ST. LOUIS _ In the days, and even the hours, leading up to Wednesday's game against the Padres, the Cardinals' pitching staff was racked by injury and ineffectiveness.
But for seven innings in Wednesday night's 6-2 win, Luke Weaver provided the team seven innings of consistent dominance from the mound.
Entering Wednesday, the Cardinals had allowed five or more runs in 12th straight games. In Tuesday's series opener, the Padres feasted on the Cardinals' bullpen for eight of their 12 runs. Josh Lucas, who had been brought up from Class AAA Memphis Saturday due to the struggles of Mike Mayers, was shipped back to Memphis Wednesday morning after giving up two of the runs.
Then, about three hours before Weaver took the mound, Cardinals general manager Michael Girsch confirmed that closer Trevor Rosenthal would undergo Tommy John surgery, ending his season and potentially putting him out of commission for all of next year.
Weaver was pitching in place of another injured Cardinals starter, Adam Wainwright.
Weaver gave up just three hits in seven scoreless innings while striking out 10.
Two of the three hits Weaver surrendered were hit by Padres pitcher Jhoulys Chacin. Weaver walked just one batter and hit another with a pitch, though those did come back to back and put Weaver in a bit of a jam in the fourth inning.
Weaver hit Wil Myers with two outs and a runner on first base and then walked Cory Spangenberg to load the bases. He recovered by striking out Jabari Blash. After that, he allowed just one more base runner.
Starting opposite Weaver, Chacin was as wild as Weaver was impressive. The Cardinals took advantage.
The Cardinals jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first, beginning with a leadoff double from Kolten Wong. Wong took the place of Matt Carpenter atop the Cardinals lineup because Carpenter was sent home from Busch Stadium before the game due to an illness.
Pham followed Wong's double with a double of his own, scoring Wong. Pham then tagged up on a pair of fly balls hit by Paul DeJong and Dexter Fowler to score the second run of the inning.
The Cardinals added an additional run in the third when Wong hit a single and Chacin hit two batters to load the bases. Jedd Gyorko, who played first Wednesday in Carpenter's absence, hit a hard grounder to Padres shortstop Yangervis Solarte. Solarte dove and stopped the ball but fumbled it as he tried to pull it out of his glove. Wong scored.
The Cardinals took advantage of more Padres mistakes from that point. In the following frame, Chacin threw wide of Myers in an attempt to pick off Pham at first. Third baseman Greg Garcia scored on the error.
Then, in the fifth, Chacin completely lost his control. He started the inning by hitting Fowler. After striking out Yadier Molina, he walked Gyorko. Two batters later, he hit his fourth batter of the game, Garcia, to load the bases.
Cardinals manager Mike Matheny, unwilling to cut Weaver's splendid outing short after five frames, sent Weaver to the plate. Chacin got Weaver down no balls to two strikes, then threw three straight balls. The third got past catcher Austin Hedges, and Fowler raced in to score.
Chacin threw one more pitch, a fourth ball that nearly hit Weaver in the head, before being removed.
The Cardinals scored a final run in the bottom of the eighth inning. Wong led off the inning with a single and advanced to third base by stealing both second and third. Pham drew a walk and, after DeJong struck out, Fowler was walked intentionally to load the bases. Jedd Gyorko drove Wong home for the third time with a single.
The Cardinal bullpen wasn't perfect after Weaver departed. Seung-Hwan Oh, whom the team hoped could help lock down the ninth inning in Rosenthal's absence, gave up a single and then an RBI triple to the two batters he faced in the eighth. But Tyler Lyons, who has not given up a run July 6, entered and retired three straight batters, striking out two, to squelch the threat.
John Brebbia came on to pitch the ninth and gave up a 418-foot home run to Spangenberg. While the Cardinals' lead was safe at that point, virtually every Cardinals reliever aside from Lyons has struggled lately. Lyons may have cemented himself as the Cardinals closer for the time being, but the rest of the bullpen's inconsistency makes starts like the one Weaver delivered Wednesday all the more important.
