By RICHARD J. MARCUS Associated Press
SAN DIEGO (AP) — The Padres matched the expansion 1969 Montreal Expos as the only teams to go 0-12 in extra innings as the St. Louis Cardinals ended San Diego’s season-high, eight-game winning streak with a 5-2, 11-inning victory on Saturday night.
“It’s been a problem in extra innings, obviously, as far as execution goes, but it was a different feeling today,” Padres manager Bib Melvin said. “We really felt like we were going to finish it off.”
Richie Palacios and Andrew Knizner hit sacrifice flies in the 11th inning around Luken Baker’s run-scoring single off Scott Barlow (3-5).
“They got some big hits later on with some guys in position,” Melvin said of the Cardinals.
St. Louis (68-87) had dealt the Padres their previous extra-inning loss, at Busch Stadium on Aug. 29.
“Everybody kind of stepped in today,” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said. “Team win for sure.”
San Diego (76-79), which opened the season with baseball’s third-highest payroll at $258 million, dropped five games behind the Chicago Cubs for the NL’s last wild card with seven games left.
“We’re not thinking too much about that,” Melvin said. “We just have to go out there and continue to try to win every game the rest of the way like we have been at this point.”
Casey Lawrence (1-0), a 35-year-old right-hander, pitched two hitless innings for his first major league win since Sept. 19, 2018, for Seattle at Houston. Seven pitchers combined on six-hit ball, holding the Padres to 1 for 17 with runners in scoring position.
“That was the difference today,” Melvin said. “When you lose a game with how many we have left, it stings.”
St. Louis pitchers walked 12 and Padres pitchers walked seven.
Manny Machado hit an RBI single in the first for the Padres, but Masyn Winn put St. Louis ahead 2-1 with a two-run single in the seventh in the hole between first and second. Right fielder Fernando Tatis Jr.’s throw beat Knizner to the plate but catcher Luis Campusano couldn’t hold the ball as he tagged the runner.
“Right now I am getting a lot of offspeed so I am trying to sit there and hunt the heater but I am not getting a lot of them,” Winn said of his hit off a sinker from Pedro Avila.
Ryan Helsley blew a save for the fifth time in 17 chances, issuing consecutive walks to Garrett Cooper, Matthew Batten and Jurickson Profar in the ninth, then allowing Xander Bogaerts to hit into a run-scoring forceout. Helsley struck out Tatis and Juan Soto to end the inning.
“He didn’t have his best stuff. He had trouble commanding the baseball and still was able to give us a chance to play extra innings,” Marmol said. “He easily could have caved in there and gave up in the ninth, but he dug deep and gave us an opportunity to do what we just did.”
Padres starter Nick Martinez allowed two hits in four scoreless innings, and the Cardinals’ Jake Woodford gave up one run and four hits in 3 2/3 innings.
UP NEXT
LHP Drew Rom (1-3, 6.92) starts Sunday for St. Louis and former Cardinal RHP Michael Wacha (12-4, 3.44) for the Padres in the series finale. In his only appearance against St. Louis, Wacha pitched 5 1/3 innings of one-run ball for Boston in a victory on June 17 last year.
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