Close calls go against Padres in 4-3 loss to Cards

WARREN MAYES
Associated Press

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Padres catcher Yasmani Grandal was philosophical about a pair of close calls that went against San Diego in a 4-3 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals on Thursday night.

“Sometimes the calls are going to go your way, other times they aren’t,” he said. “That’s the way the game is.”

Grandal was behind the plate when reliever Alex Torres appeared to strike out Tony Cruz to begin the bottom of the eighth inning with the game tied 2-all. But plate umpire Bob Davidson ruled that Cruz foul-tipped the sinker, although replays appeared to show otherwise.

One inning later, Grandal had just crossed the plate when Alexi Amarista was called out as he tried to score the tying run on a single by pinch-hitter Jake Goebbert.

Grandal, who led off the ninth with a single and scored the Padres’ third run, believes there still are flaws in the replay system.

“If we’re going to have replay, we’re going to have to have a lot more cameras and a lot more different angles,” he said.

Pinch-hitter Jon Jay delivered a two-run double in the eighth inning and right fielder Shane Robinson threw out the potential tying run at the plate in the ninth to help St. Louis hold on.

Jhonny Peralta hit an early two-run homer for the Cardinals, who moved ahead of Pittsburgh into second place in the NL Central. St. Louis remained two games behind division-leading Milwaukee.

San Diego had its five-game winning streak snapped and fell to 16-9 since the All-Star break.

Trailing by two in the ninth, the Padres loaded the bases with one out against closer Trevor Rosenthal. Goebbert came through with an RBI single to right, but Amarista was cut down at home when he tried to score from second.

The replay review lasted 4 minutes, 9 seconds. Padres manager Bud Black then was ejected for continuing to argue the call.

“You saw two major league players react to a play that indicated that a tag was missed,” Black said. “You saw their catcher go back and try to tag our runner because he knew he missed him. You saw our player react knowing that he wasn’t tagged. So you saw two experienced major league players react to a play that they both knew wasn’t a tag.

“That’s what’s frustrating to us.”

After a four-pitch walk to Will Venable loaded the bases again, Rosenthal struck out Tommy Medica for his 36th save in 40 opportunities.

Torres (1-1) thought he struck out Cruz leading off the eighth, but it was ruled Cruz foul-tipped the ball.

Given another chance, Cruz singled on the next delivery. Pinch-hitter Daniel Descalso walked on four pitches and Matt Carpenter loaded the bases with a single.

Nick Vincent entered to face Jay, who came through for St. Louis.

Seth Maness (4-2) earned the win with one spotless inning of relief.

The Padres tied the score with two runs in the sixth after loading the bases with none out. Venable scored on a fielder’s choice. Medica, who had doubled, came home when Rymer Liriano beat out an infield single with two outs.

Both starters went seven innings.

Cardinals right-hander John Lackey improved on his last start in Baltimore that resulted in nine earned runs over five innings. Lackey allowed five hits and two runs with five strikeouts.

Eric Stults gave up two runs and four hits for San Diego. Stults has allowed three or fewer earned runs in nine of his last 10 starts.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Padres: 1B Yonder Alonso was placed on the 15-day disabled list with a strained forearm, retroactive to Wednesday. San Diego recalled INF Jace Peterson from Triple-A El Paso.

UP NEXT

Padres RHP Tyson Ross (11-10, 2.63 ERA) faces St. Louis RHP Lance Lynn (12-8, 2.97) in the second game of the four-game series Friday.

Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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