Padres rise from the rubble to salvage final game against Cardinals

ST. LOUIS - A strong and persistent wind blew through Busch Stadium on Wednesday, ruffling pant legs on the field and whipping pennant flags affixed to poles atop the ballpark.

All manner of paper and plastic dotted the grass in the outfield. Empty bags that once held peanuts and chips rolled across the infield. Waxed paper that had been wrapped around pretzels, cardboard hot dog containers and napkins swirled around the warning track.

In the midst of all that litter, the Padres offense rose from out of the dumpster and caught a little bit of fire.

They scored a run in three of the first five innings, added three more in the ninth and earned a 6-1 victory that kept them from being swept away by the Cardinals.

“We like to win ballgames,” said Jackson Merrill, whose two-run homer in the final inning capped the scoring. “So any day we get a win, we don’t look back. But I think moving forward, we know let’s get going early and go from there.”

An offense that has for the vast majority of the past 30 games offered nothing more than scraps feasted Wednesday.

The Padres tied a season high with 14 hits, drew three walks and had one batter hit by a pitch. Their 18 times on base were 11 more than they had the previous two games combined.

After reaching base in just four of the first 18 innings of the series, the Padres did so in eight innings in the finale.

And after being held without a baserunner for the first six innings Monday and the first 4⅔ innings Tuesday, they took a 1-0 lead in Wednesday's first inning when Samad Taylor, batting second for the first time, worked a walk, went to third base on Merrill's single and scored on a fly ball by Manny Machado.

“We’ve struggled a lot in the first inning this year,” said Padres manager Craig Stammen, whose team has scored just 22 first-inning runs, seventh fewest in the major leagues. “To get a run in the first felt really good in the dugout. And especially this series. The first two games took us a while to even get a baserunner. So to get a baserunner and put a run across the board definitely helped morale, gave us some confidence to swing the bat freely the rest of the game.”

Griffin Canning, too, threw fewer waste pitches and allowed one run in 4⅓ innings on a day that began with him coming out of the bullpen at the start of the second inning after the Padres used an opener for the second time in three days.

Opener Bradgley Rodriguez survived a one-out single and subsequent stolen base to preserve the lead for Canning, who would eventually have a 3-0 cushion with which to work when the Padres scored in back-to-back innings.

Machado led off the fourth with a double and scored on Xander Bogaerts' single. Will Wagner led off the fifth with a single, went to second on a wild pitch and scored on Fernando Tatis Jr.'s double.

The Cardinals reached base in all five innings Canning worked, but he attacked the strike zone and was in trouble just once.

The peril came when a walk by Blaze Jordan and single by Nathan Church began the bottom of the fifth. Canning proceeded to get two soft grounders, one of which resulted in first baseman Ty France throwing out Jordan at home. Alec Burleson lined a singled to right field to drive in a run before Canning ended the inning on another ground ball.

Kyle Hart replaced Canning after a one-out walk in the sixth, picked that runner off and retired the next four batters.

Jason Adam worked the eighth and Adrian Morejón the ninth. Both were helped by double plays after the leadoff batter reached base.

And in between the pair of back-end relievers getting their first work of the series, the Padres piled on.

Tatis drove in Sung-Mun Song, whose single led off the ninth, with a line drive to right field. Tatis was thrown out trying to hustle up a double, but Samad Taylor followed with a single up the middle that extended his hit streak to nine games, and Merrill capped the scoring by driving a ball high and just inside the right field foul pole.

That all but cemented a victory that made them 3-3 on a nine-game road trip that will resume Friday in Texas. And it provided more reason to think the offensive improvement exhibited last week was not fleeting.

“Guys on base all day,” Stammen said. “It’s nice after the first two games here. I think we’ve been trending in the right direction. The first two days made us doubt that a little bit, but I think those guys showed that they’re starting to get back on track. A few balls fall in, creates a little bit of confidence, a little bit of good feeling, and then we can take the rest from there.”

Copyright 2026 Tribune Content Agency. All Rights Reserved.

This story was originally published June 17, 2026 at 2:20 PM.