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St. Louis Cardinals 8, San Diego Padres 5—Aledmys Diaz: Batting .480, Hits Home Run

By Dustin Murrell
Published on: 14:12 PST, Apr 24, 2016

The St. Louis Cardinals scored 19 runs in their last two games against the San Diego Padres, picking up two wins as the Cards chase the Chicago Cubs in the NL Central. Having batted 8-for-10 over the course of those two games, St. Louis rookie Aledmys Diaz continues to lead the MLB with a.480 batting average.

After losing the first match-up, St. Louis won the last two games in San Diego, giving the Cardinals the upper hand in the teams’ first series of the 2016 MLB season.

Cardinals vs. Padres — Cards wins the series

On Sunday, St. Louis once again showed that they have a very dangerous offense. In a game that was tied at three different scores (2-2, 3-3, 5-5) before the end of the 6th inning, it was Matt Carpenter’s RBI triple that set the Cards apart in the Top of the 8th. A few batters later, Randal Grichuk’s double earned him two RBIs of his own, and St. Louis would go on to beat San Diego 8-5. Kevin Siegrist was awarded the win for St. Louis, improving his record to 3-0 on the season. Brandon Maurer (0-1) was given the loss. Trevor Rosenthal pitched in the 9th inning and was awarded his 5th save of the season.

San Diego won the first game of the series on Friday, keeping the on-fire St. Louis offense to a single run. The final score was 4-1, putting the Padres up 1-0 in the series.

On Saturday, the Cardinals offense had their most productive game of the series. Along with a solid St. Louis bullpen, the Cardinals crushed the Padres 11-2. With the series split, the Cardinals won the rubber game on Sunday afternoon.

The next time the Cardinals plays the Padres is a 4-game series in St. Louis on July 18-21.

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Who is Aledmys Diaz?

To say that Aledmys Diaz’s hot-streak is a surprise would be an understatement. This is the 25-year-old Cuban’s first season in the Majors, having signed with St. Louis in 2014 after playing professionally in Cuba for five years. He was called up from the minors after Tommy Pham was injured against the Pittsburgh Pirates during the first game of the season.

Despite the hot bat, Diaz remained 8th in the St. Louis Cardinals batting order during their series against the Padres. Aside from being called up after Pham’s injury, Diaz made headlines alongside Greg Garcia and Jeremy Hazelbaker on April 8. As reported by MLB, a Major League Baseball record was set when all three players tallied homers for the Cards as pinch hitters. While two pinch hitters had hit home runs for the same team in the same game on 57 prior occasions, never in MLB history had it happened three times until Diaz and company did so against the Atlanta Braves.

Since then, Diaz has earned a spot in the starting line-up and continues to lead the MLB with a batting average of.480.

Where to Watch

San Diego will travel up the coast to San Francisco as the Padres face the Giants on Monday. The game begins at 7:15 p.m. PST.

The St. Louis Cardinals travel to Phoenix to play the Arizona Diamondbacks on Monday, April 25. Tickets are still available for purchase to watch the Cards vs. D’Backs live at Chase Field. The game will be televised on FOX Sports Midwest at 8:40 p.m. CST.

[Photo credit Denis Poroy/Getty Images]

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