ST. LOUIS — On Monday, the Padres began a weeklong road trip that will end a marathon run of games.
They got almost everything they needed in a 7-4 victory over the Cardinals.
Foremost, fill-in starter Randy Vásquez gave them six innings, when at one point it did not appear at all likely he would.
And the offense built a big enough lead that it seemed there would be no need to go too deep in the bullpen.
The Padres did end up using their two highest-leverage arms for an inning apiece at the end. It would have been a bonus to avoid employing the relatively well-rested Tanner Scott and Robert Suarez. Both pitched Sunday in a game in which the bullpen covered 5⅓ innings, and the Padres have seven games remaining at the end of this 18-game stretch without a day off.
Still, this one went particularly well, especially for a game in late August with so much seemingly at stake every day, with 29 games remaining and a playoff spot to be secured.
With the calendar working against the teams chasing them, the Padres will take victories however they come.
Their 25th victory in their past 33 games came fairly routinely Monday, with a few tense moments sprinkled in, as they gained a half-game on the idle Diamondbacks in the race for the National League’s top wild-card spot.
“It’s been working pretty well for us for a while now,” Manny Machado said. “Let’s keep it going.”
Machado’s first-inning home run produced two of his three RBIs, and Jackson Merrill drove in three runs with a pair of singles.
As so many Padres victories have, Monday’s had a number of significant contributors. Vásquez (4-6, 4.52) had to be considered the biggest for how he battled to give the Padres the length they needed.
Pitching in the spot that until last week belonged to Matt Waldron and in the next week or so will likely belong to Yu Darvish, Vásquez scuffled through the middle portion of his six innings before closing with seven consecutive outs.
“There were several situations in the game,” Vásquez said. “But fortunately I never lost focus. I was able to concentrate and execute my poitches.”
All the Padres’ runs were charged to Cardinals starter Kyle Gibson, who had held them to two runs over seven innings on April 1 at Petco Park. The veteran right-hander departed with one out and a runner on second in the fifth inning, having thrown just 49 strikes among his 90 pitches.
The Padres went up 2-0 in the first inning, when Jake Cronenworth took a cutter in the elbow pad and Machado took a cutter deep — 420 feet to the grass berm beyond center field.
The Cardinals got to 2-1 in the second on Brendan Donovan’s triple and a single by Paul Goldschmidt, the erstwhile slugger who took a .226 batting average into the game and was batting seventh.
Luis Arraez led off the third with a single, and walks by Jurickson Profar and Machado loaded the bases with one out before Merrill drove in tow runs with a single.
Vásquez walked Ivan Herrera to start the bottom of the fourth, and a single by Donovan put runners on the corners with no outs. A sacrifice fly by Matt Carpenter got the Cardinals to 4-2 and got Adrián Morejón up in the bullpen.
But after allowing a single to No.9 hitter Victor Scott II, Vásquez ended the inning on a fly ball by Masyn Winn and went on to retire the Cardinals in order in the fifth and sixth.
That bigger lead came with Machado and Merrill adding to their RBI totals, as the Padres scored three more runs in the fifth.
A second walk by Profar and a single by Cronenworth was followed by a Machado double, a sacrifice fly by Xander Bogaerts and — after left-hander Matthew Liberatore replaced Gibson — a single by Merrill.
Vásquez took just 12 pitches to get through the fifth inning and five to finish off the sixth.
“He was able to navigate some traffic,” manager Mike Shildt said. “And then the fifth and sixth were absolutely huge to pitch with the lead and get us deeper in the game. Set us up well moving forward.”
They might have been even more set up had Morejón not allowed a run in the seventh inning and taken 28 pitches doing so. That left manager Shildt to ask an inning of Scott, who worked a scoreless eighth, and Suarez, who allowed a run in the ninth.
“We deal with what we get,” Shildt said. “… Game of adjustments.”
Scott had four days off before throwing 19 pitches Sunday. Suarez also had four days off before closing out Sunday’s victory over the Mets in nine pitches.
“We get an opportunity, four-run game,” Shild said. “Take it down.”
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