After a weekend of watching their bullpen struggle and squander multiple leads in a series loss to the Twins, the Cardinals found a way to neutralize that issue in their first two games against the Padres.

One night after Dustin May threw the first complete-game shutout of his career to give the bullpen the night off, Andre Pallante was perfect for 4 1/3 innings and limited the Padres to four hits and two earned runs over a season-best seven innings as the Cardinals edged San Diego 3-2 at Busch Stadium.

"The last two nights, these (starting pitchers) understood the assignment and executed extremely well," manager Olivert Marmol told Cardinals. TV, referring to May and Pallante. "It allowed us to hit the reset button on our 'pen, and everybody will be full-go tomorrow, which is awesome. That's huge for us because Pallante did a really, really nice job."

Pallante’s stellar work meant the rested bullpen only had to cover two innings, and Ryne Stanek and closer Riley O'Brien blanked the struggling Padres’ offense. The win gave the Cards another series win and a season series victory after the two teams split four games in San Diego in mid-May.

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Pallante, who continues to flourish following a dreadful 2025 where he didn’t win any of his final 10 starts, retired the first 13 batters he faced. Pallante’s strong start meant that Cardinals’ pitchers retired San Diego hitters in order in 12 of their first 13 half innings of the series.

San Diego speedster Samad Taylor broke up the perfect game bid with a chopper off Pallante’s glove that shortstop Masyn Winn nearly turned into an out off the deflection. Winn, who made two spectacular plays on Monday to help preserve May's shutout, barehanded the ball off Pallante's glove and used his electric arm to make it a bang-bang play at first base.

"He's so good that even when I'm trying to sabotage him, he can still make a play close," Pallante gushed. "He's amazing there at shortstop and we're lucky to have him."

Cardinals' standout rookie JJ Wetherholt had three hits. Catcher Ivan Herrera was plunked by pitches twice, making it the third time this season he's been hit multiple times in a game. No other MLB player has been hit twice in a game more than once this season. His 18 instances of being hit by pitches lead MLB, and they are the tied for the third most in MLB history through 71 games.

The Cards grabbed a 2-0 lead in the second inning when the much-improved lower half of the lineup came through again. Blaze Jordan, who was promoted to take over at third base for a struggling Nolan Gorman, drilled a double into the left-center gap to score Lars Nootbaar, who had reached on a walk. Then, Nathan Church, who replaced Victor Scott II as the every-day center fielder, followed with another double to plate Jordan.

Jordan, who was drafted in the third round of the 2020 MLB Draft before spending six years in the Minor Leagues, needed just five MLB games to hit for a theoretical cycle. He singled twice in his first game, homered in his second game, tripled in his third game and doubled on Tuesday night.

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The Padres finally started to figure Pallante out in the fifth inning when Taylor singled off the right-handed pitcher’s glove.  Taylor, who later stole second, came around to score when Ty France singled back up the middle.

Pallante, who has posted a stellar 2.88 ERA over his last six outings, didn't allow the loss of the perfect game to rattle him.

"I think it all comes back to me being confident in my pitches," said Pallante, who struck out six and didn't walk a batter. "I know that my stuff plays, especially when I'm attacking to my best spots. As long as I have confidence to keep doing that, I'll have success."   

A half-inning later, the Cards boosted that lead back to two runs on Lars Nootbaar's 200th career RBI – which was a good thing considering that Fernando Tatis Jr. singled and scored from first base on a Jackson Merrill double in the sixth inning.

Pallante rallied after giving up the hits to Tatis Jr. and Merrill by striking out Manny Machado on a check-swing strike three to get out of the sixth inning. In the seventh, Pallante came back and struck out Xander Bogaerts and Ben Sheets looking -- both off successful pitch challenges by catcher Ivan Herrera.

"No part of (Pallante) was sped up there and he's able to take a deep breath and a step back and focus on executing the next pitch," Marmol said. "In the past, he's thinking about what just happened and allowing that to impact his next pitch -- and it usually didn't go his way. We're seeing a different version of him now and it's one that's very steady." 

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