Padres rise from the rubble to salvage final game against Cardinals

Kevin Acee, The San Diego Union-Tribune on Jun 17, 2026

Published in Baseball

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ST. LOUIS — A strong and persistent wind blew through Busch Stadium on Wednesday, ruffling pant legs on the field and whipping pennant flags affixed to poles atop the ballpark.

All manner of paper and plastic dotted the grass in the outfield. Empty bags that once held peanuts and chips rolled across the infield. Waxed paper that had been wrapped around hotdogs, cardboard plates and napkins swirled around the warning track.

In the midst of all that litter, the Padres offense rose from out of the dumpster and caught a little bit of fire.

They scored a run in three of the first five innings, added three more in the ninth and earned a 6-1 victory that kept them from being swept away by the Cardinals.

Griffin Canning, too, threw fewer waste pitches and allowed one run in 4⅓ innings on a day that began with him coming out of the bullpen at the start of the second inning after the Padres used an opener for the second time in three days.

An offense that has for the vast majority of the past 30 games offered nothing more than scraps feasted Wednesday.

They tied a season high with 14 hits, walked three times and had one batter hit by a pitch. Their 18 times on base were 11 more than they had the previous two games combined.

After reaching base in just four of the first 18 innings of the series, the Padres did so in eight innings in the finale.

And after being held without a baserunner for the first six innings Monday and the first 4⅔ innings Tuesday, they took a 1-0 lead in Wednesday’s first inning when Samad Taylor, batting second for the first time, worked a walk, went to third base on Jackson Merrill’s single and scored on a fly ball by Manny Machado.

Opener Bradgley Rodriguez survived a one-out single and subsequent stolen base to preserve the lead for Canning, who would eventually have a 3-0 cushion with which to work when the Padres scored in back-to-back innings.

Machado led off the fourth with a double and scored on Xander Bogaerts’ single. Will Wagner led off the fifth with a single, went to second on a wild pitch and scored on Fernando Tatis Jr.’s double.

Tatis drove in Sung-Mun Song, whose single led off the ninth, with a line drive to right field. Tatis was thrown out trying to hustle up a double, but Samad Taylor followed with a single up the middle that extended his hit streak to nine games, and Merrill capped the scoring by driving a ball high and just inside the right field foul pole.

The Cardinals reached base in all five innings Canning worked, but he attacked the strike zone and was in trouble just once.

The peril came when a walk by Blaze Jordan and single by Nathan Church began the bottom of the fifth. Canning proceeded to get two soft grounders, one of which resulted in first baseman Ty France throwing out Jordan at home. Alec Burleson lined a singled to right field to drive in a run before Canning ended the inning on another ground ball.

Kyle Hart replaced Canning after a one-out walk in the sixth and got the game to the eighth.

Jason Adam worked the eighth and Adrian Morejón the ninth.

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