St. Louis Cardinals score late, beat San Diego Padres 4-3

It took an eighth inning rally but the St. Louis Cardinals held on to for a 4-3 win over the San Diego Padres.

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Starting pitcher John Lackey pitched seven solid innings for the Cards. The recently acquired pitcher allowed two runs on five hits. He allowed three walks and struck out five batters. It was a quality start for Lackey after a horrible outing against the Baltimore Orioles last Saturday (5 IP, 9 R, 13 H).

In the second inning, Jhonny Peralta hit a two-run homer for his sixteenth home run this season. Matt Adams had led off the inning with a single.

The eighth inning rally was not without some controversy.

Facing Alex Torres, Tony Cruz was thought to have struck out on a foul tip. Instead, Cruz believed that it skipped off the dirt before going in the glove. First-base umpire John Tumpane agreed with Cruz on the matter after home-plate umpire Bob Davidson had called it a strike.

Cruz hit the next pitch for a single to center. Three batters later, Daniel Descalso walked on four pitches and Matt Carpenter singled. Jon Jay hit the game-winner with a two-run double that scored Kolten Wong (pinch-runner for Cruz) and Descalso.

In the top of the ninth inning, with Trevor Rosenthal pitching, there was more controversy on a play at the plate. Padres manager Bud Black even got ejected in the process. Alexi Amarista, who would have tied the game, was ruled out at the plate.

All controversy aside, the Cardinals got the win and that’s all that really counts.