ST. LOUIS — Yadier Molina went 4-for-4 with a career-high five RBIs to lead the St. Louis Cardinals to a 14-4 victory over the San Diego Padres on Friday night.
The Padres, who began the day a half-game behind the first-place San Francisco Giants in the NL West, fell 1 1/2 games behind Atlanta in the wild-card standings. The Giants hosted Milwaukee in a late game.
San Diego led the NL West by 6 1/2 games after beating Arizona on Aug. 25, but it has dropped 16-of-22 since.
Matt Holliday homered and drove in three runs for the Cardinals.
Albert Pujols added three hits and two RBIs, and Colby Rasmus had three hits and scored four times.
St. Louis has won 11 successive games against San Diego at Busch Stadium, tying the longest active streak in the major leagues. San Francisco has won 11 in a row at home over Texas, and Toronto has an 11-game home winning streak against Baltimore.
The Cardinals pounded out a season-high 19 hits and saddled San Diego rookie Mat Latos with the worst loss of his career. Latos (14-7) lasted just 1 1/3 innings and gave up eight earned runs.
Latos recently set a major-league record with 15 consecutive starts of allowing two runs or fewer in five innings or more. That streak ended when he gave up five earned runs in four innings of a 14-6 loss to San Francisco on Sunday.
The Cardinals won their second in a row and moved within six games of first-place Cincinnati in the NL Central following the Reds’ 5-3 loss at Houston.
St. Louis starter Kyle Lohse (4-7) allowed three runs on seven hits over five innings.
Molina highlighted a five-run outburst in the second with a bases-loaded single that brought in two runs and pushed the lead to 7-2.
His double in the opening inning put St. Louis up 3-1. Molina, who tied a career high with his four hits, added a run-scoring double in the fourth and an RBI single in the sixth.
Holliday hit his 27th homer, a solo shot, off reliever Wade LeBlanc in the sixth.
