ST. LOUIS — The St. Louis Cardinals clubhouse was all smiles Wednesday afternoon, and for good reason.

After spending most of April hovering three to four games under .500, the Cardinals have found new life.

St. Louis completed a sweep of the Pittsburgh Pirates on Wednesday afternoon, rolling 5-0 behind an ace-like performance from Sonny Gray, who posted seven innings of two-hit ball with one walk and eight strikeouts. It marked a season-best fifth straight win for the Cardinals, who are back to .500, where they had not been since April 16.

“You go into that game with the ability to sweep, and you got your guy on the mound and he does exactly what he needed to do,” manager Oli Marmol said after the game. “That was a fun one.”

The Cardinals have been playing a much more fun brand of baseball lately. And the element fueling this best stretch of the season has been what plagued them at the start of it — their bullpen.

“We’re trending in the right direction,” pitching coach Dusty Blake said. “We’re making adjustments that will give these guys better opportunities to be successful. Velocity, strike percentage and execution have all progressively improved, for the most part. We’re always trying to make sure we’re getting to that baseline and can maintain it, and I think we’re definitely closer to that.”

Through their five-game win streak, Cardinals relievers combined to allow just two earned runs over 17 2/3 innings. St. Louis also posted eight scoreless relief innings throughout the Pittsburgh series.

Changing some roles also aided the team. The Cardinals called up right-hander Gordon Graceffo before the series and indicated they would use him in relief. Steven Matz, who spent the first six weeks of the season as the team’s swingman, will also be used as more of a traditional reliever for the foreseeable future.

The reason is that 17 of the 27 games the Cardinals played in April were decided by three runs or fewer. Twelve of those games were losses. One of their most glaring issues during that stretch was bridging their bullpen together.

“When you look at one-run ball games, a lot of times when you’re winning those, it’s because you feel good about your bullpen,” Marmol said.

Take last year, for example. The Cardinals went 31-25 in one-run games in 2024. They also had one of the league’s most effective relief corps, anchored by closer Ryan Helsley, who led the majors in saves (49). But how St. Louis created the bridge to Helsley was just as important. The set-up man tandem of Andrew Kittredge from the right side and JoJo Romero from the left side allowed the Cardinals to feel comfortable with a lead, no matter how small, from the seventh inning on. If either pitcher was unavailable, their secondary options of Ryan Fernandez and Matthew Liberatore were just as reliable.

They have not replicated that success this season. While the Cardinals like their right-handed trio of Helsley, Phil Maton and Kyle Leahy in the late innings, they’ve had trouble getting there.

Fernandez was optioned to Triple A at the end of April after his ERA ballooned to 11.42. Romero owns a 5.73 ERA, though he has shown gradual improvement. St. Louis has shuffled relievers up and down from Triple-A Memphis, with Riley O’Brien, Roddery Muñoz, Matt Svanson and Chris Roycroft all seeing time in the big leagues, but nothing has stuck in terms of consistency and results.

The Cardinals hope that recategorizing the roles of Matz and Graceffo will help with that.

“Keeping the score in that middle part of the game is extremely important,” Marmol said. “We talk about bridging to your back end. Having someone who can actually bridge you there is also extremely important.”

The Cardinals kept Matz in a hybrid role for the season’s first six weeks. Marmol and Blake were intentional with this. To preserve depth and decrease the chances of injury, St. Louis used a six-man rotation in spurts with Matz as the designated spot starter. This meant he couldn’t be used often in one- or two-inning relief stints, as the team needed to preserve his length for the days he’d be needed to start.

But a slew of scheduled off days through May allows the Cardinals to change their strategy. One reason St. Louis elected to use a temporary six-man rotation was to keep its starters on a regular six-day schedule instead of the typical five-day plan. Multiple starting pitchers have credited the extra day of rest as beneficial, especially in the first month of the season. The team has every Thursday off for the remainder of the month, meaning the rotation can mostly remain on a six-day schedule without using a periodic six-man rotation for the next four weeks. That has allowed the Cardinals to change Matz’s usage as well.

Marmol would like to start using Matz similar to how he used Liberatore last season. The left-hander’s role will vary between one-inning, high-leverage stints against right-handed lanes or multiple-inning appearances in the middle innings to keep the game in reach. Graceffo will see similar usage, though his will be against left-handed lanes. The thought process behind this is that because both Matz and Graceffo have starting pitching pedigrees, they also have valuable traits that will make them versatile relievers. That includes an expanded arsenal and effectiveness regardless of handedness.

It is a bit of a trial-and-error process. Neither the Cardinals nor Graceffo knew if he could post back-to-back outings because he had never done so in his career. But when asked to do so during the series, he learned he could. The Cardinals were down Helsley, Maton and Leahy on Tuesday night. Even though Graceffo had posted a scoreless sixth inning of relief Monday, Marmol wanted to turn to him in a save opportunity if his arm had bounced back.

The results were telling enough. Graceffo threw six pitches, recorded three outs and racked up his first career save.

The approach to attacking hitters differs as well. The Cardinals went back and forth in spring about whether they’d want Graceffo relieving in the big leagues or continuing to start in Memphis to bolster pitching depth. While they have not pivoted from the idea that he could start in the future, they also believed Graceffo’s velocity would tick up in short stints, and he could attack hitters more directly. They appear to be right.

“I think my stuff plays well (in relief),” Graceffo said. “As a starter, you need to have a game plan when you face them a first, second, third time. In the pen, you know you’re probably going to end up facing guys no more than twice, most times once. So you can throw your best stuff at them and leave nothing on the table.”

While Matz’s role is more established for the month, there’s a high likelihood the Cardinals will need him to resume his hybrid role, especially in June when the team has just two scheduled off days. But Matz has handled the constant change well, with a 1.44 ERA and 21 strikeouts over 10 appearances (two starts).

“There’s a different approach between a starter and a reliever that I’m starting to figure out a little bit,” he said. “I’ve been playing around with everything, but also staying ready. I think it’s good for me because I’m not overdoing anything.”

“Something I’ve been doing well is coming in and commanding right away,” he added. “I’m not coming in searching for anything. It’s like, here’s my stuff, here’s what I got.”

A tough test awaits as the Cardinals look to extend their winning ways. St. Louis boasts a 15-6 record at Busch Stadium this season, tied with the Los Angeles Dodgers for the most home victories. They have not had the same luck in away games, winning just four out of 17 road contests. They’ll hit the road Friday for a three-city, nine-game trip against the Washington Nationals, Philadelphia Phillies and Kansas City Royals.

The Cardinals should get a better sense of how their relievers look over the next two weeks and if their plan is sustainable.

“I feel really good about the process that’s in place, but also the overall effort and attention to detail that is going into every day,” Marmol said. “Our style of play hasn’t changed on the road. … It’s very similar. We’ve just been on the wrong side of it. We’ll continue to lock in every day and play the same game.”