WALDRON GRAIN & FUEL

05/09 22:04 CDT Manny Machado hits his 200th homer in a Padres uniform as San Diego beats St. Louis 4-2 Manny Machado hits his 200th homer in a Padres uniform as San Diego beats St. Louis 4-2 By RICHARD J. MARCUS Associated Press SAN DIEGO (AP) --- Manny Machado hit his 375th career homer and 200th in a Padres uniform, Ty France also went deep and San Diego beat the St. Louis Cardinals 4-2 on Saturday. Fernando Tatis Jr. had a tiebreaking two-run single in the fifth inning to back Randy Vsquez (4-1), who gave up one run and six hits while striking out six in five innings. Mason Miller got the final out of the eighth but the Padres' closer ran into some uncharacteristic trouble in the ninth, walking two batters before Yahel Pozo reached when he struck out on a slider in the dirt. Miller escaped the jam by setting down JJ Wetherholt looking on a 101 mph fastball for his fourth strikeout of the inning. The dominant right-hander has been scored on in just one of his 18 outings this season and has a major league-leading 12 saves in as many opportunities. Machado homered in the eighth off reliever Matt Svanson to make it 4-2. He also hit 162 homers for Baltimore and 13 in half a season with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Nathan Church gave the Cardinals a 1-0 lead in the fourth with an RBI double. The Padres tied it in the fifth when France homered to center off Dustin May (3-4). Later in the frame, Tatis blooped a single to right to make it 3-1. May surrendered three runs on three hits and struck out seven in six innings. In the eighth, Ivn Herrera doubled down the left-field line off San Diego reliever Adrian Morejon to score Wetherholt from first.

Up next Cardinals RHP Kyle Leahy (4-3, 4.93 ERA) will start opposite Padres RHP Walker Buehler (2-2, 15.64) on Sunday as San Diego seeks a split of the four-game series. ___ AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb