San Diego, CA (Sports Network) - Jon Garland outpitched Adam Wainwright in San Diego's 1-0 victory over St. Louis in the first of three games between division leaders at Petco Park.
Padres Reach Second Best Record In Baseball With Narrow 1-0 Win
Garland (6-2) worked around six hits and two walks while striking out seven over seven frames in the victory. Jerry Hairston Jr. went 2-for-3 and accounted for the lone run with his first home run of the season. The surging Padres have won three straight. Heath Bell worked through the ninth for his 13th save.
Garland also has a season-high six-game winning streak which is his longest such streak since winning eight straight decisions during the 2006 season. The six-game streak is also the longest winning streak by a Padre starter in a season since Jake Peavy won seven straight decisions in 2007.
Wainwright (6-3) was dominant in defeat, scattering four hits with one walk and striking out 12 over seven frames. Albert Pujols notched three hits and Felipe Lopez collected two for the Cardinals, who have lost two of three overall.
“I made a lot of good pitches today, but their guy made more pitches,” Wainwright said. “Garland put up zeroes and that’s the only way to guarantee yourself you’re not going to lose.”
St. Louis danced around the bases but never crossed the plate versus Garland in the early going. It loaded the bases in the first with one out, but Colby Rasmus and David Freese both struck out swinging.
Back-to-back singles by Wainwright and Lopez with two outs in the second caused a stir, but Garland bore down to strike out Ryan Ludwick.
“Early on I was overthrowing the ball a little bit,” Garland said. “I couldn’t find the strike zone, gave up some early hits. In the third or fourth I realized to myself to take a step back. I was able to calm down and make quality pitches.”
San Diego got on the scoreboard in the home half of the second thanks to Hairston’s solo shot to left.
The Cardinals had five of their six hits in the first three frames and all six base hits prior to the first out in the fourth, but failed to capitalize then went quietly until the ninth.
Pujols swatted an opposite-field single, moved to second on a passed ball, but Rasmus struck out. Freese worked a walk, but Bell induced a weak grounder to short off the bat of Yadier Molina to end the game.
Wainwright continued his sterling starts versus the Padres. He entered with a 1.86 earned run average and lowered that in Tuesday's start. On the opposite end, Garland entered Tuesday with a 0-3 mark and a 7.36 ERA versus the Cardinals before navigating his way through six frames...San Diego posted an MLB-best ninth shutout of the season...Garland has won six straight decisions...San Diego has now won three 1-0 games this season...Matt Holliday flied out in the ninth inning. He is now 0-for-11 with six strikeouts against Bell in his career...Bell has not allowed an earned run over his last 15 outings (15.0 IP), striking out 19 over that span...Hairston hit the 50th home run of his career...Adrian Gonzalez struck out a career-high tying four times...The 12 strikeouts ties a career-high for Wainwright...Garland is two strikeouts shy of 1,000 for his career.
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