Paddack’s rough start sinks Padres in 7-4 loss to Cardinals

Chris Paddack struggled out of the gate, allowing five hits and four runs in the opening inning, and the Padres couldn’t complete the comeback as they fell 7-4 to the Cardinals in the opening game of the National League Wild Card Series.

Paddack, whom only got the start due to injuries to both Mike Clevinger and Dinelson Lamet, was taken out of the yard by Paul Goldschmidt for a two-run shot on just his sixth pitch of the game. LF Dylan Carlson followed Goldschmidt with a double before C Yadier Molina hit an RBI single to raise the score to 3-0.

SS Paul DeJong hit the Cardinals’ second double of the inning which set up DH Matt Carpenter’s sacrifice fly to score their final run of the inning.

The Padres were able to put up a pair of runs through the first innings, as well, thanks to a sacrifice fly by Eric Hosmer to score Fernando Tatis Jr. in the first and another sacrifice fly by Austin Nola to score Jake Cronenworth.

DeJong and Carpetner helped put two more runs up for the Cardinals in the third with back-to-back RBI singles. The first was the final run given up by Paddack on the evening before Tingler sent in Matt Strahm. The Sheriff finished with eight hits allowed, six earned runs, one home run, with a single strikeout. On the other side of the inning, Tommy Pham singled to right to score Tatis for the second time to keep the score reasonable at 6-3.

In the sixth, Pham was able to trot home thanks to another sacrifice fly by Nola, but the added run came with a blemish as Cronenworth was thrown out at third after he attempted to grab another base but he went got caught being too greedy in a situation where he didn’t need to be.

The score of 6-4 held into the ninth inning until RF Dexter Fowler hit an RBI single to bring DeJong home. The Padres couldn’t muster a hit in the final inning and the final score of 7-4 would hold.

Game 2 of the series will be right back at at Petco Park with another 2:00pm start. Zach Davies is scheduled to start.