The shine is appears to be wearing off of Odrisamer Despaigne, who gave up 6 runs on 9 hits in 5.2 innings today. He didn't get much support from his offense, with the Padres bats only picking up 3 hits all afternoon, but there's only so much slack you can ask a lineup to reasonably pick up.
The Cardinals got on the board first, with A.J. Pierzynski singling ahead of a homer by Oscar Taveras to put the redbirds up 2-0. That lead didn't last long, as Jedd Gyorko and Will Venable both homered in the bottom half of the inning to tie things back up. That was it for the Padre offense, but St. Louis showed no signs of slowing. A trio of hits in the third put them up by 2 yet again. Matt Carpenter singled and then scored courtesy of a double from Kolten Wong. Wong came home himself when Matt "Never Touched Home" Holliday hit another single.
The last two runs of the day scored during a particularly ugly sixth inning. Matt Adams hit a leadoff single, and was joined on the basepaths by a beaned Jhonny Peralta and walked Pierzynski. Taveras then mercifully lined out to Everth Cabrera, who easily doubled up Peralta. Unfortunately, that third out was elusive. Peter Bourjos knocked Adams in with a single, and then Shelby Miller hit another single to load the bases again. Bud Black turned to Blaine Boyer, who issued an RBI walk to to Carpenter before getting Wong to strike out and stop the bleeding.
The Atlanta Braves come to town this weekend, and Eric Stults will get the first shot at them. First pitch at 7:10 PM.
http://www.gaslampball.com/2014/7/31/5956443/game-thread-07-31-padres-vs-cardinals
FriarFever was mostly absent today, allowing C Callahan to take the lead with 33 comments. Jodes led the recs again with 5.