Goldschmidt, Cardinals win 7-4 in Padres' return to playoffs

Paul Goldschmidt hit a two-run home run during a four-run first inning, St. Louis' bullpen held strong after starter Kwang Hyun Kim stumbled in his playoff debut and Cardinals ruined San Diego Pres’ long-awaited return to playoffs with a 7-4 victory Wednesday in opener of ir NL wild-card series.

Cardinals need one more win to eliminate Pres from postseason for fourth time since 1996. y swept Pres in NL Division Series in 1996 and 2005, and won 3-1 in 2006, which was last time San Diego me postseason. Game 2 is Thursday.

Cardinals got a chance to catch ir breath with two days off before this series began. That came after a season-closing grind that saw m play 53 games in 44 days, including 11 doubleheers, with only two days off. team h its season suspended for 14 games from late July to mid-August after 10 players and eight staff members tested positive for COVID-19 and h to scramble to fit in makeups.

Right-hander Chris Pdack (0-1) failed to give Pres boost y desperately needed after Mike Clevinger and Dinelson Lamet were left off wild-card roster due to injuries suffered in ir final regular-season starts.

Pdack lasted only 2 1/3 innings and gave up six runs.

After retiring leoff batter Kolten Wong, Pdack allowed next five batters to reach. San Diego native Tommy Edman singled and Goldschmidt homered to left. Dylan Carlson doubled, 38-year-old Yier Molina hit an RBI single and Paul DeJong doubled before Matt Carpenter hit a sacrifice fly.

Pdack allowed three straight hits to open third, including DeJong’s RBI single, before being replaced by Matt Strahm. Carpenter ded an RBI single for a 6-2 le.

Pdack allowed eight hits, struck out one and walked ne.

Giovanny Gallegos (1-0) pitched 1 1/3 innings for win and Alex Reyes got last four outs for save. Five relievers combined for 5 1/3 innings, allowing three hits and an unearned run.

Kim, a 32-year-old rookie, allowed three runs and five hits in 3 2/3 innings, struck out two and walked two. He signed with Cardinals after playing 13 seasons in Korea Baseball Organization, including winning four championships and one MVP Award. He me three relief appearances for Korea at Petco Park in 2009 World Baseball Classic.

Kim allowed Eric Hosmer’s sac fly in first, Aaron la’s sac fly in second and Tommy Pham’s RBI single in third.

la hit ar sac fly in sixth. Fernando Tatis Jr., who h reached twice, scored twice and hit a ball to warning track in right, struck out with runners on first and second to end inning.

Tatis came up with two on and two out in eighth and grounded out. Rookie Jake Cronenworth h a baserunning blunder in both and eighth.

Dexter Fowler hit an RBI single in ninth off Trevor Rosenthal, who started his big league career with Cardinals.

St. Louis' Harrison Ber struck out five times. center fielder did make a nice catch up against fence of Wil Myers' fly ball to end game.

S HISTORY

Pres dropped to 0-4 in postseason at Petco Park, all against Cardinals. San Diego hasn’t won a playoff series since beating Atlanta in six games in 1998 NLCS before being swept by New York Yankees in World Series.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Pres: GM A.J. Preller said Pres decided Clevinger (right elbow impingement) and Lamet (biceps tightness) wouldn’t be capable of making at least 80-pitch starts.

YIER MOLINA

17-year-veteran played in his 99th career playoff game, tying Ti Martinez for sixth all-time.

UP NEXT

Cardinals: RHP am Wainwright (5-3, 3.15 ERA) is scheduled to start Game 2 on Thursday. 39-year-old owns Cardinals’ career marks for postseason games (27) and strikeouts (115) and is second in innings pitched (105 2/3) to Chris Carpenter (108). He me his career postseason debut at Petco Park in Game 1 of 2006 NL Division Series and got save in Game 2. Cardinals won series 3-1 and went on to win World Series.

Pres: RHP Zach Davies (7-4, 2.73) is set to go for Pres after Clevinger and Lamet were left off wild-card roster. Davies me one appearance for Milwaukee in 2018 NLCS against Los Angeles.

Im credits: AP