In manager Oliver Marmol’s perfect world, left-hander Packy Naughton and Andre Pallante, the relievers who were the first two hurlers for the Cardinals in Monday afternoon’s “bullpen game,” would have pitched the first six innings. The final three would belong to late-inning stalwarts Giovanny Gallegos, Genesis Cabrera and Ryan Helsley.
Marmol got close at 5 2/3 innings. But that was enough as the aforementioned five pitchers stopped the San Diego Padres 6-3 before 44,140 fans at Busch Stadium.
Rookie Nolan Gorman, who had three hits and a walk, bashed a two-run homer, as did Paul Goldschmidt, who extended his hitting streak to 21 games with his two-run shot in the seventh when the lead had been just one run. Gorman’s second single had preceded Goldschmidt’s drive off reliever Steven Wilson.
The Cardinals went to six games over .500 for the fourth time this season and their pitchers struck out a season-high 13 batters.
Naughton, just recalled from Class AAA Memphis, allowed two hits and one run over the first 2 1/3 innings, fanning four. Pallante, who has given up only three runs in 25 1/3 innings, was charged with one run but fanned five in 3 1/3 innings and gained his first major-league win.
The Gallegos-Cabrera-Helsley trifecta wrapped it up over the final 3 1/3 frames although Helsley allowed his first earned run in 15 games in the ninth.
Gorman blistered a drive off the right-field wall with one out in the Cardinals’ second. He soon became the second out—by a lot—as Jose Azocar took the carom and fired a strike to shortstop Ha-Seong Kim and Gorman was out by 20 feet.
Naughton, making his second start as he replaced injured Cardinals right-hander Jordan Hicks, struck out his four in the first two innings, giving up only Kim’s two-out single in the second.
But, after Azocar’s liner to center went off the glove of diving center fielder Harrison Bader for a double with one out in the third, Marmol pulled Naughton the second time the Padres’ top of the lineup came to bat. Naughton also had reached a target of 40 pitches.
Fellow rookie Pallante inherited the runner, who scored on Jurickson Profar’s single to left center. But Pallante then fanned dangerous Manny Machado and Eric Hosmer to end the inning.
The Cardinals seized their first lead in their half of the third. Tommy Edman legged out an infield hit with two out when second baseman Jake Cronenworth’s throw went wide of Hosmer at first. Gorman waited on a Martinez changeup and rifled it 403 feet over the right-field wall for his second homer, giving the a Cardinals a 2-1 lead.
Goldschmidt walked to hike his on-base streak to 35 consecutive games before Nolan Arenado, nothing for his past 17, popped up.
But Pallante struck out two more Padres—Kim and Trent Grisham—in he fourth as he pitched around two singles. The 23-year-old knocked off another scoreless inning in the fifth, with the help of Brendan Donovan, who raced into the right-field corner to flag down a Machado drive which could have been a game-tying extra-base hit.
Donovan started the Cardinals’ fifth with a single to left. Reading perfectly n Bader’s single to left center, Donovan sped to third as Bader extended his hitting streak to 10 games.
Edman’s single to right center made it 3-1 as Bader steamed to third. Martinez then really put himself in a predicament by walking Gorman on a full-count pitch to fill the bases for the National League’s hottest hitter, Goldschmidt.
But Goldschmidt popped up on the first pitch for the first out. Arenado bounced to third baseman Machado, who started an inning-ending double play.
Cronenworth slapped a double to left with one out in the San Diego sixth and, after Pallante made Kim his fifth strikeout victim, Marmol went to co-closer Gallegos, who was making his first appearance in the sixth inning this season. But Austin Nolan singled to cut the Cardinals’ lead to one before Gallegos induced Grisham to pop to third baseman Arenado, who fought the sun to make the catch.
Machado was called for batter interference in the seventh when his backswing hit Cardinals catcher Molina, who then wasn’t able to hold onto a foul tip. That was the third strike and the umpires, after huddling, ruled Machado out on the strikeout and ordered base runner Azocar back to first. Left-hander Cabrera was summoned to retire left-handed-batting Hosmer, which he did, on a popup to Arenado.
Gorman singled to right with one out in the seventh and Goldschmidt walloped his 11th homer of the season, running his RBI total for May to 32. But the Cardinals weren’t through with Wilson yet. He walked both Juan Yepez and Albert Pujols before Molina drove him from the game with a run-scoring double.
