ST. LOUIS -- Less than 24 hours after his Cardinals had been summarily routed by the D-backs, veteran right-hander Kyle Gibson allowed the first three hitters of Wednesday’s game to reach base -- two of them on pitches he absolutely hated -- and his emotions were on the verge of red-lining.

While the competitor in him wanted to throw the next pitch through the backstop, the seasoned veteran of 12 MLB seasons ultimately gathered himself and quickly realized that execution, rather than anger, would be the most effective strategy to get out of the early jam.

“I’m not going to say never, but I rarely ever pitch well angry,” said Gibson, who limited the damage in the first-inning jam to one run and pitched well over six innings as the Cardinals rallied for a 5-1 victory over the D-backs. “I’ve got to kind of center myself and understand that when I pitch angry, I normally kind of overcook pitches and overthrow, and that’s not good for me. I’ve got to stay smooth, stay focused and clear-minded. For me, I need to read swings, read takes and remember my [scouting] report. If I’m thinking something else, I’ve got no chance.”

Gibson, 36, used the substantial experience he’s gathered throughout his career to repeatedly pitch his way out of trouble on Wednesday at Busch Stadium. The D-backs threatened in the first, second, fourth and fifth innings, but Gibson was able to turn back those rallies by mixing his six pitches and getting some timely strikeouts.

With two on and two out in the fourth, Gibson fell behind Kevin Newman 3-1, but used consecutive sweepers to strike out the second baseman. Then, after the first two reached in the fifth, Gibson got Blaze Alexander to chase a down-and-in sinker, and he surprised Joc Pederson with a four-seam fastball for strike three. The consecutive strikeouts helped Gibson strand six baserunners and hold Arizona to 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position.

“Just like with hitting, it’s the same with pitching where nothing is coming easy for us right now, but Kyle stayed in there and battled,” raved Nolan Arenado, whose sixth-inning single tied the score at 1 after former Cardinal Jordan Montgomery had baffled his former teammates through five innings. “We felt momentum after that first inning when Kyle was able to get out of that with just one run scoring. That was huge for us. Kyle competes his butt off, and we always feel good with Gibby on the mound.”

Gibson’s work on Wednesday allowed the Cardinals to rebound from a home sweep at the hands of the rival Brewers and win the series against the D-backs. The Cardinals trailed 3-0 on Monday before rallying for a walk-off win. They were thumped 14-1 on Tuesday and trailed 1-0 most of Wednesday before finally rallying against Montgomery, who pitched for the Cardinals in 2022 and 2023 before being traded to the Rangers where he won a World Series.

Limited to just 15 runs in their previous six games, the Cardinals scored five times from the sixth inning to the eighth. Three of those runs came off Montgomery, something Arenado hopes is a sign that the Cardinals are close to breaking out of their season-long offensive funk.

“For us to get to where we want to be, we’ve got to score more runs,” said Arenado, who is 16-for-46 [.347] with eight RBIs over his last 13 games. “I think those times are coming. It’s rare for a whole lineup to not feel good, and we’re in those times right now where nobody really feels good. Hopefully we start to turn it around. We start to do that with the defense we have and with the way we’ve been pitching, we’re going to be pretty good.”

Gibson, a longtime St. Louis resident who signed a one-year deal with the Cardinals in November, was excellent on Wednesday while pitching in front of his father, two of his four children on a school field trip, his sister-in-law and his wife. With wife Elizabeth coming from a large family that is rooted in suburban St. Louis, Gibson is still getting used to having approximately 100 family members cheering on his every outing now that he’s a member of the Cardinals.

“It’s cool to get text messages from [family] who are locked in, because Cardinals fans are always locked in to how the team is doing,” Gibson said. “When it’s family, it’s obviously better when we’re winning and everything is rolling, but it’s been cool knowing that it’s a team mentality with our family. They’re not just hoping I throw well when I’m not pitching against the Cardinals. They’re able to cheer for me the whole time, and it’s been fun.”