Late swing doesn't go Padres' way this time in loss to Cardinals

SAN DIEGO - Michael King continued to trend toward being the ace the San Diego Padres need him to be.

But the Padres continued to be stymied by an opposing starting pitcher, leaving little margin for things not to go exactly right.

When they did not on Thursday night, the Padres lost 2-1 to the St. Louis Cardinals in the opener of a four-game series at Petco Park.

The Padres had a quality start thrown against them for the 18th time in 37 games, this one by left-hander Matthew Liberatore, and totaled a season-low three hits for the third time in their past eight games.

The Cardinals broke a 1-1 tie by scoring against Bradgley Rodriguez in the seventh inning. Jordan Walker's double landed just fair down the left-field line, and a triple down the right-field line by Masyn Winn got past a sliding Nick Castellanos and scored Walker.

Castellanos started in right field because Fernando Tatis Jr. was at second base while left-handed-hitting Sung-Mun Song sat against the lefty starter.

The Padres could not pull off what has seemed for much of the season's first six weeks to be their customary late-inning dramatic victory.

It was the first time in five games in which they were tied after six innings that the Padres lost. Half of their 22 victories have come when they scored the deciding run in the seventh inning or later.

But after Tatis was thrown out trying to steal second base following a single that led off the seventh inning against reliever George Soriano, the Padres' final eight batters were retired.

The night began unconventionally for the Padres, who scored a first-inning run for just the fourth game this season. And they did so with help from their two struggling stars.

With two outs, Manny Machado drew a walk and Tatis lined a single into left-center field.

That led to a run, because Xander Bogaerts again got an RBI on a swing he didn't mean to make.

Bogaerts, who on Sunday drove in the winning run on a check-swing infield single that bounced off the plate and traveled about 75 feet, pulled off something similar but very different on Thursday night.

He halted his swing a little more than midway through on a 95 mph fastball well above the zone and had the ball travel 264 feet to right field, where it bounced in front of Walker, the Cardinals' right fielder, as Machado ran home.

The Padres' lead held until the fourth inning, when King left a changeup a little higher than he would have liked and Alec Burleson lined it to the seats beyond right field.

It was the only hit King allowed in his six innings, as he recorded his fourth quality start in his past six outings and lowered his season ERA to 2.76 over eight starts (452/3 innings).

The Padres would not get another hit until Miguel Andujar's two-out single in the sixth inning, which Liberatore completed on a total of 81 pitches.

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This story was originally published May 8, 2026 at 1:37 AM.