SAN DIEGO _ Five relievers combined for seven innings Saturday night. One of them landed on the disabled list with a strained right lat. On Sunday, Clayton Richard took it upon himself to save the Padres' bullpen any more wear and tear.
Even more so than usual.
The 34-year-old's new infatuation with strikeouts continued with 10 more Sunday afternoon. More importantly, Richard was pitch-efficient in every other aspect of his game in sparing a depleted bullpen with eight strong innings in a 5-3 win over the Cardinals on Sunday afternoon at Petco Park.
His best friend, the ground ball, still resulted in two double plays, the most important a 5-4-3 inning-ender after the Cardinals scored two runs in the sixth on Harrison Bader's triple and Jose Martinez's ensuing single.
That was the only inning he in which Richard did not sit down a Cardinal via a punchout. Twice, Richard _ who carried a career-best 7.9 strikeouts per nine innings into the game _ recorded two strikeouts in one inning.
His eighth arrived in the seventh after Eric Hosmer's impossible pick on a running throw from third baseman Cory Spangenberg and his ninth followed Jose Pirela's glove-toss to Hosmer on a slow roller to second to start the eighth inning.
The 10th _ Tommy Pham swinging through a 90 mph fastball _ ended his Richard's afternoon with eighth complete innings, tied for a season-high.
With Phil Maton landing on the disabled list a day after the bullpen went the distance in a 13-inning win, Richard's effort couldn't have come at a better time.
The margin for error was tighter than it should have been after Cardinals starter Adam Wainwright walked a career-high six batters in his return from an elbow injury.
Thanks to double-play balls from Spangenberg and Jankowski, Wainwright didn't pay for the two he yielded in the first or the one he allowed in the second. But the one-time Cardinals ace walked three of the first four hitters he faced in the third, Spangenberg roped a single to right to plate the Padres' first run and Freddy Galvis' ensuing sacrifice fly off reliever John Gant opened up a 2-0 lead.
Back-to-back hits in the fourth _ Jose Pirela's run-scoring double and Franchy Cordero's RBI single _ doubled the Padres' lead.
Carlos Asuaje added a sacrifice fly in the eighth, giving Brad Hand a three-run cushion to record his 11th save. He needed it when Bader dropped an opposite-field homer over the short wall in right to start the ninth and the Cardinals loaded the bases ahead of punchouts to end the game.
