Contreras, Edman muscle up, power Cardinals to 6-5 walk-off win over Padres

The Cardinals faced three former/current All-Star pitchers each of the last three games and (predictably) lost all three, scoring one run against the combo of Aaron Nola, Zack Wheeler, and Blake Snell. Tonight, they got Seth Lugo.

Could that mean a break for this stagnant Cardinals offense? Read on — or just look at the title — to find out.

Here are tonight’s lineups for the Padres and Cardinals:

Padres:

1. Ha-Seong Kim, 2B
2. Juan Soto, LF
3. Manny Machado, DH
4. Fernando Tatis, RF
5. Xander Bogaerts, SS
6. Garrett Cooper, 1B
7. Luis Campusano, C
8. Matthew Batten, 3B
9. Jose Azocar, CF

Seth Lugo - SP

And the Cardinals:

1. Richie Palacios, CF
2. Paul Goldschmidt, 1B
3. Nolan Gorman, 2B
4. Nolan Arenado, 3B
5. Willson Contreras, C
6. Alec Burleson, DH
7. Tyler O’Neill, LF
8. Jordan Walker, RF
9. Masyn Winn, SS

Zack Thompson - SP

Thompson wasn’t efficient and fell into a lot of deep counts in this one, surpassing 90 pitches in the fourth inning and causing Oli Marmol to lean on Casey Lawrence for nearly four full innings of long relief. But the Cardinals scored three whole runs off Lugo and then three more off the Padres’ bullpen, walking it off in the 10th against old friend Josh Hader.

Willson Contreras hammered two homers in this game, and Masyn Winn made a potentially game-saving play when he laid out to keep Matt Batten’s single on the infield in the tenth inning, keeping the Padres’ go-ahead run at third.

Not a perfect or clean win by any means, but it was exciting — and we haven’t had a whole lot of that lately.

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1st Inning

Ha-Seong Kim led off the ballgame with a base hit to center field. Juan Soto stepped in and tried to drag a bunt down the third base line, but it didn’t roll as far as he’d hoped. Contreras was able to hop up and pounce on it in time, but then he twirled around and threw low to first base, and Goldschmidt wasn’t able to scoop it with Soto sprinting through the bag. The ball rolled into foul territory in right field, with Soto moving up to second and Kim to third with nobody out.

Thompson got Machado to pop out on the infield for the first out of the game, but Tatis came through with a sac fly to right field to score a run and put the Padres up 1-0 early. Bogaerts flew out to left field to end the top of the first.

Richie Palacios led it off for the Cardinals tonight, which is a wild concept considering I watched him in person in Columbus earlier this year for the Clippers. Now he’s playing every day in St. Louis... not great!

Palacios led it off with a soft ground ball up the middle that Kim made an impressive play on, breaking towards the ball and then making a throw across his body to nail him at first. Goldschmidt reached with an infield single, a swinging bunt between third base and the mound. But Lugo struck out both Nolans back-to-back to end the first inning.

2nd Inning

Thompson handed out a two-out walk to Batten after retiring Cooper and Campusano, and then struck out Azocar to end the top of the second.

It was another low-stress inning for Lugo in the bottom of the second. Contreras’ 114 mph line drive somehow ended up in Batten’s glove at third, Burleson struck out swinging, and O’Neill popped out in foul territory.

3rd Inning

Kim grounded out to third base to start the third inning. Soto drew a five-pitch walk with one out, and Machado moved him to third base with a single into center field. With runners on the corners and one out, Tatis hit a ground ball to third. Arenado went home with it and got Soto at home plate, preventing San Diego from doubling their lead. Bogaerts flew out to O’Neill in left field for the second-straight at bat, ending the third.

Jordan Walker and Masyn Winn both reached with base hits to start the third, putting two on with no outs. Palacios tried to drop down a sac bunt to move them both into scoring position, but missed the bunt on the first pitch. Walker’s secondary lead on the missed bunt was huge, and Campusano threw behind him at second base and picked him off — a rookie mistake that can’t happen at this level of the game.

Palacios ended up grounding out, moving Winn into scoring position. After a Paul Goldschmidt walk, Gorman ripped an 0-1 changeup into right field for an RBI single, tying things up 1-1 in the third. Arenado hit next and flew out to center field, with Azocar jumping and making the catch up against the center field wall to keep things tied.

4th Inning

Thompson struck out Cooper to start the fourth, and then walked Campusano on the seventh pitch of the at-bat. Batten doubled to right field with one out — the second double of his career — to put two runners in scoring position. Azocar followed with a single in basically the same spot to drive in both runs and make it 3-1 San Diego. Three straight great at-bats by the bottom of the Padres’ order put them back ahead.

Thompson walked Kim to continue the inning, followed by a fielder’s choice out at second base, off the bat of Soto. Thompson punched out Machado on three pitches to get out of the fourth, stranding two runners.

Contreras reached base to lead off the bottom of the fourth thanks to a fielding error by Bogaerts. Burleson followed with a ground-rule double to right-center field, hopping over the wall and keeping Contreras at third.

O’Neill hit with two runners in scoring position and struck out swinging on three pitches, failing to score either run with nobody out. Walker’s flyout to right field was deep enough to score Contreras and make it 3-2, but Winn couldn’t tie things up with a groundout that ended the inning.

Thompson’s final line: 4 IP, 5 H, 3 R (2 ER), 4 BB, 3 K’s (91 pitches)

5th Inning

Right-hander Casey Lawrence entered the game in the fifth, the first Cardinals reliever of the night. He set down all three hitters that inning, getting Tatis to pop out, Bogaerts to ground out right in front of the plate, and Coopr to fly out to center.

The Cardinals went down in order as well against Lugo. Palacios grounded out to third, and then Goldschmidt and Gorman both struck out swinging.

6th Inning

Campusano led off the sixth with a solo homer to left field, his fifth of the season. It came on a 2-2 fastball from Lawrence that was actually inside and off the plate a bit, but the Padres’ catcher was able to pull his hands in and yank it into the seats to make it 4-2 Padres.

Batten reached on an infield single to the left side, and moved into scoring position after an Azocar sacrifice bunt. Kim also reached base with an infield single, chopping a slow, 63 mph grounder through the infield grass on the left side. Lawrence froze Soto with a 2-2, knee-high fastball for a big strikeout, and Machado flew out to right field to end the top half of the sixth.

Arenado grounded out to third to start the bottom of the sixth. Contreras hit next and once again stung the ball, but this time he got some air under it, too. He was waiting on the first-pitch curveball from Lugo and ambushed it, smacking it 6000 feet into the sky before eventually landing in the Padres’ bullpen in left field for a solo homer. It was his 14th homer of the season, flew 394 feet, and made it a one-run game again.

Burleson lined out sharply, directly at Tatis for the second out, and O’Neill grounded out to third to end the inning.

Lugo’s final line: 6 IP, 6 H, 3 R (2 ER), 1 BB, 6 K’s (88 pitches)

7th Inning

It was a 1-2-3 top of the seventh for Lawrence. Tatis struck out swinging, Bogaerts flew out to left field again, and Cooper flew out to center field.

Right-hander Scott Barlow became the first Padres reliever of the game in the seventh. He got Walker to fly out to right field and then struck out Winn and Palacios to end the inning.

8th Inning

Lawrence returned for his fourth inning of work out of the bullpen and got Campusano to fly out to start the inning. Batten slapped his second double of the game down into the left field corner with one out, and Azocar followed him with a base hit that Goldschmidt just couldn’t quite hold onto, as the line drive tipped off the edge of his glove into right field. Batten stopped at third base to set up Kim with runners on the corners and one out.

Kim hit a fly ball to left field that was more than deep enough to score Batten from third, making it 5-3 San Diego.

Oli Marmol pulled Lawrence and brought in John King to face the left-handed Juan Soto. The lefty-on-lefty move paid off, as Soto grounded out to second base, getting King out of the inning.

Right-hander Robert Suarez took over in the eighth for San Diego. Goldschmidt blooped a single down the right field line that fell just in front of a charging Tatis to start the frame. Gorman struck out waving at a 100 mph fastball on the inside half of the plate — his third strikeout of the game.

Arenado hit a ground ball to second base that Kim didn’t field cleanly. The ball rolled a few feet away from him, but he was able to pick it up and throw out Arenado at first still (who was not busting it down the line by any means). Had Arenado been going all out, he likely would’ve reached. Goldschmidt moved up to second with two outs.

Suarez got ahead of Contreras 0-2 with two 99 mph fastballs, and then tried to trick him with an 87 mph slider that broke down the middle. Contreras clobbered it to center field, and the ball eventually landed on Freese’s lawn for a game-tying, 427-foot, two-run homer. Contreras got a curtain call from the crowd, and it was a brand new ballgame.

Alec Burleson struck out swinging to send it to the ninth.

9th Inning

JoJo Romero entered in the ninth, trying to hold together a tie game long enough for the Cardinal offense to end it. He struck out Machado with a changeup in the dirt, but Tatis reached with a line drive single to center field. But Bogaerts frustrating day at the dish continued, as he grounded into an inning-ending, 6-4-3 double play started by Winn at shortstop.

Right-hander Nick Martinez was called on to do the same as Romero — hold the game and send it to extras for the Padres. O’Neill led it off and flew out to deep right-center field. Walker grounded out back to the pitcher for the second out, and Winn grounded out to second base to send this game to the tenth.

10th Inning

Romero came back out for the tenth because he only threw 10 pitches in the ninth, and also....why not? Bogaerts was the Manfred man at second base to start the inning.

Romero struck out Cooper and Campusano — both on changeups — to get two outs without allowing that ghost runner to move. Batten continued his torrid day at the plate, reaching base on an infield single deep in the hole behind shortstop. However, Winn made a diving play to keep the ball on the infield, so Bogaerts had to stop at third.

Batten came into today’s game with nine hits in his career. That infield single was his fourth hit of the game.

Romero jammed Trent Grisham (who entered the game in the eighth in place of Azocar) with an inside fastball, and he popped out on the infield to send this game to the bottom of the tenth.

Josh Hader jogged in from the bullpen for the bottom half of the inning, and despite being down 0-2 against the nasty lefty, Palacios was able to drop down a sac bunt and move Winn to third base and the potential winning run.

Hader intentionally walked Paul Goldschmidt to face Nolan Gorman with one out, but the Cardinals countered by pinch-hitting the switch-hitting Tommy Edman in Gorman’s spot.

Edman saw one pitch from Hader — a 96 mph fastball up in the zone — and pulled it into the left field corner for a walk-off winner.

FINAL: Cardinals 6, Padres 5

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Up Next

St. Louis (57-76) goes for a series win tomorrow afternoon against the Padres (62-71). Miles Mikolas (6-10, 4.66 ERA) will throw for the Cardinals. Mikolas has pitched to an 8.47 ERA over his last three starts, giving up 16 earned runs over 17 innings. Left-hander Dick Mountain (7-13, 5.21 ERA) will pitch for San Diego. He’s pitched against the Cardinals once this season — 6.2 innings of one-run ball back on June 4th when he was with the Pirates. First pitch tomorrow is set for 1:15 p.m.

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Around the Central

Cubs 1, Brewers 0

Pirates 6, Royals 1 - TOP 9

Giants 5, Reds 0 - BOT 3

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Today’s Immaculate Grid

Immaculate Grid #149 - 6/9
Rarity - 391