SAN DIEGO -- Sidney Ponson's return proved to be a bad
sign for the San Diego Padres.
Ponson threw five solid innings in his return from the disabled
list and Scott Rolen drove in two runs as the St. Louis
Cardinals claimed the middle game of a weekend series with a 4-3
victory over the Padres.
Sidelined since May 7 with a slight flexor strain in his right
elbow, Ponson (4-0) allowed two runs and seven hits to remain
unbeaten for his new team. The veteran righthander walked one
and struck out four.
"It was pretty smooth," Ponson said. "This was my first start
coming back from the DL, so I'm pretty happy. I could throw all
of my pitches at any time, and my elbow didn't affect me so it
was good."
"That was impressive," Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said .
"He went out there and I thought he had good life, he made a
bunch of good pitches. He got guys out when he was ahead of
them; he got guys out when he fell behind them. I thought he
was outstanding."
Previously in the National League in a short stint with the San
Francisco Giants in 2003, Ponson also had a solid showing at the
plate, singling to center field to lead off the third inning.
He eventually scored on the two-run double by Rolen off Chan Ho
Park (2-3) as the Cardinals took a 3-1 lead.
"It's tough out there, because I'm from the American League and
I'm not used to running the bases," Ponson said. "I'm here to
throw strikes and get guys out, not because of my bat or because
of my base-running."
Juan Encarnacion followed Rolen with a sacrifice fly for a 4-1
advantage.
San Diego eventually cut that deficit to 4-3 after solo home
runs from Brian Giles in the third and Mark Bellhorn in the
sixth.
Coming off a 7-1 win in the opener on Friday, the Padres
threatened in the eighth with runners at second and third, but
Geoff Blum popped out against reliever Braden Looper.
"I was able to get the big out when I needed it," Looper said.
"I was real mad at myself for getting in that situation, but
you've just got to go out there and battle and I made a big
pitch to him."
"We had some chances there," Padres manager Bruce Bochy said.
"We just couldn't quite get that extra hit."
In the ninth, San Diego put two runners on against closer Jason
Isringhausen behind a two-out single by Mike Cameron and a walk
by Giles. However, Giles was picked off on a throw from catcher
Yadier Molina to end the game after straying too far from
first, sealing Isringhausen's league-leading 16th save.
"I looked to Pujols, and he told me that (Giles) was taking too
big of a lead," Molina said. "We've got a sign to do that, and
it worked. It was the right pitch, an inside pitch. This was
my first time (to make that play) to end the game. It was like
a walk-off home run."
"It's a shame that it ended that way," Giles said. "You can't
get picked off right there, especially in a big game like that.
It was a timing play, I was breaking to the bag on my secondary
lead. You can't get picked, bottom line."
Park gave up four runs and six hits in six innings for the
Padres, who dropped to 2-3 on a nine-game homestand.
"As well as we played last night, we made some mistakes today,"
Bochy said. "You're not going to win games making the mistakes
we did. We battled hard and created some scoring chances, but
we just came up a hit short there."
The Cardinals won for the eighth time in 10 games to improve to
15-9 in May and ensured their 13th consecutive winning month
dating to April 2004.
"This was not a game you win usually," La Russa said. "They
were the ones who kept playing hard and getting closer and
closer. We did just enough good things (to win)."