Dustin May had a great start to the game not allowing a hit to the San Diego Padres until the bottom of the 5th inning, but that’s when the wheels came off the no-hit wagon. The Padres would eventually outslug the Cardinals 4-2 Saturday night.
The bats of both the St. Louis Cardinals and San Diego Padres were quiet until the top of the 4th inning when Jordan Walker and Nolan Gorman hit back-to-back singles. After Masyn Winn hit into a double play, Nathan Church belted a gap double to left center to score Walker and give the Cardinals a 1-0 lead.
Dustin May’s strong start did not end well. He didn’t allow a hit until the bottom of the 5th inning, but that first hit left the park as Ty France tied the game with his solo blast.
May then walked the next batter Song. Fermin singled moving Song up to second base. Two batters later, Fernando Tatis Jr. hit a bloop single that scored both runners giving the Padres a 3-1 lead. Dustin May did give the Cardinals a quality start by definition as he completed 6 innings allowing only 3 hits, but only 2 earned runs as Fermin had advanced to second on a passed ball against Pedro Pagés. May also struck out 7 while only walking 2.
Stop me if you’ve heard me say this before, but the St. Louis Cardinals were not done. In the top of the 8th inning, JJ Wetherholt was barely grazed by a pitch, but it counted which resulted in him on base again. Ivan Herrera then jumped on an inside pitch from reliever Morejon drilling it down the third base line scoring Wetherholt all the way from first base cutting into the Padres lead 3-2.
The good news is the Cardinals were only down a run. The bad news is it triggered the entry of super-saver Mason Miller. He didn’t strike out Jordan Walker, but did get him to ground out weakly to short to end the Cardinals 8th inning threat.
Justin Bruihl pitched a decent inning of relief in the bottom of the 7th not allowing a run and Matt Svanson pitched a respectable 8th with one very long exception. He gave up a no-doubt home run to Manny Machado to extend the Padres lead to 4-2.
The Cardinals were able to make Mason Miller sweat in the top of the 9th inning. His control of his four-seam fastball was questionable and both Nolan Gorman and Nathan Church took advantage of it as they were both walked putting the tying run on base. But, both Masyn Winn and Thomas Saggese were completely overmatched as Miller struck them out. Yohel Pozo also struck out, but the ball got away from Fermin to load the bases for JJ Wetherholt. He unfortunately was frozen by a Miller fastball to end the game on a strikeout looking. There’s always tomorrow, but at least we made Miller throw 29 pitches.
The St. Louis Cardinals wrap up their 4-game series versus the San Diego Padres Sunday at Petco Park. Kyle Leahy will start for St. Louis while Walker Buehler takes the mound for San Diego. First pitch is scheduled for 3:15pm central time.
