SAN DIEGO_Petco Park, protected most nights by the marine layer that envelopes the San Diego Bay, appeared as safe a landing spot as any as a fastball-reliant Eric Lauer carried a 10-inning scoreless streak into his fourth major league start.
Danger, however, lurked, his manager warned Friday as the NL Central-leading Cardinals stacked the deck with righties to face the Padres' left-handed rookie.
"This is a tough lineup for him," Andy Green said. "There's a lot of righties out there, a lot of righties who hit left-handed fastballs well. His No. 1 pitch has been the fastball. He'll mix and he'll throw any pitch in any count to hopefully keep them off-balance. It will be a good challenge for him."
Lauer was not up to it.
The 22-year-old hurler gave up a three-run homer in the second inning and three more solo shots in the third _ including yet another to former Padre Jedd Gyorko _ in the Padres' 9-5 loss, their fourth defeat in the first five games of the homestand.
All told, Lauer's evening lasted just 2 1/3 innings against the eight right-handed hitters in St. Louis' lineup. He walked one batter, gave up seven hits and didn't strike out anyone with a fastball that sat 89-90 mph as temperatures dipped into the high 50s.
Thirty-six of his 62 pitches found the strike zone. Only one fetched a whiff.
On the heels of his first career win, Lauer extended his scoreless inning streak to 11 after picking off Tommy Pham for the second out of the first inning.
But Marcell Ozuna and Gyorko led off the second with singles and Paul DeJong won a nine-pitch battle by depositing a three-run homer to left.
The next inning, three of the four Cardinals that Lauer faced _ Harrison Bader, Ozuna and Gyorko _ homered before Green pulled his rookie from the game as his ERA shot back up to 8.79.
Making matters worse, Gyorko added another single and a walk before the night was out during a three-hit game against his former teammates. He is 21-for-40 (.525) with eight home runs in 12 career games against a front office paying $2.5 million of this year's $9 million salary, per the terms of the trade that sent him to St. Louis before the 2016 season.
Right-hander Bryan Mitchell allowed three runs in three 5 2/3 innings in his first game out of the bullpen. He walked three, struck out two and yielded a home run to Pham in the sixth to open up a 9-0 lead.
A.J. Ellis accounted for the Padres' first run a half-inning later, singling off reliever Matt Bowman with two outs.
Twice before, the Padres came up empty after putting two runners on in the first and fifth innings against starter Luke Weaver, who got through five shutout innings.
Jose Pirela doubled in a run in the seventh, his first extra-base hit since April 15. He also doubled and scored on Luke Gregerson's balk in the ninth, but is still without a home run this season, the only three-hole hitter in any lineup on Friday without a longball on his resume.
Travis Jankowski hit his first homer of the season to start the ninth in a three-hit game that lifted his OPS to .980.
Christian Villanueva, who slid over to shortstop for the first time to spell Freddy Galvis, went 0-for-4 with a walk to extend his hitless streak to 33 straight at-bats and drop his average to .232.
