Cardinals 8, Padres 5: Bullpen, umpiring bad

For the second day in a row, a sloppy Padres bullpen threw away a lead in spectacular fashion. Colin Rea didn't have the greatest start, but he left the game up 5-3 after five innings. But the relief pitchers didn't have it going on today. Meanwhile, the offense didn't get any help from home plate umpire Sean Barber, who called a very inconsistent strike zone.

The Cardinals took an early lead in the first, capitalizing on a passed ball by Christian Bethancourt to move a runner into scoring position and getting a pair of runs with two singles and a walk. Bethancourt redeemed himself pretty quickly, though. He drove in the first of the Friars' runs with a sac fly in the second.

In the third, Wil Myers singled and then went to third on Matt Kemp's ground rule double. Melvin Upton brought Myers in to tie the game. The next inning, former Padre Jedd Gyorko led off with a triple and regained the St. Louis lead on a Mike Leake single. Bethancourt continued his redemption with a solo shot in the bottom half of the fourth. The good guys put up two more runs in the fifth to give them their first lead of the game.

That didn't last, though. Kevin Quackenbush came in for the sixth and immediately gave up back to back bombs to Gyorko and Aledmys Diaz. Brandon Maurer gave up three more runs in the eighth. The team tried valiantly to stage a comeback in the ninth. Myers and Kemp put together a pair of one out singles to bring up the tying run in Derek Norris. After seven pitches he had worked a full count from Trevor Rosenthal. Then Sean Barber called pitch eight a strike.

Source: Brooks Baseball

It should have been bases loaded with one out for Brett Wallace, but instead he grounded out to end the game.

The boys head to San Francisco tomorrow, with first pitch coming at 7:15 PM.