By MATT PIKE
After winning the first two games of the series, the St. Louis Cardinals faltered in the final two, falling to a series split with a 9-2 loss on Sunday afternoon to the San Diego Padres at Busch Stadium.
Manny Machado put the Padres up early in the game, driving in two runs in the first inning with a double, scoring Luis Arraez and Fernando Tatis Jr. after Tatis led the game off with a walk and Arraez singled. In the third inning, the Padres extended their lead as Jackson Merrill grounded out, bringing home Tatis after his leadoff double in the third.
Leading 3-0 now, four runs scored in the fourth inning. Gavin Sheets came home to score after his leadoff single in the inning on a sacrifice bunt by Elias Díaz. With two outs later in the inning an RBI single by Arraez scored Jake Cronenworth before Machado drove in two more runs with another two RBI double, scoring Arraez and Díaz.
Trailing 7-0, the Cardinals scored their only runs of the game in the sixth inning. Iván Herrera led the inning off with a walk, bringing Alec Burleson to the plate, where Burleson hit his 13th home run of the season, scoring Herrera to put the Cardinals down 7-2.
Xander Bogaerts hit a solo home run to lead off the seventh inning to get one of those runs back for the Padres, and an RBI single by Merrill, driving in Tatis Jr, got the other run back in the eighth inning for the final runs by the Padres in the game.
Michael McGreevy took the loss, falling to 2-2 on the season, pitching 4 2/3 innings and giving up seven runs on nine hits with two strikeouts and two walks. At the plate, Burleson was 2-for-4 with the home run and a double with two RBI's.
St. Louis stays home next to host Miami. Andre Pallante (5-7, 4.91 ERA) takes the mound for the Cardinals against Edward Cabrera (4-4, 3.48 ERA) for the Marlins. First pitch is at 6:45 with coverage being joined around 6:35 on KY 102 (102.5 FM).
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