Cardinals at Padres
Jedd Gyorko regularly torments his former employers and the St. Louis third baseman looks to exact more damage when the Cardinals visit the San Diego Padres in the third contest of a four-game set. Gyorko went 3-for-4 with a homer to help the Cardinals post a 9-5 victory on Friday for their second straight win in the series.
Gyorko is a torrid 21-for-40 with eight homers and 17 RBIs in 11 career games against the Padres, the team he played for from 2013-15. He had plenty of company when it came to the long ball on Friday as Paul DeJong (career-best four RBIs), Harrison Bader, Marcell Ozuna and Tommy Pham also went deep during an impressive power display. "It's nice to finally explode a little bit on offense," DeJong said in a postgame television interview. "I think we're all having pretty good at-bats lately so we kind of all put it together." Travis Jankowski, who homered, and Jose Pirela each had three hits for San Diego, which is just 6-16 in home games played at Petco Park this season.
TV: 8:40 p.m. ET, MLB Network, FS Midwest (St. Louis), FS San Diego
PITCHING MATCHUP: Cardinals RH Michael Wacha (4-1, 3.15 ERA) vs. Padres RH Tyson Ross (2-3, 3.67)
Wacha has received back-to-back no-decisions after winning each of his previous four starts. The 26-year-old, who has allowed just five earned runs over his last four turns, is looking to post his 50th career victory. Wacha is 3-0 with a 2.52 ERA in four career starts against San Diego and is undefeated in three previous outings at Petco Park.
Ross is 0-2 over his last four decisions despite allowing just one run in both no-decisions during the stretch. The 31-year-old allowed a season-worst five runs in losing to the Washington Nationals in his last turn when he served up two homers among six hits allowed over six innings. Ross is 1-1 with a 3.00 ERA in six career appearances (three starts) against the Cardinals and has experienced issues with Matt Carpenter (3-for-5, six walks) and Dexter Fowler (3-for-9 with one homer and five walks).
WALK-OFFS
1. Padres 3B Christian Villanueva was hitless in four at-bats on Friday and is 0-for-30 over the past nine contests.
2. St. Louis activated Brett Cecil (shoulder) off the 10-day disabled list and placed fellow LHP Tyler Lyons (back) on the DL.
3. San Diego C Austin Hedges (right elbow) underwent an MRI exam and no structural damage was found but it remains unclear when he will be activated off the DL.