The St. Louis Cardinals and the San Diego Padres faced off on Mother’s Day to wrap up their four-game series. San Diego looks to even the series, and St. Louis is searching for a series win. The Red Birds took the games on Thursday and Friday, while San Diego took Saturday’s game. Both teams come into Sunday with a 23-16 record.

Walker Buehler toed the rubber for the Friars on Sunday. Last outing for Buehler came on Cinco de Mayo in San Francisco, going 5 1/3 innings and allowing four runs, while striking out five. Right-hander Kyle Leahy started the game for manager Oli Marmol and his Cardinals. Last time out for Leahy was on May 4th against the Brewers; he went 5 1/3 innings, while surrendering just one earned run on six hits.

Lining up on Mother’s Day

Sung-Mun Song makes his 5th career MLB start as Rodolfo Durán makes his 2nd.

Hi, Mom <3 pic.twitter.com/xQCOcfT5Fn

— San Diego Padres (@Padres) May 10, 2026

Buehler’s quality start

Buehler started hot, retiring the first 11 Cardinals he’d face. Then came Alec Burleson, who would reach on as the first St. Louis base runner with a two-out single in the top of the fourth inning. Jordan Walker followed with a 425 ft blast off the Western Metal Supply Co. building, scoring the first runs of the day.

Jordan Walker off the TOP DECK of the Western Metal Supply Co. building 😳 pic.twitter.com/sP0ShvTSkT

— MLB (@MLB) May 10, 2026

The31-year-oldd was great in his 8th start as a Padre. Buehler completed six innings pitched, allowing just two earned runs on three hits. He wouldn’t walk anybody, and he would go on to strike out two Cardinals, those being the first two batters of the game. Buehler threw 89 pitches on Sunday, 57 of them being for strikes.

Cardinals’ pitching dominates

Leahy, the starter for St. Louis, pitched a scoreless five innings, allowing two hits, walking four, and striking out five Padres. Ryne Stanek and southpaw JoJo Romero combined for a perfect 2 1/3 innings pitched, with each of them striking out a pair. George Soriano came on in the eighth with an out in the inning. Soriano walked Fernando Tatis Jr. on four pitches, then proceeded to strike out Manny Machado and induce a ground ball out to Gavin Sheets. This would get the game to the ninth inning with a Cardinals 2-0 lead.

Bullpens holda  deficit

Ron Marinaccio and Bradgley delivered perfect outings on Sunday.

The seventh and eighth innings went to Marinaccio, who struck out three men on 32, who filled the zone for 22 strikes.

Rodriguez pitched the ninth inning for the Padres. He tossed just five pitches to record a quick and easy three outs.

Casty ties it

Riley O’Brien came into Sunday’s game with a 2.00 ERA and 11 saves, second in the league behind Mason Miller’s 12. Xander Bogaerts led off the ninth with a bloop single dumped into center field. Miguel Andujar and Ty France both struck out to put the Padres at their final out of the game. In comes Nick Castellanos, who pinch-hit earlier in the game for Sung-Mun Song. During the at-bat, Castellanos would break his bat, and would end up using Fernando Tatis Jr’s bat for the remainder of the at-bat. Winning a nine-pitch at-bat, Castellanos sent a 98.5 mph sinker into the left field seats to tie up the score at 3-2, with the Padres down to their final strike. This would be O’Brien’s first home run allowed since June 9, 2025. O’Brien owned the longest homerless inning streak among active streaks with 60 1/3 innings pitched.

BATTLED IT OUT pic.twitter.com/W4YrV3S2JU

— San Diego Padres (@Padres) May 10, 2026

Scoreless tenth

Jeremiah Estrada came in to pitch the tenth with the automatic runner on second base to start. Estrada struck out Walker and Nolan Gorman to get a quick first two outs. Masyn Winn would then get walked, which ended Estrada’s day on 17 pitches. Adrián Morejón originally came in to face left-handed Nathan Churc,h but he would get pinch-hit for José Fermín. Fermín popped up on the first pitch to send it to the bottom of the tenth, 2-2.

Manny walks it off

Gordon Graceffo entered in the bottom of the tenth with Ramón Laureano as the runner on second base to start. Jackson Merrill got intentionally walked, and Tatis Jr. followed with a walk on a 3-2 count. Machado came up with bases loaded and an out away. On the first pitch he saw, he sent it to deep enough right center field, where Laureano would score on the sacrifice fly and win the game for the Padres, 3-2.

That’s our Man. pic.twitter.com/rZYzLoGTWw

— San Diego Padres (@Padres) May 10, 2026

Wrap-up

The Padres will up their record to 24-16 on the season with Sunday’s win, as St. Louis will drop to 23-17 on the year.

Morejón’s one pitch in the tenth would be enough to secure the win. Graceffo, who pitched the bottom of the tenth, would receive the loss on Sunday.

Padres pitching limited the Cardinals’ bats to just three hits, while walking just one on the day. San Diego drew seven walks on Sunday.

Their 14 hits in this series vs. the Cardinals are the fewest hits they’ve had in a four-game series. The previous low was 15 hits in a four-game set vs. the Dodgers in April of 1985. Even with this poor offensive statistic, the Padres pulled through in the final two games to split the series 2-2.

On the road again

The Padres will be off on Monday in Milwaukee before they begin a six-game road trip consisting of Milwaukee and Seattle. Tuesday’s probable starting pitchers are Matt Waldron and 25-year-old Brandon Sproat for the Brewers. First pitch on Tuesday is scheduled for 4:40 PM PT/6:40 PM CT.

Angel Flores

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.