1 strike from series win, O'Brien falters as Cards fall to Padres in 10 innings

SAN DIEGO -- The Cardinals came within one strike of taking three of four games from the Padres.

They ended up with a painful split.

Closer Riley O'Brien gave up a two-out, full-count, two-run home run to Nick Castellanos in the ninth that tied it, and Manny Machado hit a bases-loaded sacrifice fly with no outs in the 10th to walk off the Cardinals, 3-2.

Castellanos’ shot came five innings after Jordan Walker gave the Cardinals a 2-0 lead on a monster home run off the Western Metal Supply Co. brick warehouse in the left-field corner at Petco Park.

“I’m going to have to go back and watch the video with a little more of a clear head, but, yeah, I felt like I executed some pitches, but I didn’t finish the at-bat,” O’Brien said.

O’Brien was trying to tie San Diego’s Mason Miller for the MLB lead with 12 saves, but ended up with his third blown save. He allowed Xander Bogaerts’ leadoff single and struck out Miguel Andujar and Ty France before Castellanos finished a nine-pitch at-bat by driving a 98.5 mph sinker several rows into the stands in left-center field.

O’Brien watched it fly out and put both hands on his head in disbelief.

O’Brien said the approach against Castellanos was, “Get him to two [strikes]. Expand. I felt like I had some good ones there, but felt I could have expanded it a little more and executed a couple more of those pitches.”

O’Brien got the save in Thursday night’s 2-1 win in the series opener and the Cardinals won again on Friday night, 6-0. They lost, 4-2, on Saturday as Miller earned a four-out save and had four strikeouts in the ninth, thanks to a wild pitch that loaded the bases and extended the game by one batter.

“That’s a good lineup across the way. We held them down for the most part,” manager Oli Marmol said. “The rotation did a nice job, the bullpen did a nice job. They got the closer today, but outside of that, man, the preparation has been incredible.”

The Cardinals held the Padres to 14 hits this weekend, their fewest in a four-game series in franchise history.

“What I love about this is we've got a clubhouse that’s pretty [mad] right now,” Marmol said. “That says something to not coming into this series feeling good about just splitting with these guys. We wanted to get Miller yesterday, they wanted to take the series and prove what they’re all about. I like the fact that the mood is what it is and expectations are high.”

Walker had broken a scoreless tie with his monster two-run homer off Walker Buehler with two outs in the fourth inning. It was his team-high 11th homer.

Walker turned on a 76.3 mph hanging, inside knuckle curve and sent it a Statcast-projected 425 feet to give the Cardinals the lead. He watched it for a moment before gently flipping his bat and starting his trot. Buehler turned and watched it sail away.

“He’s a guy who likes to dot the corners, so whatever he gives you, you’ve got to take,” Walker said.

Alec Burleson singled ahead of Walker and stole second without drawing a throw.

They were the Cardinals’ first baserunners after the 31-year-old Buehler retired his first 11 batters.

Cardinals starter Kyle Leahy held the Padres to two hits in five scoreless innings while striking out five and walking four.

Fernando Tatis Jr. hit an impressive drive to the fence in center with a runner on and one out in the third before Nathan Church caught it to keep the Padres’ star homerless this season.

“Honestly, I'm a little pessimistic of fly balls. I kind of think all of them are going out,” Leahy said. “I saw Church tracking it, and then I saw him check the wall, and I was like, ‘Oh no,’ and then he’s kind of camping underneath it, so I'm glad it didn't go out, for sure.”