One hit. Six runs. The Padres' fifth inning disaster against St. Louis
Padres battered by Cardinals in brutal loss, managing just one hit while St. Louis scores six in a wild fifth inning.
San Diego got shredded on Friday night. The Padres managed just one hit, one, in a loss to St. Louis, with the Cardinals doing most of their damage in a single, chaotic fifth inning where they plated six runs.
That fifth was the kind of baseball that makes managers want to kick something. Six hits, two walks, and a three-base error from Fernando Tatis Jr. just kept piling on. The Cardinals were basically taking batting practice while the Padres' pitching fell apart in real time.
One hit across nine innings is honestly hard to pull off. You'd think the Padres would stumble into more contact than that, but nope. The Cardinals' pitching was sharp, or the San Diego lineup just wasn't there. Probably both.
Tatis's error didn't help. A three-base mistake in an inning already spinning out of control added insult to injury, and by the time the dust settled, the game was done. Just done.
This isn't the kind of loss you shake off quickly. One hit suggests nothing was working — not the approach, not the timing, not the luck. The Cardinals walked away looking like they didn't even need to try that hard.
