In the first two games of the series between the St. Louis Cardinals and the San Diego Padres, the Cardinals were outscored 17-3, losing 9-3 in game one on Friday night, and losing 8-0 on Saturday night. Entering Sunday afternoon, they looked to avoid being swept by the Padres, who are in the midst of the NL Wild Card race.
And they did just that.
St. Louis, thanks in part to two home runs by Stephen Piscotty and overall quality pitching, were able to defeat San Diego by the score of 10-3. The starting pitchers for the afternoon were Michael Wacha (14-4, 2.85 ERA) and Colin Rea (2-0, 4.22).
Right away, St. Louis got on the board. In the top of the first inning, after Tommy Pham walked, Jhonny Peralta reached base on a throwing error that led to Pham crossing home plate to make it 1-0. Jason Heyward followed that with a single to put two on. Yadier Molina singled next, that scored Peralta. Piscotty came up to bat next, tripling to clear the bases, to give the Cardinals a 4-0 lead.
Clint Barmes was able to put the Padres on the board in the bottom of the second, hitting a single which scored Yonder Alonso.
The Cardinals added to their lead in the top of the fourth inning. Mark Reynolds led off the inning with a double. Two at-bats laters, Matt Carpenter hit a sacrifice fly that scored Reynolds to give the Cardinals a 5-1 lead over the Padres. But it was in the seventh inning when the Cardinals put the game out of reach once and for all. After Peralta was hit by a pitch, Heyward hit an RBI triple to make it a 6-1 game. Molina hit a sacrifice fly to score Heyward, and Piscotty hit a home run to make it a 7-1 Cardinals lead.
Meanwhile, on the mound, Wacha pitched another quality start, keeping his impressive season going, and finished the afternoon with the following line: 6 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 3 Ks. Jonathan Broxton entered in the seventh inning and Steve Cishek pitched in the bottom of the eighth, with both relievers throwing shutout relief appearances.
In the top of the ninth inning, Piscotty hit his second home run of the game, this time a two-run home run, as it suddenly was a 10-1 game. Kevin Siegrist entered to pitch the final inning, and while the Padres got two more runs thanks to Matt Kemp, it wasn’t enough, as the Cardinals won the series finale 10-3, with Wacha earning his 15th win of the season.
On Monday night, the Cardinals begin a road series against another National League West opponent: the Arizona Diamondbacks.
(AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
