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Major League Baseball
St. Louis 9, San Diego 7
When: 7:45 PM ET, Thursday, July 24, 2025
Where: Busch Stadium, St. Louis, Missouri
Temperature: 93°
Umpires: Home - Alfonso Marquez, 1B - Clint Vondrak, 2B - Lance Barrett, 3B - Tom Hanahan
Attendance: 30601

Brendan Donovan and Willson Contreras hit three-run homers to power the St. Louis Cardinals past the visiting San Diego Padres 9-7 Thursday.

Ivan Herrera was 3-for-4 with a homer, two runs and two RBIs for the Cardinals, who won for just the second time in seven games since the All-Star break. That gave Oliver Marmol his 300th career managerial victory.

Cardinals starter Sonny Gray (10-4) allowed seven runs (six earned) on 11 hits in five innings. Riley O'Brien, JoJo Romero, Phil Maton and Ryan Helsley (20th save) combined for four scoreless innings.

Manny Machado went 3-for-5 with a two-run homer for the Padres, who lost for the third time in four games. Fernando Tatis Jr. went 3-for-5 with a homer and two runs.

Padres pitcher Yu Darvish (0-3) struggled in his fourth start since coming off the injured list. He allowed eight runs on eight hits and two walks in 3 1/3 innings.

The Padres struck immediately. Tatis led off the game with a single and Luis Arraez hit an RBI double. Jackson Merrill's RBI single put San Diego up 2-0.

The Cardinals answered in their half of the inning. Donovan hit a single and scored on Contreras' double to cut the lead to 2-1.

St. Louis surged ahead 7-2 in the second inning. Jordan Walker's single and Victor Scott II's walk set up Donovan's three-run homer.

Herrera hit a single, Alec Burleson followed with a double and Contreras smacked his three-run home run 415 feet to center field.

The Padres cut their deficit to 7-5 in the third inning. Tatis hit his homer, Arraez hit a double, then Machado hit his two-run shot.

The Cardinals increased their lead to 8-5 in the fourth inning. Scott walked, stole second base and scored on Herrera's single.

San Diego cut the lead to 8-7 in the fifth inning. Merrill hit a single, Xander Bogaerts hit a double, Gavin Sheets hit an RBI groundout, and Bogaerts scored as Bryce Johnson reached based on an error.

Herrera's sixth-inning homer pushed St. Louis' lead to 9-7.

--Field Level Media

Top Game Performances
Starting Pitchers
San Diego   St. Louis
Yu Darvish Player Sonny Gray
Loss W/L Win
3.1 IP 5.0
3 Strikeouts 5
8 Hits 11
21.60 ERA 10.80
Hitting
San Diego   St. Louis
Manny Machado Player Ivan Herrera
3 Hits 3
2 RBI 2
1 HR 1
6 TB 6
.600 Avg .750
Team Stats Summary
 
Team Hits HR TB Avg LOB K RBI BB SB Errors
San Diego 13 2 22 .317 18 12 6 1 0 0
St. Louis 12 3 23 .353 16 6 9 5 1 1