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MLB: St. Louis Cardinals Hit 3 Homers in 11-2 Victory Over San Diego Padres

By Dustin Murrell
Published on: 16:52 PST, Apr 23, 2016

The St. Louis Cardinals improved to second place — but are still 3.5 games behind the Chicago Cubs — in the NL Central after dominating the Padres in San Diego 11-2 on Saturday night. Three different Cardinals hit home runs, Michael Wacha gave up just four hits in six innings, and the St. Louis bullpen allowed the San Diego Padres just one hit during the final three innings on the Cards’ way to their 9th win of the season. The victory for St. Louis followed a loss to San Diego on Friday night, so a rubber game on Sunday will decide whether the Cardinals or Padres win the 3-game series.

St. Louis Cardinals Hitting

Finding themselves down 1-0 after five innings, Stephen Piscotty got things going for the Cardinals with a homer as the first batter for St. Louis in the 6th inning. The Cards would get hot after that, scoring no less than 3 runs in each of the 7th, 8th and 9th innings. By the time it was all over, St. Louis had 11 runs off of 16 hits and a Padre error.

Down 2-1 in the top of the 7th, the Cardinals had their best offensive inning of the night. Matt Carpenter hit a line drive to former Cardinal Jon Jay in center field that drove home Yadier Molina and sent Aledmys Diaz to second. With the game tied at 2, Jeff Hazelbaker (who lost his spot in the starting line-up after going 0-for-17 as of late) came in to pinch hit for Colten Wong, resulting in a 3-run homer. Up 5-2 at the end of the 7th, St. Louis would never look back.

The third and final home run for St. Louis came in the Top of the 8th. With Molina and Brandon Moss on base, Jedd Gyorko hit the second 3-run-homer of the night for the Cardinals. The Cards lead the Padres 8-2 headed into the 9th.

On the off chance that San Diego would rally and score 7 or 8 runs before their final three outs, Diaz and Randal Grichuk made sure even that wouldn’t be enough. Grichuk singled in the Top of the 9th, bringing home Stephen Piscotty and advancing Moss to second. After Gyorko loaded the bases, Diaz earned two RBIs on a double that drove home Moss and Grichuk. Diaz finished the game going 5-for-5 with 2 doubles and 2 RBIs. He currently leads the MLB with a batting average of.467.

The Cardinals faced five different Padres pitchers on Saturday night, and scored at least one earned run on each of them. Kevin Quackenbush was awarded the loss (now 1-1 on the season) after giving up 1 hit, 1 walk and 2 earned runs in just 1.1 innings.

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St. Louis Cardinals Pitching

St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Michael Wacha now has a 2.82 ERA on the season after giving up 2 earned runs in 6 innings on Saturday. Wacha allowed 4 hits while giving up 4 walks and tallying no strike outs. He was awarded the win and is now 2-0 in 2016.

The final three innings each had their own Cardinals pitcher. Seung Hwan Oh pitched in the 7th and struck out the side. Jonathan Broxton pitched a 1-2-3 inning in the 8th, striking out Adam Rosales along the way. With a 9-run lead in the 9th, Matt Bowman gave up just one hit before shutting down the San Diego Padres for good. Oh, Broxton and Bowman all have ERAs under 2.00 (1.86, 1.42 and 1.17 respectively).

Where to Watch

The third and final game of the series featuring San Diego Padres vs. St. Louis Cardinals is scheduled to start at 3:40 PM CST (1:40 PM PST) on Sunday. Tickets to the game at Petco Park are still available through San Diego’s website. The game will be televised in select markets by FOX Sports Midwest.

[Photo credit Denis Poroy/Getty Images]

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