Carlos Martinez held the Padres to two runs over seven innings as the Cardinals took the first game of a doubleheader on Wednesday afternoon in St. Louis.
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Only 11,191 fans were in the seats for the opener, rescheduled from a rainout on Tuesday night. The team who awarded Gyorko a 5-year/ $35 million contract in 2015, then turned around and traded him the following season. Another homer would make him the first player to homer in six straight games against the Padres since Chipper Jones in 2003-04. Paid attendance was 40,184.
St. Louis Cardinals Jedd Gyorko watches a two run home run leave the park in the fifth inning inning of game two of a double header against the San Diego Padres at Busch Stadium in St. Louis on July 20, 2016.
A 10-game road trip that started with a lopsided loss became more of a struggle for the San Diego Padres after rain washed out the second contest of a four-game set against the host St. Louis Cardinals on Tuesday.
Tim Beckham, Rays: Going a flawless 5 for 5 against the Rockies at hitter friendly Coors Field, Beckham connected on four singles (two run-scoring) and a double to boost his slash line to a still poor.213/.280/.407.
“With him we’d like to get to a point where we can finish the at-bat and the at-bats don’t drag on and on and on”, Green said.
Trainers finally stopped it, stuffing cotton up Martinez’s left nostril, and he cruised from there. After play resumed, he retired 11 of his next 12 batters. I don’t think it’s a matter of the game plan being wrong. He has made five career starts against the Padres, logging a 1-1 record and 2.70 ERA.
Jaime Garcia (7-6) allowed a run in 5⅔ innings in Game 2 and Seung Hwan Oh earned his fourth save in five chances, and second of the day.
Aledmys Diaz had two hits and has reached safely in 23 consecutive games, longest by a rookie this season.
San Diego manager Andy Green says it comes down to execution, or the lack of it. He struck out a season-high 11 and allowed one run in five frames of a win at Milwaukee prior to the break.
San Diego (41-54) did pull within 3-2 with solo homers by Matt Kemp and Ryan Schimpf, extending its franchise record of games with a homer to 18 to tie the National League’s longest streak since the 2010 Cincinnati Reds. The Cardinals have homered in a season-best 10 straight games, totaling 20 in that time.
Padres: C Christian Bethancourt took a foul ball off his right knee guard in the seventh of the opener but finished without issues.
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Andrew Cashner gets bumped back a day to the series finale on Thursday, opposing Adam Wainwright. The Cardinals have scored 17 runs in their last three games and four or more runs in eight of their last 11 games. Derek Norris played the second game.
