Padres end lengthy offensive drought, take down Cards

Ty France and Manny Machado homered Saturday, while Fernando Tatis Jr. supplied a tiebreaking hit during a three-run fifth inning that lifted the San Diego Padres to a 4-2 win over the visiting St. Louis Cardinals.

Starter Randy Vasquez (4-1) scattered six hits over five innings while allowing just one run. Vasquez walked none and fanned six before San Diego’s high-leverage relievers took care of the rest.

St. Louis touched Adrian Morejon for a run in the eighth on Ivan Herrera’s RBI double that scored JJ Wetherholt. Mason Miller came in to get the final out of the eighth on Jordan Walker’s groundout, then pitched the ninth for his 12th save in as many chances.

Dustin May (3-4) pitched well aside from the fifth. He permitted three hits and three runs (two earned) over six innings with two walks and seven strikeouts.

Cardinals pitching brought a 17-inning scoreless streak against the Padres into the game. May took a no-hit bid into the fifth before France unloaded a 405-foot shot over the wall in center, his fourth of the year.

San Diego pressed the issue further with a walk to Sung-Mun Song and the first of Freddy Fermin’s two singles. A passed ball on Pedro Pages moved both runners up 90 feet before Jackson Merrill fanned. Tatis lofted a two-run single to short right to give the Padres a 3-1 lead.

Machado added insurance in the eighth when he lined a solo homer to left-center, snapping an 0-for-24 skid that dropped his average to .195.

St. Louis used a rare bout of wildness from Miller to construct a threat in the ninth. Walks to Nolan Gorman and Nathan Church put two on with one out and Yohel Pozo reached with two outs when Miller tossed a wild pitch on strike three.

But Miller got Wetherholt to look at a 102 mph fastball for a game-ending strikeout, his fourth of the inning.

Church gave the Cardinals a 1-0 fourth-inning lead with a two-out RBI double.

–Field Level Media