The offense got hits, and went 3-for-6 with runners in scoring position, but defensive miscues lost the game, 6-3, as the San Diego Padres (30-18) dropped the series opener against the St. Louis Cardinals (27-21).
Jose Azocar shined as he started in right field in place of Wil Myers, who is day-to-day with knee inflammation. Azocar recorded the second double and two-hit game of his major league career while making his first outfield assist in the first inning to keep St. Louis out of scoring position.
He has spent the entire season on the big league roster and appeared in 34 of the team’s first 48 games, many of them in late-game defensive substitutions or pinch-running situations. He raised his batting average 24 points to .259 and his on-base percentage 30 points to .328 with his 2-for-3 performance.
Myers was an option to come off the bench in today’s game, according to manager Bob Melvin in his pregame conference, and is expected to be in the lineup in Tuesday’s middle-game of the Cardinals series.
Martinez recorded another his second quality start of the season with six innings of three-run ball. He allowed seven hits while striking out two Cardinals hitters. His ERA rose to 3.94 and opponents are hitting .254 against him this season, making him the likely pitcher to go back to the bullpen when Mike Clevinger returns from the injured list at the end of the road trip.
MacKenzie Gore and Martinez pitched out of the bullpen for one turn through the rotation when the Padres had Clevinger, Yu Darvish, Sean Manaea, Joe Musgrove and Blake Snell all healthy. With their current stretch of 40 games in 41 days, San Diego would only need one starter to head to the bullpen as they will likely keep a six-man rotation through at least that stretch.
Jurickson Profar made three hits, all singles, and recorded the game’s first RBI with his third-inning single that scored Azocar. Jake Cronenworth and Austin Nola got two hits each with Nola’s sixth-inning, shift-beating RBI single scoring Cronenworth after his first double.
Left-handed pitcher Blake Snell (0-2, 6.00 ERA) will make his third start of 2022, looking more like his second start than his first when he went 5 ⅓ innings and left the game with only one run allowed, although the two runners left on would end up scoring and costing him three runs total. The Padres will face St. Louis’ Adam Wainwright (5-4, 3.12 ERA) who is having a great year in possibly his final season in MLB after a 17-year career. First pitch is set for 4:45 p.m. PDT at Busch Stadium.