Sonny Gray was excruciatingly close from getting yanked from elite Cardinals debut

The St. Louis Cardinals got a shot in the arm on Tuesday night thanks to the return of Sonny Gray.

The Cards signed him to be their ace last offseason, giving him a three-year, $75 million contract. However, he was injured in spring training and forced to miss Opening Day.

But he made his return on Tuesday and gave the Cardinals five scoreless innings against the Philadelphia Phillies. His night ended after reaching 64 pitches and inducing an inning-ending double play.

But manager Oli Marmol walked out to the mound in the top of the fifth with one out, and it looked like he was about to pull Gray before the right-hander was able to convince him he was fine.

Gray had thrown 62 of his 65 allotted pitches at the time.

Cards came close to pulling Gray in his return

Had Marmol pulled Gray, the decision would not have gone over well with Cardinals fans.

Fortunately, he was only out to check on his ace and see if he was still feeling fine.

Gray answered that question two pitches later when he induced his double play to end his outing and keep the Phillies at bay. But Cardinals fans were holding their breaths, hoping that Marmol wasn't going to pull his ace too early and tax the bullpen.

Prior to the start of the fifth inning, Gray had a message for his manager.

"Don't let me talk you into some type of way to do something stupid," Gray recalled telling Marmol.

Had Marmol pulled Gray when he first went out to the mound, the decision likely would have been met with some skepticism, especially with Gray still not at 65 pitches just yet. Marmol had even told him that the next batter he was going to face would be his last one.

But fans breathed a collective sigh of relief when Marmol kept him in and he was able to get out of the fifth inning unharmed.