Padres beat Cardinals 6-1 in series finale
Credit: AP Photo
The Padres and the St. Louis Cardinals meet on Wednesday afternoon for their final regular-season matchup of 2026.
San Diego looks to salvage the final game of this three-game series with St. Louis taking the first two games. The Redbirds have taken four out of the six games that the two games have played this year.
Bradgley Rodriguez was selected as the opener for Wednesday’s action. Griffin Canning, who allowed seven earned runs in his last outing, would be the man to get some bulk innings.
Kyle Leahy would start for St. Louis. On May 10th in San Diego, Leahy tossed five innings, allowing just two hits and zero runs.
Taylor gets bumped up.
The spark plug, Samad Taylo,r would be moved up in the order to give the lineup some improvements at the top.
Series finale. pic.twitter.com/VfkRxLL82y
— San Diego Padres (@Padres) June 17, 2026
Scoring early
San Diegowhichho has not owned a lead so far in this series, gets started early in the first.
Manny Machado‘s sacrifice fly makes it 1-0 #padres over the Cardinals early in the first inning#forthefaithful pic.twitter.com/JThN2CrkPV
— Padres Highlights (@LFGPads19) June 17, 2026
More in the fourth
Xander Bogaerts drives in Manny Machado to extend the Padres’ lead to two.
Run Bogey’d In pic.twitter.com/V7RI46F4ef
— San Diego Padres (@Padres) June 17, 2026
111 off 23’s bat
A liner off the bat of Fernando Tatis Jr. gets misplayed by centerfielder Nathan Church, in which Will Wagner comes around to score for San Diego.
111 off the bat ?? pic.twitter.com/rSz4QVsSPX
— San Diego Padres (@Padres) June 17, 2026
Canning is benefiting from opener
Maybe the opener was a good way to get Griffin Canning going as a Padre? Minus the two-out RBI single from Alec Burleson in the fifth inning, Canning did very solid. The 30-year-old would pitch 4 1/3 innings, working into the bottom of the sixth. Canning would allow one earned run on four hits, while walking three and striking out two. 47 of his 77 pitches would be for strikes. Canning induced seven whiffs against the Cardinals’ bats. Having Canning face the top of the order one less time could have played a role in his nice outing on Wednesday.
Hart, Adam, in the 7th and 8th
In a day when Ron Marinaccio started serving his two-game suspension, Mason Miller was away from the team, and Rodriguez was used as the opener, the bullpen would be a little slimmer than usual.
Kyle Hart took over for Canning with an out in the sixth inning. Hart went 1 2/3 innings while retiring all four batters he faced. The lefty picked off Masyn Winn and was caught trying to steal second base. Nelson Velázquez went down swinging to give Hart a strikeout on the day.
In came Jason Adam to pitch the eighth inning. Adam started off the frame on the wrong foot, plunking the first batter he faced in Ivan Herrera to put the tying run at the plate in red-hot Alec Burleson. Adam ended up inducing a double play to Burleson to erase the leadoff hit batsman.
Fernando and Jackson add on in the ninth.
Fernando Tatis Jr. adds on the fourth Padres run of the day with a single to right field, where he’d be out trying to stretch it out to a double.
Fernando Tatis Jr. stays HOT
His RBI single tacks on a BIG insurance run for the #padres now up 4-1 over the Cardinals#forthefaithful pic.twitter.com/iKidyMBALQ
— Padres Highlights (@LFGPads19) June 17, 2026
Jackson Merrill tucks in a ball inside the right field foul pole for his eighth home run of 2026.
That’s a home run, confirmed. pic.twitter.com/A1Yx4gELZH
— San Diego Padres (@Padres) June 17, 2026
Morejon finishes it
Adrián Morejón pitched the bottom of the ninth for Craig Stammen and the Padres. Lars Nootbaar would reach on a leadoff single. Then Masyn Winn would ground into a double play to erase that leadoff baserunner just as Adam did previously in the eighth. Pedro Pagé would ground out to Xander Boagerts for the final out of the game.
Recap
Griffin Canning would record his elusive first win of 2026 in his ninth outing as a Padre.
Cardinals starter Kyle Leahy will not have the same success against the Padres that he did a month ago and will take his fourth loss of the year.
Tatis Jr. and Merrill each recorded three hits and two RBIs.
Fernando Tatis Jr. scorched the ball all afternoon. 110.0mph, 100.3mph, 111.3mph, and 105.9mph would be four of the five exit velocities tracked off Tatis’ bat on Wednesday.
The Padres improve their record to 38-35 and 3-3 on the current road trip.
St. Louis will drop to 40-32 on their 2026 campaign.
Arlington on Friday
Following Wednesday’s game in St. Louis, the Padres will head to Texas to take on the Rangers with the series beginning on Friday. Randy Vásquez is the probable starter for San Diego on Friday. First pitch is scheduled for 5:05 PM PT/7:05 PM CT.
Angel grew up a San Diego sports fan, following the Padres, SDSU athletics, San Diego FC, as well as the Chargers. He is currently a third year community college student, and will transfer to SDSU to pursue a career in Journalism.