The San Diego Padres salvaged the rubber game of their three-game set in St. Louis as they finally broke out the bats.
The San Diego Padres haven’t hit at all against the St. Louis Cardinals this week, but they managed to flip the script today as they posted a solid 6-1 win, with the offense finally scoring some runs and bulk reliever Griffin Canning giving them a good effort.
The Padres finally got the early lead for the first time in the series, starting in the first inning against St. Louis starter Kyle Leahy. The rally began when Samad Taylor walked, Jackson Merrill singled him to third and Manny Machado drove home the run with a sacrifice fly.
Machado started another rally in the fourth with a double to left, and Xander Bogaerts singled him home to give the Padres a two-run lead. They scored again in the fifth as Will Wagner singled and Fernando Tatis Jr. doubled to drive him home and make it 3-0.
The Padres went with an opener in this one, and Bradgley Rodriguez got things off to a good start with a scoreless first to set up Griffin Canning. Canning was excellent through the fourth, but the Cardinals nicked him for a run in the fifth as Blaze Jordan walked and Nathan Church singled him to second. Two outs later Alec Burleson singled him home to cut the Padres lead to 3-1.
That was it for Canning, and Kyle Hart came on to limit the damage. Hart was excellent in 1-2/3 innings of work, and Jason Adam picked him up to get the Padres through the eighth.
The Padres broke the game open in the ninth with a three-run rally, starting when Sung-Mun Song singled off reliever Chris Roycroft, and a Rodolfo Duran groundout got him to second. Tatis then doubled home Song, and the rally continued when a Taylor single led to a two-run homer by Jackson Merrill to make it 6-1.
That gave the Padres a comfortable margin as they sent Adrian Morejon to the mound to close it out with Mason Miller unavailable due to a personal situation. It wasn’t a save situation and Morejon did allow a hit, but he followed that with a double-play ball and a groundout to finish off the Cardinals.
It wasn’t a successful series, but at least the Padres managed to avoid a sweep, and it was good to see the offense finally come through after the constant failures in the first two games. Canning got the win as he finally gave the Padres a decent outing, with Leahy taking the loss as he gave up three runs in six innings on seven hits and a walk to go with seven strikeouts.
The Padres finish their long road trip in Texas this weekend, with Randy Vazquez on the mound against Jacob deGrom for the Rangers in the opener.
