Padres @ Cardinals 8.17 recap - Cards pull out series finale

San Diego Padres @ St. Louis Cardinals

Odrisamer Despaigne (3-3, 2.72 ERA, 3.98 FIP) vs. Adam Wainwright (14-7, 2.34 ERA, 2.78 FIP)

1:15 p.m. CT

Busch Stadium - St. Louis, Missouri

Today's Lineups

Some News-

• Before the game, Kevin Siegrist was optioned to Memphis; Carlos Martinez called up - MLB.com
• Milwaukee takes on Los Angeles.  As of this writing, the Brewers are up 7-0 and Lucroy has 5 RBIs - MLB.com
• Pittsburgh plays this afternoon in Washington - MLB.com
• Cincinnati plays a doubleheader with Colorado after a water main break near Coors yesterday.  Colorado leads 3-2 in the first half as of this writing - MLB.com

Against the opponent (before this game)-

all-time record (269-186)

2014 (3-3)

The last time these two clubs faced each other on August 17 was in 1993.  Bob Tewksbury gave up four runs, but picked up the win as the Cardinals offense put up double that on the board.  The offensive attack was led by Ray Lankford, who went 2-for-4 with a HR, 3 RBI, and 2 R scored.

Things we were looking for-

The Cardinals look to take 3 of 4 in this series.  Solid pitching won the first two for the Birds.  Shelby Miller and Kevin Siegrist struggled yesterday, and as a result, they dropped game three of the series.  Matt Adams and Jhonny Peralta have had good series on the offensive side of the ball.

Things that happened-

Top Halves-

Adam Wainwright came out dealing.  He used 7 pitches to get a 1-2-3 first.  He struck out Abraham Almonte with a pretty Wainwright-like curveball.

Waino continued dominating Padre hitters through the fourth, only allowing a lone single to Seth Smith in the fourth.

In the fifth, Wainwright ran into a little trouble.  The inning started off well enough.  Jedd Gyorko hit a hot grounder up the middle.  On the third base side of second, Wong made a great running backhanded play on it, and threw out him out, with a great dig-assist from Adams.  Jake Goebbert sent a line drive single to the left-center gap.  Will Venable followed with another, just off the glove of Wong into center.  Alexi Amarista got into the act, too, lining in Goebbert.  Tommy Medica battled Wainwright tough, finally flying to center to advance the runners.  Yangervis Solarte didn't let his team-mates have all the fun.  He knocked a ball back to Wainwright's leg, and it bounced just far enough to earn himself a single and an RBI.  Cards lead 5-2.  Wainwright used 31 pitches to get through the inning, including the 10-pitch battle with Medica.

With two outs in the sixth, Gyorko singled.  Goebbert then tripled out to the right field corner, scoring Gyorko.  Taveras got the ball into cut-off man Wong fairly quickly, but Wong made an ill-advised throw that sailed over Matt Carpenter's head, allowing Goebbert to score.  Cards lead 5-4.

Wainwright gave up a walk but nothing else to get through the seventh.  That was it for Adam.  His final line: 7.0 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, 111 pitches thrown.

Randy Choate started out the eighth to pitch to Seth Smith.  Unfortunately, he didn't get his man.  Smith worked a walk.  Exit Randy Choate, enter Pat Neshek.  Neshek took care of the next three with relative ease.  He has been lots of fun!

Trevor Rosenthal came in to try to close out the victory.  It wasn't much of a surprise that he gave up a couple walks to start the inning.  Seth Maness quickly warmed to back up the Cardinal closer.  Rosie struck out Rymer Liriano, but then went back to his walking ways, giving a free pass to Solarte to load the bases.  Mike had seen enough.  Maness came in with hopes of getting the magic groundball doubleplay that he is prone to inducing.  Almonte did put the ball on the ground, but it was a hot shot up the middle, a 2-RBI single to center.  Cards lead 7-6.  Maness buckled down, though, and got a groundball out from Seth Smith.  Smith smashed a grounder between first and second, and Adams laid out to knock it down.  Wong sucked it up and threw out to Maness covering first.  Maness earned himself the save by inducing fly out from Yasmani Grendal to end the game.  Cards win 7-6.

Bottom Halves-

The Cardinals got their bats going early and often against Odisamer Despaigne.  All nine of the Cardinals came to the plate in the first.  Matt Carpenter singled, Kolten Wong walked, Matt Adams singled, Jon Jay singled (scoring Carpenter and Wong), Peter Bourjos singled (scoring Adams), and Tony Cruz singled (scoring Jay).  Peralta and Wainwright both sent lazy flies to the outfield for outs, and Taveras rocketed a liner to center for the other.  Cards lead 4-0

Despaigne came back out for the second.  Carpenter greeted him with a solo homer after working a 2-2 count.  Cards lead 5-0  Despaigne got the next three Cardinals he saw in order.

Despaigne settled into a groove in the third and fourth, retiring all six Cardinals he faced.  That was it for him, leaving for a pinch hitter in the fifth.  His final line: 4.0 IP, 6 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 1 BB, 1 K, 61 pitches thrown.

Tim Stauffer took over in the fifth.  Wong singled to greet him to the game, but he retired the next three in order to get through the fifth.

The Cards got a couple back in the sixth.  Bourjos collected his second hit, and Cruz walked.  Matt Carpenter rocketed a stand-up double to score both of them.  Cards lead 7-4.

Old friend Blaine Boyer pitched the seventh.  Peralta walked, but was erased on a line-out double play off the bat of Adams.  Jay also singled in the inning, but Oscar continued his tough day at the plate by lining out to right.

Boyer retired the 7-8-9 (PH Descalso) batters in the eighth.

Final Notes-

• Wainwright looked extremely sharp early on.  The Padres battled him in that fifth inning to put up the first two runs.  Adam finished decently strong.
• Rosenthal has a bad case of the walk-sies.  He threw 12 balls and only 5 strikes in his outing.  Yikes!
• Carpenter went 3-for-4 with 3 RBIs and 2 runs scored.
• Play of the game came from Cameraman Jim, who barehanded a hot liner without missing a beat on his cameraman duties in the eighth inning.  (actually it was probably Wong's play in the fifth, or the 3-4-1 putout in the ninth.)
• SBN still auto tags Ray Lankford
• Fangraphs for this game.  It's less scary looking than I expected it to be.  Seth Maness led the way for the pitcher's WPA with .157.  Matt Carpenter led batters with a .232, and Bourjos checked in with a .097.  Rosenthal, Taveras, and Peralta were the negative-est producers.
• Gamenotes: Cards ; Padres

Looking ahead-

Tune in tomorrow at 7:15 CT as Mike Leake brings his Reds to take on Justin Masterson and the Cardinals.