ST. LOUIS — When Jake Westbrook keeps the ball down, his success rate goes way up.
Westbrook used a sharp sinker to pitch eight effective innings and the Cardinals beat the Padres 4-0 on Thursday night in the opener of a key four- game series.
Albert Pujols hit a run-scoring double in the Cardinals’ three-run sixth inning, snapping an 0-for-9 slide, and Yadier Molina added a two-run single.
St. Louis snapped a three-game skid and moved within seven of NL Central-leading Cincinnati, which lost 3-1 to Arizona. The Cardinals have 17 games left on their schedule.
San Diego dropped into second place in the NL West after the Giants defeated the Dodgers.
Westbrook (2-3) gave up six hits and walked three in his longest outing since he was acquired from Cleveland in a three-team deal July 31. The right-hander is 2-3 with a 3.26 ERA in nine starts with St. Louis.
“When I get groundballs, I feel like I’m doing my job,” said Westbrook, who has eight quality starts with the Cardinals. “This was the first zero I put up in a long time. It feels good.”
It was Westbrook’s longest scoreless outing since he threw eight shutout innings Aug. 23, 2007, for Cleveland against Detroit. Westbrook recorded 16 groundball outs.
San Diego stranded seven runners over the first four innings and left nine on for the game. Westbrook was able to work out of jams in four of the first five innings, thanks to his sinker and some solid defense behind him.
“Obviously, he was working down in the zone,” said Padres catcher Yorvit Torrealba, who went 0-for-4. “We hit some balls hard, that’s all you can do.”
Westbrook struck out pitcher Tim Stauffer with the bases loaded to end the second, then struck him out again with two on in the fourth for the second out. Aaron Cunningham then hit a grounder back to the mound to end the inning.
“We had some chances but we just couldn’t get to him,” San Diego manager Bud Black said. “We couldn’t get the hit when we needed it.”
Matt Holliday hit a two-out RBI single off Stauffer (4-4) in the first, and the Cardinals added three more in the sixth. Pujols’ hit glanced off the glove of Ryan Ludwick in right and rolled into center, scoring Skip Schumaker and giving him 105 RBIs.
“I feel like I executed the pitches,” Stauffer said. “It just wasn’t in the cards.”
Molina capped the scoring with a bases-loaded bloop single down the right-field line.
