ST. LOUIS _ The Padres wanted Jordan Lyles to get back to the aggressive bullpen mentality that made him effective in his first few starts after making the move into the rotation a little over a month ago.
Lyles responded Monday by pounding the strike zone, getting ahead of almost every batter he faced.
But his pitch count swelled early in the game, as he had trouble putting batters away once he got to two strikes. The Cardinals fouled off pitch after pitch and put balls in play, finding holes with a few grounders and also legging out a couple infield hits.
That might have been OK, had Lyles been able to stay away from another issue that has plagued him as a starter.
But he wasn't.
A pair of two-run homers off Lyles _ in the second inning by Jose Martinez and the fifth inning by Marcell Ozuna _ put the Cardinals well on their way to a 5-2 victory in the opener of a three-game series at Busch Stadium.
Those were the eighth and ninth home runs Lyles (2-3) has allowed in his seven starts (40 innings). He would be finished after the sixth inning, having thrown 102 pitches.
The Padres, meanwhile would get four hits, the first of which was Cory Spangenberg's home run that put them up 1-0 in the second inning.
Christian Villanueva and Raffy Lopez singled in the second as well.
That would be it for a while.
After Cardinals starter Jack Flaherty had retired 14 straight Padres to get one out into the seventh inning, Spangenberg drew a walk and was the last batter to face Flaherty (3-2).
Cardinals manager Mike Matheny brought in right-hander John Brebbia, who walked Christian Villanueva and Freddy Galvis to load the bases.
The threat fizzled when Raffy Lopez struck out and Jose Pirela, pinch-hitting for Lyles, did as well.
The Padres added a run in the eighth after Travis Jankowski led off with a double, went to third on a wild pitch and scored on Hunter Renfroe's groundout.
The Cardinals went back up by three in the bottom of the inning when Jedd Gyorko homered off Phil Hughes.
