Tyson Ross has made tremendous strides this season, in which he has evolved as the Padres ace. However, on Friday night, Ross' command was nowhere to be found, as the right-hander could not locate his fastball early in his outing. St. Louis scored a pair of runs in the first inning and cruised to a 4-2 win over the San Diego Padres at Busch Stadium.

Ross walked the first three batters in the first inning and the Cardinals were able to capitalize on Ross' rough start. After the aforementioned three walks, Cardinals first baseman Matt Adams singled in a run to put St. Louis on the board first. St. Louis added a second run on an RBI groundout from Jhonny Peralta. Ross was able to get out of the potential disaster inning by retiring A.J. Pierzynski and John Jay. 

St. Louis led 3-0 in the fifth inning, when San Diego got on the board. Padres outfielder Will Venable drove in Jace Peterson to cut the lead to 3-1. San Diego had runners on 2nd and 3rd with just one out, but Cardinals starter Lance Lynn struck out Tommy Medica and Seth Smith flied out to end the inning. 

The Padres trailed 4-1 in the ninth inning, when pinch-hitter Yasmani Grandal slugged his 10th homer off of Pat Neshek. Neshek shut San Diego down from there, preserving the win for St. Louis. 

Ross took the loss on the evening, as he allowed three earned runs in six innings, with four walks, and only two strikeouts. He threw a whopping 109 pitches those six frames of work. 

Cardinals starter Lance Lynn won his 13th game for the Cards, as he allowed just one run in his six innings of work. The two teams will continue the four-game set Saturday night.

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Kevin Charity
Hello, my name is Kevin Charity. I am 29-years-old, and I reside in San Diego, California. I have been blogging for about four years, mostly writing about baseball. I am a huge San Diego Padres fan, and I have had my work featured on MLBTraderumors.com. No one knows as much as the Padres organization as I do.