Brendan Donovan and Willson Contreras hit three-run homers in the second inning and the St. Louis Cardinals beat the San Diego Padres 9-7 on Thursday night in the opener of a four-game series.
Willson had with four RBIs and Donovan finished with three hits. Iván Herrera had three hits and two RBIs, including a solo homer in the sixth.
Sonny Gray (10-4) gave up seven runs six earned – on 11 hits with five strikeouts in five innings. Ryan Helsley pitched a scoreless ninth for his 20th save.
Fernando Tatis Jr. and Manny Machado each had three hits for San Diego. Tatis led off the third with a home run and Machado added a two-run shot that made it 7-5.
Contreras drove in Donovan with a two-out double off San Diego Starter Yu Darvish (0-3) in the first.
Victor Scott II drew a leadoff walk, stole second base and move to third on a groundout and scored on Iván Herreras single to make it 8-5 in the fourth.
Gavin Sheets had an RBI groundout and Xander Bogaerts scored when Bryce Johnson reached on a throwing error in the fifth.
Up next
San Diegos Nick Pivetta (10-2, 2.81 ERA) was scheduled to start Friday against Miles Mikolas (5-7, 5.20).
First pitch at Busch Stadium is set for 6:15 with pregame coverage by Ameren Total Access beginning at 5:20. Friday’s game can be heard on KTLO AM 1240.
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