Andre Pallante threw seven stellar innings, Blaze Jordan and Nathan Church each had RBI base hits and the St. Louis Cardinals earned a 3-2 victory over the visiting San Diego Padres on Tuesday.
Pallante (8-4) allowed just two runs on four hits, striking out six for the Cardinals, who have won three of their last four. Riley O’ Brien worked around a two-out walk in the ninth to secure his 18th save in 22 tries.
Michael King (4-6) threw 4 1/3 innings, yielding three runs on five hits, walking three and striking out one for San Diego, which fell for the 15th time in the last 21 games. Jackson Merrill laced an RBI double for the Padres, who mustered just four hits.
St. Louis opened the scoring in the second, as Lars Noobaar worked a leadoff walk and scored on Jordan’s RBI double. Church followed with a single to give the Cardinals a 2-0 lead.
In the top of the fifth, Samad Taylor reached on a two-out infield single and stole second before scoring on Ty France’s RBI single, cutting the Padres’ deficit to 2-1.
Ivan Herrera was hit by a pitch and Alec Burleson singled to begin the fifth. After King retired Jordan Walker, Yuki Matsui entered in relief for San Diego and immediately surrendered a sacrifice fly to Nootbaar that pushed the lead to 3-1.
Fernando Tatis Jr. singled and Merrill doubled in the sixth to cut the San Diego deficit to one.
St. Louis threatened to extend the lead in the bottom of the seventh, as Masyn Winn singled and Jimmy Crooks walked with two outs, but Ron Marinaccio got Jordan to ground out.
Ryne Stanek struck out a pair in the top of the eighth for St. Louis.
