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Padres Clobber Cardinals 7-3

Posted on: Tuesday, 7 September 2004, 06:00 CDT

SAN DIEGO - Ryan Klesko singled in the go-ahead run with none out in the eighth inning and the San Diego Padres beat St. Louis 7-3 Monday night to keep alive their slim playoff hopes and end the Cardinals' nine-game winning streak.

The Padres won for just the second time in seven games, a stretch that included three losses at St. Louis last week. San Diego remained 2 1/2 games behind the Chicago Cubs in the tight wild-card race, with San Francisco and Houston also ahead of the Padres.

The Cardinals, the best team in baseball, lead the Cubs by 16 1/2 games in the NL Central.

With the score tied at 3 and the bases loaded in the eighth, Klesko hit a chopper over the head of first baseman Albert Pujols to score Ramon Vazquez.

The Padres quickly blew it open against reliever Cal Eldred. Khalil Greene followed with a sacrifice fly, Terrence Long had a pinch-hit RBI single and another run scored on the play on a throwing error by Pujols.

Vazquez started the winning rally with his third hit, a leadoff single to left off Eldred (3-1), who relieved Chris Carpenter to start the inning. Brian Giles singled to center, and both runners advanced on a wild pitch to Phil Nevin, who walked to load the bases.

The Padres beat the Cardinals for just the seventh time in 40 games since the start of the 1999 season.

Reliever Scott Linebrink (7-1) pitched 1 1-3 innings for the win.

Trevor Hoffman came on in the ninth with runners on first and third and none out but retired the side to record his 35th save in 39 opportunities.

Giles hit a two-run double off Carpenter to highlight the three-run fifth and give the Padres a 3-2 lead.

All three runs were unearned after third baseman Scott Rolen's two-base throwing error on Ramon Hernandez's one-out grounder. Hernandez took third on a wild pitch and, after Sean Burroughs was hit by a pitch, scored on Vazquez's single to right. Giles then doubled into the gap in right-center.

The Cardinals tied it at 3 on Edgar Renteria's single in the sixth. The Cardinals had taken a 2-0 lead in the second on RBI singles by Renteria and Mike Matheny, off Adam Eaton.

Eaton allowed two baserunners with two outs in the seventh and made way for Linebrink, who got Pujols to ground out.

Carpenter, trying for his 15th win, left after seven innings with the score tied at 3. He allowed no earned runs on five hits, struck out five and walked none.

Eaton allowed three runs and seven hits in 6 2-3 innings, struck out four and walked four.

Notes:@ Cardinals RF Larry Walker is expected to miss all of this series because of his sprained right knee. The Cardinals are off Thursday, and Walker might return on Friday at Los Angeles. Roger Cedeno started in right against San Diego on Monday night. ... In their first season at Petco Park, the Padres set a single-season attendance record of 2,586,102. The old record was 2,555,901 in their World Series season of 1998.

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