blitzed through four innings and appeared to have the makings of a special, dominant afternoon at his fingertips.

Until he didn’t.

As quickly as he took a no-hitter into the sixth inning, Gray’s outing started to wobble quicker as three walks and two singles meant he would not finish the sixth inning.

“That’s my season in a nutshell,� he said. “Really, really good. One really bad.�

It helped that the game was also the Cardinals’ season in a nutshell.

Superb defense helped Gray take his shutout into the sixth and assisted Riley O’Brien to get through the ninth. The Cardinals relied on two other traits they’ve had to have to win this summer: a strong bullpen and a persistent, base runner-collecting offense. All of the Cardinals’ runs came in an inning when they took advantage of four walks with timely singles, and right-hander Matt Svanson led the relievers, who froze a one-run lead for 3 2/3 innings.

The result was a 4-3 victory Sunday against the Giants at Busch Stadium and a series win that lifted the Cardinals, at 72-72, back to .500.

“When we win, we we do those little things well,� manager Oli Marmol said.

The Giants (72-71) took the field Saturday in St. Louis having won 11 of their previous 12 games and feeling like they were accelerating in the playoff chase.

They leave a half-game ahead of the Cardinals in the wild-card standings.

“We believe that we could win, and we’ve shown we can win at high levels,� said Gray, who has started 29 games this season (the Cardinals have won 20 of them). “We’ve not been able to sustain that at times. But overall, I feel like we’ve done OK, especially when we’ve got arguably four of our best players who are not playing, and we’re still hanging in there.�

The Cardinals played the entirety of the Giants’ three-game visit without their home run leader (Willson Contreras), their most consistent hitter (Alec Burleson), their All-Star (Brendan Donovan) and their longtime cleanup hitter (Nolan Arenado). All of that foursome but Contreras remained on the injured list. Contreras was suspended for an ejection in late August.

With that chunk of production missing from the lineup, the Cardinals also faced one of the stoutest offenses coming into September. The Giants put on a show Friday night with 18 hits in their victory.

In the 18 innings that followed, the Cardinals held them to five runs.

Cardinals pitching held the Giants scoreless in 16 of those 18 innings.

And no one did it better than Gray in the first half of Sunday’s game.

“He did a really nice job of staying out of the middle, attacking the edges,� Marmol said. “He mixed well enough to keep those guys off balance.�

Gray’s start began with a snappy defensive play at second base from Thomas Saggese. In the fifth inning, Saggese would range to his left, and his dive for grounder took him into the grass. He still had the arm strength and timing to get the out to keep Gray’s no-hit bid moving.

Gray retired the first 11 Giants he faced, and only Jung Hoo Lee got the ball out of the infield in that stretch. He flew out to center field.

The Cardinals right-hander struck out three of the first nine batters he faced, got two ground outs to start the fourth inning and interrupted his perfect hold on the game with a walk.

He struck out Dominic Smith to strand the runner.

Gray (13-8) has had similar overpowering stretches in previous games. At the end of June, he buzzsawed through the Guardians for 11 strikeouts and a complete game that was the finest by any Cardinals starter this season. Three times in August, Gray pitched seven innings and allowed only one run. But twice in his previous four starts, he allowed at least six runs.

“My season has been kind of up and down, hit or miss, some good, some bad,� Gray said. “Season in a nutshell. I’ve had a ton of games where I’ve gone seven innings (and) no runs, nine innings (and) no runs, six innings (and) no runs, and very rarely I have gone six innings (and) two runs, six innings (and) three runs. It’s been seven innings (and) no runs or it’s been four innings (and) six runs. When I say my season in a nutshell, it’s kind of felt like you’re who you want to be for five innings and then one inning was what it was.�

Before the inning that was what it was, the Cardinals had their decisive inning.

Giants starter Kai-Wei Teng matched Gray zero for zero through four innings. He then walked the first three batters he faced in the fifth inning. They happened to be the last three hitters in the Cardinals’ order. Teng walked No. 9 hitter Jose Fermin on four pitches to load the bases and bring back around the leadoff spot. Lars Nootbaar sparked the rally when he golfed a low pitch into center field for an RBI single.

The Cardinals’ radio-dial offense was off and walking.

ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ went station to station for a four-run rally. Ivan Herrera followed Nootbaar with a single that brought home another run and kept the bases loaded. Teng walked Nolan Gorman with the bases loaded to force home a run. Masyn Winn grounded into a double play, but that brought home Nootbaar.

“I like the approach there of just getting the next guy up,� Marmol said.

The length of the inning contributed to what happened next for Gray, Marmol believed. Like Teng in the fifth, Gray started the top of the six by walking the first two batters on 10 pitches. They also happened to be the last two batters in the Giants’ lineup.

The top of the order took advantage. Rafael Devers snapped Gray’s no-hitter and shutout with one swing. In the span of three batters, Gray lost his no-hit bid and was also out of the game.

Svanson entered with the bases loaded, allowed one inherited runner to score and was lockdown from there. His 1 2/3 scoreless innings funneled into JoJo Romero’s strikeout to end the eightj and O’Brien’s scoreless ninth for his third save.

Nathan Church had a diving catch in right field that helped O’Brien avoid any trouble from a leadoff single. A double-play ground out ended the game.

Close game.

Bullpen hanging zeroes.

Defense playing a hand in deciding it.

And a third consecutive series victory for the first time since May, back when the Cardinals were in the thick of the standings and outplaying the “reset� imposed upon them.

Season in a nutshell.

“We’ve played some really good baseball. We’ve played some bad baseball. Overall, we’ve played .500 baseball,� Gray said. “No matter what the outside narrative is, you still have to believe you can go out there and win as a group. If you lose that, it just gets ugly, and it gets ugly quick.�