The Athletics overwhelmed Cardinals pitching in a 11-3 trouncing of the Redbirds on Labor Day.

St. Louis starter Sonny Gray had a rough outing against his former team, allowing seven runs on ten hits and three walks over six innings of work.

The first three of those runs came in the fourth, when JJ Bleday hit a two-run home run and Zack Gelof added a solo shot. The Cardinals stole a run back in the bottom of the inning with Ivan Herrera’s 12th bomb of the year.

The A’s added to their lead in the sixth thanks to an RBI single from Colby Thomas and Bleday’s second home run of the day, this one a solo shot to right field. The Cardinals again responded with a lone run in the bottom of the inning, this one on an RBI single from Masyn Winn.

Gray pitched into the seventh, but couldn’t record an out before Ryan Fernandez entered into the game. The A’s scored two more runs in the seventh and four more in the eighth to put the game out of reach.

The Cardinals rounded out the scoring in the ninth with an RBI single from Jose Fermin.

The Cardinals fall to 68-71, 17 games back of Milwaukee in the NL Central and 6.5 games back of the Mets in the wild card. The series will continue Tuesday evening, with Miles Mikolas getting the start. First pitch from Busch Stadium will be at 6:45 p.m.