St. Louis Cardinals win 7-6, take series from Padres

The St. Louis Cardinals rebounded from Saturday’s defeat with a nail-biting 7-6 win over the San Diego Padres on Sunday to take the series.

Has the offense finally found it’s wake-up call? The offense has now scored four runs or more in seven of the last eight games played.

With the win, Adam Wainwright moved to 15-7 on the season with a 2.40 ERA. The ace pitched seven innings on the day and allowed four runs (three earned) on seven hits. It’s the 20th start of the season in which Wainwright has gone seven innings or more. It’s also the third post-All-Star start for Wainwright in which he has allowed four runs. He walked one and struck out five batters.

Wainwright still has a chance at 20 wins this season but the offense has to cooperate with him.

“It’s been a grind for over a month now,” Wainwright said according to MLB.com. “I’m about ready for it to end. I think you go through a stretch like that sometimes throughout a season. This is the opposite way of how I felt early in the season, especially the whole first half. I’m going to keep believing that I’m coming out of it, and I’m going to continue to carry my team deep into the game.”

Randy Choate pitched to one batter in the eighth inning and walked him. Pat Neshek finished out the eighth inning with a strikeout. Trevor Rosenthal started the ninth inning but was quickly replaced by Seth Maness. Rosenthal allowed two runs (three earned) in one-third of an inning. He walked three and struck out one. Maness allowed one hit and earned his second save of the season.

The Cards started off with a 4-0 lead in the first inning and added another run in the second for a 5-0 lead. The lead dwindled to one run when the Padres scored twice in both the fifth and sixth innings. The Cardinals responded with another two runs in the sixth inning from Matt Carpenter‘s double but Rosenthal walked the bases loaded in the ninth inning, leading to two more Padres runs.

Overall, Carpenter had a great day for the Cardinals, including hitting the game-winner. The third baseman went 3-for-4 at the plate and was a triple away from hitting for the cycle. Carpenter notched his 29th double and 7th home run of the season. The Texan native scored twice and drove in three runs.

“The offense has been the thing that we’ve needed to pick up all year,” Carpenter said according to MLB.com. “We’re starting to find out what we’re capable of and starting to feel really good about our chances, saying our best ball is yet to come.”

Hitting in the 5-hole, Jon Jay had two hits as he played in left field as Matt Holliday got the day off. He scored once and drove in two runs. Jay has a 9-game hitting streak going. During the span, Jay has only three multi-hit games. He has raised his average from .287 to .304 during the streak.

Center fielder Peter Bourjos had a 2-for-4 day. He had scored once and drove in a run.