Padres 4, Cardinals 2: Friars take another series in June

The Padres went for a traditional starter-reliever-closer win tonight, with Eric Lauer taking the Cardinals on for round two after getting blasted back in May. Things went better this time around, and wouldn’t you know it, the Padres have now taken 4 straight series for the month of June.

Lauer dished out 5.2 innings, giving up 8 hits but keeping St. Louis to two earned runs, one from a home run. The runs came in the 6th inning, which knocked out Lauer for Jose Castillo, but before that Lauer threw 5 scoreless innings.

Castillo, Kirby Yates, and Brad Hand kept the scoreless trend going, with Castillo providing 1.1 innings of relief racking up 4 strikeouts in the process. The bullpen continues to flex, and the Cardinals were pinned to 2 runs and 8 hits for the whole game.

The Padres kept doing enough on offense, starting with a Freddy Galvis RBI-double in the top of the first. He scored Cory Spangenberg and Christian Villanueva, and now has 12 doubles for the season. The Padres offense ended the night just a home run short of the team cycle, with Manuel Margot pushing an RBI-triple to right field to score Franmil Reyes and Raffy Lopez knocking Margot in with an RBI-single.

The Padres will next take on the Braves for a four game series, looking to keep the upward trend of a successful June going, which is likely since Tyson Ross will have the mound.