St. Louis Cardinals news

Albert Pujols hit a sacrifice fly in the 10th inning and the St. Louis Cardinals, boosted by a strong start from Adam Wainwright, beat the San Diego Padres 3-2 Tuesday night. It was his 15th overall walk-off with St. Louis but his first since rejoining the Cardinals this season. Tommy Edman began the 10th as the Cardinals’ automatic runner at second. After Paul Goldschmidt was intentionally walked by Taylor Rogers  and Nolan Arenado fouled out, Edman stole third.

Pujols followed with his second sacrifice fly of the game, lifting a ball to left that easily scored Edman. Pujols has 119 sacrifice flies in his career. Eddie Murray holds the major league record with 128. Drew VerHagen, the fourth St. Louis pitcher, started the 10th and benefitted from a perfect throw from left fielder Lars Nootbaar, who had entered the game in the seventh. Jurickson Profar singled to left with two outs and Nootbaar cut down pinch-runner Jose Azocar at home plate to end the inning. San Diego dropped to 5-3 in extra innings this season. St. Louis improved to 2-1. San Diego manager Bob Melvin and Manny Machado were ejected by home plate umpire Chris Segal in the sixth for arguing balls and strikes. Wainwright struck out 10 with one walk in throwing 115 pitches over seven shutout innings. He allowed just two hits, both singles to St. Louis native Luke Voit. Former Cy Young winner Blake Snell made his third start of the season for the Padres. He gave up two runs on two hits in six innings with three walks a wild pitch. Trent Grisham hit a two-run homer in the eighth off Cardinals reliever Giovanny Gallegos to make it 2-all. St. Louis took a 2-0 lead in the third. Goldschmidt extended his hitting streak to 22 games with an RBI double. He later took third on a wild pitch before scoring on a sacrifice fly by Pujols. Of Goldschmidt’s last 30 hits, 18 have been for extra bases (nine home runs and nine doubles). He has reached base safely in a career-high 36 consecutive games, the longest streak in the major leagues this season. Goldschmidt’s 23 extra-base hits this month are the most in any May in franchise history. He broke a tie with Stan Musial (1954) and Pujols (2009). The Cardinals and padres wrap up their series this afternoon at 12:15.