Manny Machado drove in three runs with a pair of tiebreaking homers in the sixth and eighth innings Friday night as the San Diego Padres won their eighth straight game with a 4-2 victory over the visiting St. Lous Cardinals.
Machado’s sixth multi-homer game of the season gave him 30 home runs on the season.
Machado’s second homer came off Matthew Liberatore and followed a double down the right-field foul line by Juan Soto off the Cardinals’ left-handed reliever. Machado drove a 2-2 curveball 377 feet into the left-field seats.
Machado drove a 2-0 sinker from Cardinals starter Dakota Hudson 424 feet to center while leading off the bottom of the sixth to give the Padres a 2-1 lead.
The Cardinals had tied the game in the top of the eighth. Paul Goldschmidt opened the inning with a single and scored on Jordan Walker’s triple to center off Luis Garcia. But the Padres froze the go-ahead run at third. After Garcia struck out Richie Palacios, Robert Suarez came in to strike out Michael Siani and retired Jose Fermin on a liner to right.
Suarez (4-2) worked the final 1 2/3 innings to earn the win. Liberatore (3-6) took the loss.
The Cardinals had tied the game at 1-1 when Masyn Winn opened the top of the sixth with his second homer, a 378-foot drive to left off Padres starter Matt Waldron.
The Padres scored the game’s first run in the second. Trent Grisham drew a one-out walk, moved to second on Matthew Batten’s tapper in front of the plate and scored on Brett Sullivan’s two-out single.
Hudson allowed two runs on nine hits with one walk and two strikeouts in six innings. He was assisted by double plays in the third, fourth and fifth innings. Waldron allowed the one run (Winn’s homer) on three hits and two walks with a career-high nine strikeouts in 5 2/3 innings.
Before the game, the Cardinals placed two of their leading players – third baseman Nolan Arenado (lower back spasms) and catcher Willson Contreras (left wrist tendonitis) on the 10-day injured list.
–Field Level Media