ST. LOUIS _ The home run they have relied on never came Sunday.
That and a bad play and a good curve ball conspired to deny the Padres their first sweep here in 39 years.
After late power displays helped them take their first two games against the Cardinals, a 4-1 loss in the series finale also stopped a winning streak at three games.
St. Louis starter Adam Wainwright looked almost as good as ever in spinning _ really spinning _ six solid innings. The 37-year-old right-hander struck out nine, his curve often sending the Padres flailing in the process, and they managed only one run despite four of their five hits off Wainwright (1-0) being doubles.
"He doesn't have the stuff he had when he was in his prime, but he knows how to pitch," Hunter Renfroe said of the two-time Cy Young runner-up. "His curve ball was really working today. It was slow, it was big, it moved. It kept us all out of balance. He used the two-seam in, two-seam away. He threw the slider-cutter thing he throws very well. He knows how to get outs."
On a rare day when much of the lineup reverted to being impatient hitters, Renfroe cost the Padres at least one run _ and possibly two, plus a chance to score one more.
After the Padres took a 1-0 lead in the third inning on Manuel Margot's lead-off double and Eric Hosmer's two-out single _ and after Renfroe doubled leading off the fourth only to make the third out trying to tag up on a fly ball to center field _ the Cardinals scored twice in the bottom of the fourth inning.
Padres starter Matt Strahm, who had gotten to that point in 36 pitches, issued a lead-off walk to Matt Carpenter before getting Paul Goldschmidt to pop a fly ball to short left field that Renfroe seemed virtually certain to catch for the first out.
But Renfroe lost the ball in the sun and at the last second reached out to stab at the ball but could only watch as it bounced off the dirt and into the seats for what was ruled a two-base error.
"The sun was to the right," Renfroe said. "As long as the ball wasn't there, I was fine. It happened to be right there. When I stopped, that's when I lost it. ... I tried to grab for it before it hit the ground. I just missed."
Paul DeJong followed with a double into the gap between Renfroe and Margot that scored both runners.
It would take Strahm (0-2) a total of 36 pitches to get through the fourth, and he would leave after five innings having thrown 87 pitches.
The Cardinals added a run in the seventh off Adam Warren and another in the eighth off Robbie Erlin.
Meanwhile, the Padres did close to nothing against Wainwright and a bullpen they had abused the previous two days.
Down 3-1, their last real gasp came on a scintillating battle between Manny Machado and Cardinals closer Jordan Hicks with Ian Kinsler on first base and two out.
Five of the first eight pitches Machado faced in getting to a full count were 101 mph or faster, including two he fouled off to stay alive. Ball three had sailed above the zone at 102.1 mph. The ninth pitch from Hicks would be an 86 mph slider that tailed out of the zone.
Machado swung and missed.
"In that situation, runner on first base down by two runs, they've got their closer on the mound, so I was looking for something to drive, looking for a home run," Machado said. "At that point I thought I had him pretty good, locked in. He threw me a food slider. You know, a 3-2 slider, that's a guy who is throwing 100. You've just got to tip your cap. I was sitting fastball, and he threw off-speed."
Machado did, indeed, tip his cap to Hicks as the 22-year-old right-hander walked from the mound.
Renfroe walked to start the ninth, but three straight outs followed, and the Padres were denied their first sweep in St. Louis since 1980.
Still, they are 6-4 for the first time since 2015, having earned their sixth victory Saturday, seven games earlier than last season.
"I don't think most of the guys realize what we just did," Hosmer said. "Home opener, the energy is electric here. To take the first two games, and we went down fighting, got into the bullpen the last game. ... For us to take the first two here shows a lot of good signs about this team."
Green agreed _ to an extent. The Padres have not swept a road series of at least three games since doing so in San Francisco in September 2016. They haven't swept any three- or four-game series since August 2017.
"It's good for the club's confidence," he said. "But we didn't want to do anything else but take three out of three today. So it's hard to take solace in that at this point in time. We had a chance to get three against a very good club. ... If we're going to be a great team, we've got to start sweeping clubs this year _ and even good clubs from time to time."
