ST. LOUIS — Dakota Hudson had been waiting for the day he would still be pitching in the seventh inning for the Cardinals. He hadn’t made it past the fifth in his previous four starts.
Nolan Arenado was waiting for the day he would hit something besides the occasional single. In five recent games, he hadn’t even had that, going 0 for 17.
But Hudson, bailed out by in the first inning by center fielder Harrison Bader’s diving catch that saved two runs, retired 18 men in a row before the San Diego Padres had two singles in the seventh inning. Hudson finished that seventh inning, allowing just four hits and, more importantly walking only one.
And he finished the seventh ahead because Arenado, the National League Player of the Month for April but certainly not for May, smacked his first homer in two weeks. Arenado's two-run liner to sixth following a single by Paul Goldschmidt, who almost certainly will be Player of the Month for May, and his RBI single in a two-run eighth provided the difference in a 5-2 Cardinals victory Wednesday at Busch Stadium.
The Cardinals scored their first series sweep at home and wrapped up a nine-game homestand against contenders Toronto, Milwaukee and San Diego with a 6-3 record and they reached the 50-game mark at 29-21, their best mark of the season.
The Padres scored an early run on Jurickson Profar’s first-inning double — which really was a ground ball through the shift — and Manny Machado’s single. But, with runners at second and third, Bader prevented further damage for a wobbly Hudson by making the play on Ha-Seong Kim’s blooper.
The Cardinals also had a chance go awry in the first. Brendan Donovan poked a single to unoccupied third-base area in a shift gone bad. Goldschmidt walked, stretching his on-base streak to 37 games. But Arenado bounced into a double play started by third baseman Machado and Juan Yepez also grounded to Machado.
After an eventful first, Hudson righted himself, setting everybody down before Jake Cronenworth singled to right with one out in the seventh. Austin Nolan looped a single to right with two outs, bringing pitching coach Mike Maddux to the mound.
Trent Grisham, who tied the game late with a homer the night before, was to be Hudson’s final hitter as he went by 100 pitches. After Grisham drilled a long foul to right, he took strike here as Hudson notched all three of his strikeouts in the seventh inning.
Goldschmidt walked again in the fourth and, again displaying how good a base runner he is, he went from first to third on Arenado’s single to left. When Profar’s throw dribbled away from Machado, Arenado took second.
This play set up a sacrifice fly by Yepez, with Arenado going to third. But Arenado couldn’t advance on Dickerson’s grounder to shortstop Kim and Lars Nootbaar lined to right. The score remained tied at 1-1.
Yu Darvish nearly was matching Hudson but he couldn’t get Goldschmidt out when he needed to. The Cardinals’ designated hitter reached base for the third consecutive time in the sixth when he singled to left center with one out. That pushed his hitting when streak to 23 games.
Arenado then broke the tie with his 11th homer to left off a 94 mph fastball and the Cardinals had a 3-1 lead. Arenado hadn’t homered since May 18 in New York.
With the Cardinals’ top three relievers--Giovanny Gallegos, Genesis Cabrera and Ryan Helsley — all down because of usage during the first two games of the series, long man Drew VerHagen worked a scoreless eighth.
Arenado, allowed to bat with a base open in the home eighth, singled in Donovan, who had singled and advanced on a Darvish wild pitch. On Yepez's double to left off reliever Nabil Crismatt, Arenado was waved home to score by third-base coach "Pop" Warner.
Former Cardinal Luke Voit's homer to right off Cardinals reliever Kodi Whitley in the ninth completed the scoring. Whitley allowed three more base runners on two walks and a hit before Nick Wittgren gained the save by retiring pinch hitter Robinson Cano, who was hitless in his previous 21 at-bats. Cano was retired, but barely, on a fly to deep left.
