Pivetta (11-3) struck out five and did not give up a walk. His only blemish was a solo homer by Willson Contreras in the fifth that gave the Cardinals a 1-0 lead.

San Diego answered with four runs in the bottom of the fifth in large part to two errors that led to three unearned runs.

With Jake Cronenworth at first and one out, Jose Iglesias hit a slow grounder to third baseman Nolan Gorman, whose wide throw hit first baseman Contreras’ glove and rolled away.

Cronenworth went to third and scored when Contreras' throw to Gorman skipped away.

Elias Díaz singled in Iglesias and four batters later, Merrill hit a two-out single up the middle against Matt Svanson.

Robert Suarez notched his major league-best 31st save with a scoreless ninth.

Cardinals starter Matthew Liberatore (6-9) pitched 4 1/3 innings, giving up four hits and four runs (one earned).

Key moment
Padres reliever Mason Miller, acquired at the trade deadline on Thursday from the Athletics, trotted in from the bullpen in the eighth inning to roaring applause from the soldout Petco Park crowd for his first appearance with San Diego. Miller got Yohel Pozo to ground into a double play with one out and runners at the corners to get out of the inning unscathed.

Key stat
The Cardinals have lost five of their last six games. In those five loses, St. Louis has scored a combined four runs.

Up next
The Cardinals’ RHP Michael McGreevy (2-2, 4.91 ERA) takes the hill in game two of the series Saturday night versus Padres’ RHP Randy Vásquez (3-4, 3.65).

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