SAN DIEGO_The San Diego Padres couldn't have asked for much more from Jordan Lyles in his first start of the season.
Manager Andy Green, though, may have asked for too much from Lyles in what ended up being a 2-1 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals in Thursday's start to a four-game series.
Lyles gave up a run in the first inning and another in the fifth. The Padres' only run came on Raffy Lopez's solo homer in the seventh.
With a fresh bullpen ready to back up Lyles, who hadn't thrown more than 45 pitches in any of his 13 relief appearances this season, Green said before the game he would be content if Lyles have him three solid innings.
Yet, there was Lyles in the fifth inning, arguably still going strong but also having thrown more pitches than he had in 7{ months and having escaped a high-stress fourth inning.
After Tommy Pham led off the game with a single and went around the bases on a passed ball, wild pitch and sacrifice fly in the first inning, Lyles was indeed solid. He pitched a perfect second and third, got in some trouble in the fourth but escaped unscathed.
At that point, he had thrown 62 pitches.
No one was even getting loose in the Padres bullpen.
All looked fine through two batters and two outs in the fifth.
Then Pham launched a 3-2 curve (Lyles' 76th offering of the game) several rows into the left field seats.
Lyles struck out Matt Carpenter to end the fifth. He allowed the two runs (one earned) and five hits, walked one and struck out six.
Lyles, who has pitched effectively in every relief role from protecting a slim lead for a couple innings mid-game to eating innings at the end of a lopsided loss, was starting in place of Bryan Mitchell, who was demoted to the bullpen after his most recent abbreviated start.
Cardinals starter Miles Mikolas, a seventh-round draft pick by the Padres in 2009 and a reliever here in 2012 and '13, was pulled after Lopez's two-out homer in the seventh.
All five of the Padres' hits (three by Franchy Cordero) came off Mikolas (5-0, 2.51).
Cordero's second single, in the fourth, came after Jose Pirela was thrown out trying to stretch a one-out single into a double. Cordero's third single preceded a double play grounder by Chase Headley one batter before Lopez's homer.
