REDBIRDS FLY OUT OF SAN DIEGO AND TAKE SERIES WITH THEM

By Liz Alper

 

Photo courtesy @Padres on Twitter

 

April 24, 2016 (San Diego) - The series finale between the Cardinals and Padres was a beautiful Sunday at Petco Park.  Colin Rea took the mound for San Diego, Mike Leake for St. Louis.

This time, it was the Cardinals who started the scoring.  Randal Grichuk lined it to left in the first inning and scored Brandon Moss to make the score 1-0 Redbirds.  Yadier Molina drove in Grichuk on another liner to left for a 2-0 St. Louis lead.

The Padres got one run back in their half of the second when Christian Bethancourt hit a sacrifice fly and drove home Alexei Ramirez and cut the Cardinals’ lead to one at 2-1.

Melvin Upton, Jr. hit a sacrifice groundout that scored Wil Myers in the third to tie the game at two.

After Jedd Gyorko’s triple in the fourth, some pitcher magic from Leake scored him for a 3-2 Cardinals lead.

That wasn’t a big deal for Bethancourt, though.  He homered in the Friars’ half of the fourth to tie the game at three.

In the fifth, Upton, Jr. singled and drove home Jon Jay to finally give the Padres their first lead of the ballgame at 4-3.  Ramirez singled as well and drove in Upton, Jr. and the Padres went up by two, 5-3.

The Cardinals wouldn’t go away, though.  Gyorko hit a solo home run in his old ballpark to narrow the lead to one at 5-4 Padres.  Aledmys Diaz followed that up with another homer to tie the game at five.

It was a pitchers’ duel until the Cards’ half of the eighth when Matt Carpenter tripled and scored Matt Adams to give the Cards a 6-5 lead.  Grichuk doubled and scored two and the Cardinals took an 8-5 lead.

The Padres kept the Cardinals quiet for the rest of the game, but they lose 8-5 and the series two games to one.  They go on the road tomorrow night, starting with three games in San Francisco.