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Cardinals Improve MLB-Best Road Record After Key Throw by Pedro Pagés
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- Cardinals Improve MLB-Best Road Record After Key Throw by Pedro Pagés
Roundtable Sports writer John Denton discusses the Cardinals ' 2-1 win over the Padres on Thursday night.
In a crisp, two-hour, 25-minute pitching duel where thesmallest of details made the biggest of differences, catcher Pedro Pagés had arguablythe play of the game in yet another narrow road victory for the St. LouisCardinals.
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With the Cardinals nursing a one-run lead in the seventhinning, Pagés made a perfect throw to second base to nail Fernando Tatis forhis MLB-leading ninth caught stealing of the season. Pagés’ play, combined withstellar starting from Matthew Liberatore and another strong closing effort fromRiley O’Brien allowed the Cardinals to beat the Padres 2-1 at San Diego ’s PetcoPark.
The Cardinals improved to 12-5 away from Busch Stadium,giving them MLB’s best winning percentage (.706) on the road this season. TheCards also won their eighth one-run game, which is tied for the most in the bigleagues in 2026.
With the Cards leading 2-1, Tatis Jr. led off the bottom ofthe seventh with an infield hit against reliever George Soriano . Even thoughSoriano typically leans on his changeup, Tatis picked a fastball to try andswipe second base and get in scoring position. Pagés’ throw to JJ Wetherholtwas on target to get the out call, which stood up despite a lengthy replayreview initiated by the Padres.
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On the season, Pages has thrown out nine of 28 basestealers. Not only is his 32.1 percent success rate in throwing out runnerswell ahead of the 2026 MLB average for catchers (29 percent), but Pagés iseasily on pace to set a career mark.
Surprisingly steady Cardinals have been road warriors all of 2026
O’Brien, whose fastball topped out at 101 mph in the ninthinning, picked up his 11th save in 13 opportunities this season.
Cardinals win their eighth one-run game
Locked into pitcher’s duel, the Cardinals grabbed the leadafter the Padres pulled Michael King after six innings – even though he had allowedjust one hit. When reliever Bradgley Rodriguez left a changeup up, Jordan Walker hammered it off the wall in left field for the first of his two doubles.
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Walker came around to score when Padres’ right fielder NickCastellanos dove for a looper by Masyn Winn and missed for a triple and an RBI.
Trailing 1-0 after allowing yet another first-inning run allowed,the Cardinals knotted the score when Alec Burleson teed off on a King changeup.Burleson’s line drive homer left the bat at 111.2 mph, and it carried 378 feetfor his sixth home run of the season.
Burleson’s blast was the only blemish off King, who limitedthe Redbirds to one run and one hit.
Liberatore was similarly effective, holding the Padres tojust one run and three hits over six innings. Throwing the curveball that heleaned on early in his career more often, Liberatore struck out six and walkedthree. He pulled after just 81 pitches largely because of his troubles whenfacing lineups a third time this season.
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As has so often been the case with Cardinals’ pitchers thisseason, Liberatore ran into trouble in the first inning. The Cards lost to the Brewers on Wednesday at Busch Stadium largely because right-hander AndrePallante strayed from his game plan and surrendered four first-inning runs.
In that first inning, Liberatore issued a two-out walk to Manny Machado , who scored following singles by Fernando Tatis Jr. and XanderBogaerts. Liberatore limited the damage allowed by deftly picking Bogaerts offfirst base when he looked away ever so briefly.
The earned runpushed the Cardinals’ ERA to 5.25 in the first inning, 23rd in MLB.
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