San Diego Padres defeat St. Louis Cardinals with dominant performance

The San Diego Padres were firing on all cylinders Saturday as they cruised to a 12-2 victory to win the series against the St. Louis Cardinals.

It was an all-around team effort on Saturday for the San Diego Padres.

Chris Paddack had an excellent game on the mound, while the offense provided plenty of run support with an offensive display of fireworks.

The Padres had back-to-back home runs in an inning for the second night in a row, which made up only a fraction of the runs in an exciting seven-run second inning. The Friars never took their foot off the gas.

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St. Louis Cardinals rookie phenom Dakota Hudson had been enjoying a breakout year, going 4-0 in his last seven starts with a 2.22 ERA. That all changed when he came to Petco Park.

Hudson couldn’t make it out of the second inning on Saturday night.

After being down 1-0 early in the game, the Padres responded with a bang.

It started when Hudson loaded the bases by hitting Francisco Mejía with a pitch and walking Josh Naylor and Manuel Margot.

Chris Paddack helped his own cause with a groundout RBI to tie the game, his first major league run batted in.

Fernando Tatis Jr. then hit an RBI infield single, using his speed to beat out the play at first base and score Naylor. Eric Hosmer followed with a two-out single to center field to drive in Margot.

Manny Machado showed no mercy and smacked a three-run homer, his 18th of 2019. He would go on to crush his second home run of the game in the fourth to make it 19 home runs on the year and 54 RBIs.

Franmil Reyes put the icing on the cake with a solo home run.

All of this action came only in the second inning. The Friars would go on to score five more runs by the end of the game.

Meanwhile, Paddack had a phenomenal bounce-back game, showing glimpses of his early-season self. After allowing a home run to the first batter he faced, Paddack settled in nicely, going six strong innings with eight strikeouts and a walk. He threw a career-high 92 pitches—72 of them for strikes—and allowed only two hits.

With plenty of cushion room, the bullpen finished the job by surrendering only one additional run.

While Machado led the scoring with five RBIs, several Padres made their marks. Hosmer went an impressive 4-for-5 with two RBIs, while Tatis Jr. finished 3-for-5 with two RBIs.

Reyes also had himself a night, going 2-for-4 and rocking his second two-home run game in three games, upping his tally on the year to 24.

The team is starting to show their potential, fielding the most exciting roster since 2010. Manager Andy Green said to MLB:

"We’re seeing a kid on the mound we believe a lot in, a kid at shortstop we believe a lot in, and a guy in right field that’s really young, too…He’s hitting a lot of home runs for us. That’s a youthful club. Even our veterans are still relatively young.We like what we have. It’s been a plan for a while to build it. A lot of people can start to see it right now.”"

Having won four games in a row, the Padres are 42-40 and only 1.5 games back from playoff contention. They will look to complete the series sweep on Sunday afternoon.

For complete coverage on the San Diego Padres’ 2019 season, continue following Friars on Base all season long.