In a crisp, two-hour, 25-minute pitching duel where the smallest of details made the biggest of differences, catcher Pedro Pagés had arguably the play of the game in yet another narrow road victory for the St. Louis Cardinals.

With the Cardinals nursing a one-run lead in the seventh inning, Pagés made a perfect throw to second base to nail Fernando Tatis for his MLB-leading ninth caught stealing of the season. Pagés’ play, combined with stellar starting from Matthew Liberatore and another strong closing effort from Riley O’Brien allowed the Cardinals to beat the Padres 2-1 at San Diego’s Petco Park.

The Cardinals improved to 12-5 away from Busch Stadium, giving them MLB’s best winning percentage (.706) on the road this season. The Cards also won their eighth one-run game, which is tied for the most in the big leagues in 2026.

With the Cards leading 2-1, Tatis Jr. led off the bottom of the seventh with an infield hit against reliever George Soriano. Even though Soriano typically leans on his changeup, Tatis picked a fastball to try and swipe second base and get in scoring position. Pagés’ throw to JJ Wetherholt was on target to get the out call, which stood up despite a lengthy replay review initiated by the Padres.

On the season, Pages has thrown out nine of 28 base stealers. Not only is his 32.1 percent success rate in throwing out runners well ahead of the 2026 MLB average for catchers (29 percent), but Pagés is easily on pace to set a career mark.

Surprisingly steady Cardinals have been road warriors all of 2026

O’Brien, whose fastball topped out at 101 mph in the ninth inning, picked up his 11th save in 13 opportunities this season.

Locked into pitcher’s duel, the Cardinals grabbed the lead after the Padres pulled Michael King after six innings – even though he had allowed just one hit. When reliever Bradgley Rodriguez left a changeup up, Jordan Walker hammered it off the wall in left field for the first of his two doubles.

Walker came around to score when Padres’ right fielder Nick Castellanos dove for a looper by Masyn Winn and missed for a triple and an RBI.  

Trailing 1-0 after allowing yet another first-inning run allowed, the Cardinals knotted the score when Alec Burleson teed off on a King changeup. Burleson’s line drive homer left the bat at 111.2 mph, and it carried 378 feet for his sixth home run of the season.

Burleson’s blast was the only blemish off King, who limited the Redbirds to one run and one hit.

Liberatore was similarly effective, holding the Padres to just one run and three hits over six innings. Throwing the curveball that he leaned on early in his career more often, Liberatore struck out six and walked three. He pulled after just 81 pitches largely because of his troubles when facing lineups a third time this season.

As has so often been the case with Cardinals’ pitchers this season, Liberatore ran into trouble in the first inning. The Cards lost to the Brewers on Wednesday at Busch Stadium largely because right-hander Andre Pallante strayed from his game plan and surrendered four first-inning runs.

In that first inning, Liberatore issued a two-out walk to Manny Machado, who scored following singles by Fernando Tatis Jr. and Xander Bogaerts. Liberatore limited the damage allowed by deftly picking Bogaerts off first base when he looked away ever so briefly.

 The earned run pushed the Cardinals’ ERA to 5.25 in the first inning, 23rd in MLB.

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