Cardinals 7, Padres 6: Matt Carpenter homered among three hits and drove in three runs as host St. Louis held on to take three of four from San Diego.

Jon Jay had a two-run single and Adam Wainwright (15-7) moved into a tie for the major-league lead with his 15th win after allowing four runs (three earned) and seven hits in seven frames for the Cardinals, who remained atop the wild-card race in the National League and remained three games behind Milwaukee in the NL Central. Closer Trevor Rosenthal was charged with two runs in the ninth after loading the bases on three walks before Seth Maness got the last two outs for his second save.

Jake Goebbert tripled in a run and scored on an overthrow to third base for the Padres, who spotted the hosts a 5-0 lead after two innings while falling to 8-23 all-time at the new Busch Stadium. Alexi Amarista and Yangervis Solarte chipped in RBI singles while Abraham Almonte delivered a two-run base hit in the ninth as San Diego dropped seven games back in the wild-card standings.

Carpenter singled off Padres starter Odrisamer Despaigne (3-4) to begin the bottom of the first as St. Louis quickly loaded the bases. Jay then singled to right to make it 2-0 and Peter Bourjos and Tony Cruz capped the four-run rally with RBI base hits later in the inning.

Carpenter led off the second and launched a hanging breaking ball into the first row of the right-center field stands for a five-run bulge. Amarista and Solarte got San Diego on the board in the fifth and Goebbert's trip around the bases came in the sixth to make it 5-4, but Carpenter doubled in the bottom half to plate a pair of runs that proved critical with Rosenthal's wildness.

GAME NOTEBOOK: Despaigne was reached for five runs and six hits with one walk and one strikeout in four innings. ... Cardinals LF Matt Holliday, who was hitless in 18 at-bats over his last five games, was given a day of rest. ... San Diego takes a day off before visiting the Los Angeles Dodgers on Tuesday. St. Louis opens a three-game series at home with Cincinnati on Monday.