The new-look, post-trade deadline Cardinals headed west to Petco Park for a three-game series with the Padres and the results were...more or less the same.

St. Louis (55-56) dropped game one of its series with San Diego (61-49) by a score of 4-1.

Outside of one swing by Willson Contreras, the Cardinal offense didn’t come close to threatening Nick Pavetta. In fact, Pavetta took a perfect game bid into the fifth inning, but Contreras, mercifully, put an end to it with a rocket to left field. That would be the only blemish on Pavetta’s night, and he responded by retiring the next six batters he faced. Pavetta faced 22 St. Louis batters and responded 21.

Despite St. Louis’ struggles at the plate, Contreras’s home run gave the Cards a 1-0 lead thanks to Matthew Liberatore throwing four score

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