CLEVELAND — Looking back at the complete game shutout twirled by Sonny Gray on Friday to open a three-game series in Cleveland, St. Louis Cardinals starter Matthew Liberatore described the impact of the right-hander’s outing as one that did more than preserve the bullpen and claim a win.

For Liberatore, the outing provided him with a bit of “motivation” for what he looked to do on Sunday at Progressive Field.

Taking the mound with the Cardinals looking to sweep the Guardians and with a 3-0 lead provided by Nolan Gorman’s three-run homer in the first inning, Liberatore worked around five walks and three hits to complete six scoreless innings. The outing helped lead the Cardinals to a 7-0 win that secured a sweep of the Guardians and elevated them to a season-best nine games above .500.

“I wanted to go out and do a fraction of what he did (on Friday) today. I knew that I’d be in a good spot if I was able to do that,” Liberatore said.

“I think the more we as a staff, starters and relievers, pitch well, it makes the guy next to us want to do the same thing,” Liberatore continued. “When the momentum is on our side, I think it makes it easier to hand that baton to the next guy and let them keep it going.”

The game marked Liberatore’s second scoreless outing of the season, improved him to a 6-6 record and lowered his ERA to 3.70. He earned a third consecutive winning decision as kept opposing teams to four runs in his previous 19 innings after he surrendered 17 runs in the 14 innings prior to that stretch.

To turn in such an outing Sunday, Liberatore was aided by lefty reliever JoJo Romero’s seventh-inning escape job.

Working with runners on first and second base and no outs in the seventh, Romero struck out the first two batters he faced and induced a ground ball to end the inning, stopping any momentum the Guardians were building and preserving the momentum Cardinals pitchers carried into Sunday.

Romero’s relief outing helped the Cardinals (47-38) limit the Guardians to six runs across 27 innings during the three-game set. The only runs the Guardians scored over the weekend came in the fourth inning of the Cardinals’ 9-6 comeback win on Saturday.

“I think what we saw in Game 1 with Sonny, I think that was great to see but also great to sit there and not only enjoy but to learn from just seeing the way he attacked guys, the way he sequenced certain pitches,” Romero said. “Every time we watch him go out, on top of a bunch of these other guys, it’s a learning experience for us.

“I think him setting the tone there passed the baton to the rest of us. I think it was just wanting to come in and contribute any way we can and ... just do our job.”

Along with Gorman’s first-inning three-run homer against Guardians lefty starter Logan Allen, Cardinals pitchers received run support in the seventh inning on Victor Scott II’s two-run homer. The Cardinals lineup tacked on two more runs in the eighth inning on a sacrifice fly by Pedro Pages and a single from Garrett Hampson.

Liberatore said taking the mound with a lead already intact “doesn’t really change the game plan much, but it frees you up to not have to be perfect.”

Against Cleveland, Liberatore said he “did a good job of that sometimes.”

The five walks Liberatore issued were his most in a start this season. Liberatore, 25, had not walked more than three batters in any of his previous outings this year and had allowed just 12 over 86 1/3 innings entering the series finale.

Two of his walks came in the first inning after he had two outs in the frame.

A walk to Jose Ramirez, another to former Cardinal Lane Thomas and a single from Carlos Santana loaded the bases and prompted a mound visit from pitching coach Dusty Blake. A 1-2 slider to Angel Martinez induced a ground-ball that got Liberatore out of the frame.

When he returned to the mound for the seventh inning, Liberatore walked Martinez on 10 pitches and followed that with a walk to Daniel Schneemann on six pitches after he fell behind Schneemann 3-0 to begin the at-bat. The Schneemann at-bat signaled the end of Liberatore’s start.

“Overall, that was a very good outing, and his usage was exactly what you want out of him as far as mixing the sinker and the curveball,” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said. “All of it was a good mix. I like what we saw out of him today. He was stubborn and not giving in to certain guys, and it paid off.”

Amid a stretch where he’s allowed just two runs (one earned) over his previous 16 innings and whittled his ERA down from 7.27 to 2.92, the 28-year-old Romero got Jonathan Rodriguez to whiff on a 2-2 change-up, whizzed a 96 mph fastball by Austin Hedges that got Hedges to chase above the strike zone and induced soft contact vs. Steven Kwan to strand the two runners he inherited.

“You’re at the bottom of that lineup where they can flip it and go (Nolan) Jones and a couple guys off the bench with (Josh) Naylor in that Hedges spot,” Marmol said. “We like keeping the righties in there.

“That’s a big part of the game of keeping it there. Very impressive. But (Romero has) looked really good as of late.”

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