ST. LOUIS — The Padres left Baltimore on Sunday having won a second consecutive game for the first time in three weeks and a second consecutive series for the first time in nearly two months.
On Monday, in another ballpark against another iconic franchise, the Padres ran into the truth coined by one of Baltimore’s greatest sports figures.
It was the late Orioles manager Earl Weaver who said first what has become one of baseball’s most accurate adages — that momentum is the next day’s starting pitcher.
Dustin May was that pitcher on Monday, and he obliterated for at least a night whatever forward progress the Padres had made over the previous 10 days or so.
The Cardinals’ redheaded right-hander shut out what had been a resurgent offense for nine innings in St Louis’ 3-0 victory at Busch Stadium.
“It kind of just felt like he was throwing whatever pitch he wanted where he wanted it,” Ty France said. “Just got to tip your cap to him. He did a really good job tonight.”
The Cardinals scored all their runs off Lucas Giolito, including two in the fourth inning after a hard ground ball got through the webbing of his glove on what would have been the third out. The Cardinals’ other run came on a two-out walk and Nate Burleson’s double in the fifth.
Perhaps the Padres could have played it differently against May, trying to bunt or otherwise mix up their attack, had it been 1-0 at that point.
But the fact is May was too dominant to truly contemplate many ifs.
“Around the first time through the lineup, and then he hits the top of the lineup again in the fourth, and you’re kind of seeing the swings and the takes, and you’re going, ‘Oh, this guy has got it going tonight,’” Padres interim manager Randy Knorr said. “And you hope he comes back out in the fifth or so and it’s not as sharp. But it just continued the whole night with him.”
As the crowd stood and cheered in anticipation with two outs in the ninth, May finished off his ninth strikeout, this one on a swing Fernando Tatis Jr. could not check on a sweeper that broke well out of the zone.
May whipped his long frame around, let out a yell as he pumped his glove and bare hand in front of him and hopped off the mound to accept congratulations from teammates.
It was Tatis who had wrecked May’s perfect game two innings earlier by drawing a walk. A single by Manny Machado two batters later would be the Padres’ only hit.
May’s first career complete game was the sixth shutout thrown by a major league pitcher this season and the first complete game shutout thrown against the Padres since the Braves’ Max Fried held them scoreless on three hits on Sept. 24, 2021.
Last night was the second time this season the Padres have been held to one hit. The last time was May 8 when three Cardinals pitchers combined to shut them out at Petco Park.
May completed his night in 101 pitches. He had thrown 67 pitches and retired all 18 batters he had faced through six innings.
Just as the tension truly began to grow, however, the quest for history was over.
The crowd gave May a brief ovation after he sailed a 97 mph fastball well above the zone for ball four to Tatis at the start of the seventh inning.
After Cardinals shortstop Masyn Winn made a diving stop on a hard ground ball and threw out Jackson Merrill, a longer ovation serenaded May, and most in the crowd stood, when Machado’s ground ball split the fielders on the left side and bounced into left field.
The cheers were almost as loud after Gavin Sheets grounded the next pitch directly at Winn, who fielded the ball, stepped on second base and threw to first base to end May’s seventh scoreless inning.
May struck out the side in the eighth, got two quick outs to start the ninth and then fanned Tatis.
Monday was the 12th time May started against the Padres, including when he allowed them three runs in six innings on May 9 at Petco Park. He made his MLB debut against them in 2019 and in 10 starts against them pitching for the Dodgers had a 3.92 ERA.
“Location was way better,” Tatis said of Monday’s performance. “The location and the way he mixed was really impressive.”
The Padres have the lowest batting average (.217) and have scored the fewest runs per game (3.8) in the major leagues this season. But those numbers were a highly respectable .265 and 5.2 over their previous six games.
“We come in here, we just ran into a tough guy tonight,” Knorr said. “I expect our offense to get going again tomorrow and get back on it. Just tough, tough draw tonight.”