Watching the top of the ninth inning from the dugout, St. Louis Cardinals ace Adam Wainwright thought he’d played the role of a ”nervous dad.”

”Like when I watch my friends do something, I’m always more nervous than when I do it,” Wainwright said.

”When I watch my daughters, even at ballet or something, I’m more nervous than if I was out there doing ballet.”

Allen Craig’s game-ending leaping catch high at the left field fence preserved a 3-2 victory over the San Diego Padres on Sunday.

Wainwright became the first NL pitcher to reach 13 wins.

The Cardinals have won nine of 12. The Padres have lost 19 of 24.

Craig has 12 hits and six RBIs during a seven-game hitting streak for the Cardinals, who took two of three in both series against the Padres this season.

He’s a confident defender, too, and never thought pinch hitter Jedd Gyorko’s drive with two on and two out was going out of the park.

The glove work prevented at least an extra-base hit that would have given the Padres the lead, and preserved Edward Mujica’s 28th save in 30 chances.

”Obviously, it came off the bat good,” Craig said. ”I don’t know if he hit it good enough. Obviously, it wasn’t enough.”

Gyorko agreed with Wainwright’s assessment that he just got under the ball a little. He hadn’t viewed a replay, and didn’t want to, either.

”No. It was a good play,” Gyorko said. ”That’s how the game goes sometimes.”

The St. Louis defense turned three double plays behind Wainwright (13-5), who allowed two runs with seven strikeouts and worked around two walks. The Padres got the leadoff man on base seven times but he minimized the impact.

”He got tough with guys on base, no doubt about it,” Padres manager Bud Black said. ”He’s a veteran pitcher with a lot of know-how.

”We had good swings against an All-Star pitcher. To a man, we fought him. He knew it.”

Yonder Alonso singled three times with an RBI for the Padres. Eric Stults (8-8) allowed three runs and eight hits in six innings, stranding two runners in the second and fifth, falling short in a bid to win three straight starts for the first time in his career.

”This is a team where they get guys on base and they get in kind of a swing mode, they want to score quick,” Stults said. ”That third inning got away a little bit.”

Wainwright matched his season high for walks after entering with a NL-low 15 in 146 2-3 innings. He had only one perfect inning but got key outs with breaking balls and struck out Everth Cabrera with a man on third to end the seventh.

Wainwright is 5-2 with a 1.47 ERA against the Padres after beating them for the second time this season.

The first four Cardinals reached safely in the third capped by David Freese’s two-run double when center fielder Alexi Amarista missed a diving catch and the ball went to the wall.

Freese was thrown out at third on strong relays from right fielder Will Venable and Cabrera and the Cardinals had just one more runner in scoring position the rest of the way.

Matt Carpenter opened the third with a double off the base of the wall in right-center for his second straight hit and leads the majors with 39 multi-hit games.

Cabrera led off the game with an opposite-field double, a chopper down the third-base line that Wainwright called a ”doink fest,” and scored on Alonso’s two-out hit.

The Padres cut the deficit to a run in the sixth on a double by Carlos Quentin, another Alonso hit and a double-play ball.

— Associated Press —

After three perfect innings, Edinson Volquez barely qualified for the decision. The San Diego Padres’ bullpen picked up their starter by silencing the league’s top offense.

Nick Vincent, Dale Thayer, Luke Gregorson and Huston Street worked an inning apiece after Volquez (7-8) faded at the end of a five-inning outing in a 5-3 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals on Saturday night.

”Tough team, no doubt about that,” manager Bud Black said. ”Look at the batting average, RBIs, what they do with runners in scoring position.

”Four no-hit innings. Outstanding.”

Street was perfect in the ninth for his 16th save in 17 chances after Carlos Quentin’s RBI double off Trevor Rosenthal in the ninth put the Padres up by two runs. The Cardinals entered the game leading the league with a .278 average but managed just a pair of walks the last four innings.

”We have a really good offense and sometimes it’s just not going to happen for you,” said St. Louis’ Allen Craig, who had a two-run single.

Lance Lynn (11-5) lost for the fourth time in five starts, allowing four runs in five innings.

Manager Mike Matheny said Lynn ”just never had a feel for his fastball,” and took note of ”body language” and ponderous pacing.

”He’s had a couple weird starts and when those start to compound you’ve got to stop and regroup, and it didn’t look like he was able to do that tonight,” Matheny said. ”It was pretty slow and it was talked about, but you also don’t rush a guy when he doesn’t have a good feel for his fastball.

”That wasn’t how we drew it up.”

The only run for the Cardinals came on 29-year-old rookie Brock Peterson’s RBI groundout in his first major league at-bat after getting called up to replace injured Matt Holliday.

Jedd Gyorko, Everth Cabrera and Nick Hundley added an RBI apiece for San Diego, which had lost 19 of 23.

A sellout crowd of 45,288 showed up in 92-degree heat, enticed by Red Schoendienst replica jersey giveaways. The 90-year-old Cardinals Hall of Famer was honored with a video tribute before the third inning as he watched the game from a private box.

The Padres had nine base runners the first three innings while taking a 4-0 lead, scoring twice in the third on a run-scoring wild pitch on a 2-2 pitch against Hundley followed by Hundley’s broken-bat infield hit.

Volquez retired the first nine batters in order, then allowed three runs on four hits, two walks and two wild pitches in the fourth and fifth. He lost his previous two starts and hasn’t lasted longer than 5 1-3 innings his last three outings.

”It was tough,” Volquez said. ”They’ve got a pretty good lineup and there were a lot of foul balls, too. My pitching count was a little bit high.”

Lynn has been an 11-game winner prior to the All-Star break both years in the St. Louis rotation, benefiting this year from an offense averaging nearly six runs per start. He’s been out of sync lately, giving up 10 runs in 9 1-3 innings his last two starts, and worked very deliberately against the Padres.

”You’re going to go through phases when you don’t go as deep as you like and I’m in one of those phases right now,” Lynn said. ”Hopefully I’ll turn it around quick. A starter going five is not going to get it done, if that’s what you’re asking.”

— Associated Press —

Jake Westbrook pitched 6 1-3 innings of two-run ball and contributed three hits, All-Star Matt Carpenter continued his strong season with three hits and three RBIs, and the St. Louis Cardinals beat the San Diego Padres 9-6 on Friday night.

A career .116 hitter, Westbrook had never had more than one hit in a game. The right-hander, who scored twice and had an RBI, surpassed his hit output for the year with two singles and a double in his three at-bats. That raised his batting from .100 to .217.

On the mound, Westbrook (6-4) scattered eight hits while striking out one and walking four.

After rookie Carlos Martinez allowed three runs in the ninth to make it a three-run game, All-Star Edward Mujica got the last two outs to record his 27th save in 29 chances.

Fellow All-Stars Carlos Beltran and Yadier Molina each drove in two runs for the Cardinals, with Beltran contributing two sacrifice flies and Molina a two-run double in the seventh.

St. Louis reached a season-best 22 games over .500 (58-36) and owns the best winning percentage in the majors (.617).

The Padres’ lone All-Star representative, Everth Cabrera, drove in two runs with a two-run single off Westbrook in the seventh. San Diego, which lost 18 of 22 to conclude the first half, fell to 15-32 on the road and 74-149 in St. Louis (6-19 at new Busch Stadium).

Former Cardinal Jason Marquis (9-5) lost his third straight. Marquis, who has not won since beating Arizona 6-4 on June 15, was touched for six runs on eight hits and three walks.

Marquis blanked the Cardinals the first two innings before Westbrook led off the third with a single to center. He later scored on Beltran’s sacrifice fly to center.

Two innings later, Westbrook started another rally when he doubled over right fielder Will Venable’s head to begin the fifth. Carpenter followed with an RBI double to the gap in left center and he scored on Beltran’s sacrifice fly one out later that made it 3-0.

The Cardinals broke it open and chased Marquis by scoring three times in the sixth. With the bases loaded and one out, Westbrook coaxed a single through the middle to drive in Matt Adams. Carpenter then drove home two more with an RBI single to center.

— Associated Press —