By MATT PIKE
St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Dustin May carried a perfect game into the seventh inning as he won his second game in a row, the Redbirds beating the San Diego Padres 3-0 at Busch Stadium.
May had the perfect game until he surrendered a leadoff walk in the seventh inning to Fernando Tatis Jr, then with one out gave up a single to Manny Machado, but forced Gavin Sheets into an inning ending double play. He went on to throw a complete game shutout, giving up just those two baserunners and striking out nine Padres, improving to 5-6 on the season.
The Cardinals scored two runs in the fourth inning with two outs following back-to-back singles by Lars Nootbaar and Masyn Winn. A double from Jimmy Crooks brought both runners home to score. The third run came in the very next inning as Iván Herrera with two outs, after JJ Wetherholt grounded into a double play, advancing to second on a wild pitch before scoring on a double from Alec Burleson.
The double from Burleson was his lone hit of the game, going 1-for-4 with an RBI, but salvaged his career best hitting streak extending it to 15 games. Nootbaar was 2-for-3 with a walk and a run scored while Winn was 2-for-4 scoring a run. Crooks was 1-for-3 with the double and two RBI's.
St. Louis and San Diego continue their series tomorrow. Andre Pallante (7-4, 3.88 ERA, 56K's) takes the mound for the Cardinals against Michael King (4-5, 3.46 ERA, 72K's) goes for the Padres. First pitch at 6:45pm, coverage begins at 6:35 on KY 102 (102.5 FM).
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