The San Diego Padres' barrage of hits all series finally burst the dam on their offense in the series finale as they beat the St. Louis Cardinals 9-2 on Sunday afternoon at Busch Stadium.
Manny Machado had hits in his first three at bats as part of his 25th career four-hit game, knocking a pair of doubles and three RBIs, while Fernando Tatis Jr. scored a trio of runs with two hits, and Luis Arraez added three hits with two scores and an RBI.
"Today was a big time character win. Long road, two hot cities, last day of the trip, conditions are what they are but our guys absolutely showed the mental toughness that's required to be a championship-caliber club," said manager Mike Shildt after the 5-5 road trip. "It was a very impressive mental toughness, demonstrate your will to go perform, compete and execute."
The Padres' (57-49) top three hitters combined to go 9-for-14, as the squad notched six hits with runners in scoring position and 15 total against Cardinals (54-53) pitching. It completed the four-game series with a split as the Brown and Gold piled up 48 hits, their most over a four game stretch since 56 knocks from May 6-10 — that quartet includes the season-high of 24 hits at Colorado on May 10.
Machado has gone 13-for-21 over his past five games with four doubles, a home run and six RBIs, it’s the hottest five-game hitting stretch he’s had as a member of the Padres. He’s had 13 or more hits twice previously in his career, both in Baltimore, with a career-best 14 from May 10-15, 2013.
"He's has been consistently our guy, he's not going to get four hits every night, but he's going to take quality at bats consistently so I just see him as being really good and not necessarily hot. Just a really good play with the right approach, a beautiful stroke and just a winning player," Shildt said after Machado set a career high with 11 hits in a four game series.
San Diego blew the game open with a four-run fourth inning, highlighted by a one out safety squeeze for a hit and RBI by Elias Díaz and a two out, two-RBI double by Machado. Arraez added an RBI single between them to push the lead out to 7-0.
Machado broke the Padres’ 0-for-27 spell with runners in scoring position in the first inning, cracking a double to right center. Tatis, who drew a leadoff walk, scored and Arraez came home as well when Victor Scott II’s throw hit Machado sliding in at second.
In the third Tatis led off with a double, and Machado followed up with a one out single. Then Manny made another play on the base paths, taking off after Cardinals starter Michael McGreevy disengaged for the second time and getting to second on a right side grounder by Jackson Merrill to make it 3-0.
Xander Bogaerts added a solo home run in the seventh inning for his seventh round-tripper of the season, responding to a two-run shot by Alec Burleson in the sixth that was the lone mistake of the afternoon for Padres starter Stephen Kolek.
Staked to his best run support in two months, Kolek scattered four hits and three walks while striking out a pair to earn his fourth win and first since May 27. He rolled up his NL-leading 17th double play of the season in the first inning, and only faced one at bat with a runner in scoring position over six innings of work.
"Stephen (being) able to go out and get to the sixth today did a really nice job to get a lead and hold 'em right there," Shildt said. "Kolek's fantastic throwing strikes around the play and keeping guys from crowding tells you his stuff was good.
"We played good defense too, (Jose) Iglesias had two really nice place and one play was just straight schoolyard, figuring a way, (Arraez) a sneaky nice play to grab it."
David Morgan and Wandy Peralta each allowed a hit in ⅔ an inning of work and righty Ron Marinaccio pitched the final 1 ⅔ innings with three strikeouts and a walk in his debut with the Brown and Gold.
The Padres return home Monday to kick off a three-game series against the NL East leading New York Mets, who will coming off a series win in San Francisco. The Mets took the first two in the Bay Area by finals of 8-1 and 2-1, with the series finale later today at 4:10 p.m.
Dylan Cease (3-10, 4.59 ERA) is slated to get the start for San Diego. New York will counter with right-hander Frankie Montas (3-1, 4.62 ERA), who will make his sixth start after missing the first two months of the season with a right lat strain. First pitch is scheduled for 6:40 p.m. at Petco Park.
All three games of the series will be broadcast locally on the Padres Television Network, with radio broadcasts on KWFN 97.3 FM and XEMO 860 AM. MLB Network will televise the first game nationally, with the second and third games broadcast only to out of market viewers.
This story was updated at 2:54 p.m.