The St. Louis Cardinals and San Diego Padres are in the fight for the final National League wild- card slot. They are facing each other seven times in a span of 11 days.

The San Diego Padres started and finished strong on their longest road trip of the season. Hitting and running as if the ground was burning their feet, the Padres concluded the 10-game, three-city trek Sunday with a 9-2 victory over the St.

Michael McGreevy and the Cardinals wrap up a fiery four-game home series vs. the Padres with Sunday's 1:15 p.m. start at Busch Stadium.

St. Louis (54-53) dropped back-to-back games to San Diego (57-49), resulting in a four-game series split after Sunday's 9-2 loss at Busch Stadium.

The Padres scored their final run in the ninth on a double by JOhnson, sacrifice bunt by Martín Maldonado and a grounder by Fernando Tatis Jr. that shortstop Masyn Winn bobbled before throwing to first base for the out.

The Cardinal received five-plus scoreless innings from Miles Mikolas in a 3-0 shutout of the Padres on Friday night at Busch Stadium.

The San Diego Padres won their final game of a four-game set against the Wild Card-hopeful St. Louis Cardinals, 9-2. Manny Machado had a 4-for-5 day with three