SAN DIEGO _ It took an error to get things going, a replay to keep things tied, and first base uncovered by a Padre to keep the inning alive. So of course the hit that would animate the Cardinals came from an unlikely source doing damage from an unlikely side of the plate.
Matt Wieters clobbered a two-out, two-run homer to the third deck on Petco Park's signature Western Metal Supply Co. building to send the Cardinals to a 5-3 victory in the 11th inning Sunday.
Wieters had been hitless in 19 at-bats this season against left-handed pitchers before connecting against Padres reliever Brad Wieck.
Kolten Wong was on base for the homer only because the Padres didn't have anyone covering first base when he was able to outrun his slow roller near the first base line.
The Cardinals scored five unanswered runs to avoid their sixth consecutive loss. One of the runs scored on an error. Two of the runs came on a two-out strike by Yairo Munoz. And the lone reason the Padres didn't score the go-ahead run in the bottom of the eighth inning was because a replay overturned the safe call at first that would have allowed the Padres to take a 4-3 lead.
Carlos Martinez struck out the side in order in the ninth inning to send the tie game to extra innings. Martinez's final pitch was a 99-mph fastball past rookie shortstop sensation Fernando Tatis Jr.
Martinez got the win. Dominic Leone got the final two outs of the 11th inning for the save, his first since returning from Class AAA.
It took a little help from the Padres to spur the Cardinals toward the tying run. Paul Goldschmidt clipped an infield single and took second on Manny Machado's error. When Tyler O'Neill lined a single to right field it was hard enough to get Goldschmidt to third base _ but no farther.
Until right fielder Franmil Reyes couldn't glove it.
The ball went off the tip of Reyes' glove, and that miscue _ ruled an error _ allowed Goldschmidt to cruise home for a 3-3 game.
The Cardinals rallied from a 3-0 deficit by doing what they had so rarely done in the past week. No, not just scoring. But delivering with runners in scoring position. The Cardinals' position players had gone 24 consecutive at-bats without an RBI with a runner in scoring position, and that lull stretched all the way back to the second inning Tuesday. The one hit they did have in that stretch _ yes, they were 1-for-24 _ was an infield single that didn't produce a run.
The only runs produced with runners in scoring position over the previous three games was by pitchers.
Yairo Munoz ended the streak in the sixth inning when he connected for a two-out, two-run single up the middle. He brought home with one swing as many runs or more runs than the Cardinals had scored in any of the previous two games of the series. Munoz's single also rescued the Cardinals who loaded the bases with one out and were on the brink of getting nada from that opportunity. O'Neill struck out with the bases loaded to put the inning in jeopardy.
The Padres built a 3-0 lead against Cardinals starter Miles Mikolas by the end of the fifth inning. They started early. The second batter of their first inning, Eric Hosmer, poked a double to left field. Machado drilled a pitch for a two-run homer that traveled an estimated 406 feet into the left-field seats. The shot was Machado's third homer in two games.
He became the third Padre with at least 20 homers this season.
In the fifth inning, Hosmer pulled a single to right field for an RBI that nudged the Padres, 3-0. That RBI single was Hosmer's third hit for the game _ but his first that justified the shift that the Cardinals placed on him. In his previous two at-bats, with the Cardinals scrunching infielders to the right side, Hosmer went to left for base hits.
