The last Padre with a 4-K frame before Miller? His manager
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SAN DIEGO -- The Padres located their forgotten offense, just enough, to get past the Cardinals, 4-2, on Saturday at Petco Park, and their flamethrowing closer Mason Miller locked it down with a save even more impressive than usual.
Fernando Tatis Jr. didn’t snap his career-long homerless streak, but his two-out, two-run double in the fifth inning was the difference as San Diego took its first game of this four-game series.
Ty France homered for the Padres in that same frame, for their first run in 21 1/3 innings and first hit in 9 1/3 innings to tie the score at 1.
Four batters later, Tatis found some grass in short right field for a bloop double, and that chased in two more runs to push the Padres in front.
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Manny Machado smacked his sixth homer in the eighth, the 200th of his Padres career.
Right-hander Randy Vasquez (4-1) stymied the Cardinals’ bats, while the Padres tried to find theirs. He worked five innings and allowed a run on six hits, with six strikeouts and zero walks.
San Diego’s bullpen unleashed four relievers and they did the rest as the May gray that had dogged the Padres dissipated. Miller recorded the final four outs for his 12th save, which included four strikeouts in the ninth. The last Padre to record a four-strikeout frame? His manager, Craig Stammen, on Sept. 24, 2021.