Padres Take Two of Three in St. Louis
The Padres bounced back from their series loss vs Arizona and starting off their road trip strong by winning two of three vs the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium.
A rainout on Thursday pushed the Cardinals home opener to Friday and the game was uneventful until the bottom of the 4th inning when Paul Dejong homered to center to give the Cardinals a 1-0 lead.
Pinch hitting for Nick Margevicius in the top of the 6th, Hunter Renfroe continued his hot start hitting his third home run of the year, a two-run shot to give San Diego a 2-1 lead.
After the Cardinals tied the game in the bottom half of the inning, the Padres responded with three in the top of the 7th, capped off with a two-run homer by Fernando Tatis Jr.
St. Louis added a run in the bottom of the 8th to make it 5-3 Padres but Kirby Yates shut the door in the 9th for his fourth save of the year.
On Saturday, San Diego took an 1-0 lead in the top of the 1st on a Hunter Renfroe RBI single.
After starter Chris Paddack was pulled after 3.2 innings, the Padres fell being 3-1. The Padres offense struggled to break through against Cardinals starter Michael Wacha who allowed just one run on three hits despite walking eight Padres.
Eric Hosmer homered in the top of the 7th to cut the lead to 3-2 and the Padres finally broke through in the 8th, scoring four run to take a 6-3 lead.
Austin Hedges hit his first home run of the year, a two run shot that put the Padres ahead 4-3 and then Manny Machado hit his second of the year to extend the lead.
Things got a bit hairy in the bottom of the 8th as St. Louis put runners on second and third with nobody out to open up the inning but the damage was limited to just one run as the Padres escaped with a 6-4 lead still intact.
Kirby Yates got his 5th save of the year and the Padres were off to their best start since 2009.
Sunday proved to be a different story as the Friars lineup was shut down by Cardinals starter Adam Wainwright who allowed just one run on five hits and struck out nine in 6 innings.
Eric Hosmer opened up the scoring in the top of the third with an RBI single but St. Louis scored two in the bottom of the 4th to take the lead, then added single runs in the 7th and 8th for the 4-1 victory.
The Padres’ record now stands at 6-4 and the team is currently in second place in the NL West, two games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers. The team continues the road trip with a three game set in San Francisco at Oracle Park.
Eric Lauer (1-1, 3.27 ERA) will start Monday night opposite Madison Bumgarner (0-2, 1.38 ERA).
