Clayton, Alan Benes Too Much for Padres

Royce Clayton’s bases-loaded triple in the seventh broke the game open and Alan Benes matched his career-high with 11 strikeouts as the St. Louis Cardinals defeated the San Diego Padres, 8-3, on Wednesday night.

On a night when St. Louis ended Tony Gwynn’s hitting streak at 20, the Cardinals had six doubles and a triple in defeating the Padres for the fourth time in six games this year. San Diego has lost nine of its last 11 home games.

Dmitri Young, hitting only .194 with runners in scoring position coming in, went three for five with three runs batted in. He drove in St. Louis’ first two runs on a two-out single in the first and doubled in the go-ahead run in the seventh.

San Diego tied the score, 3-3, in the sixth, but the Padres’ bullpen gave up five runs on four hits in the seventh. Terry Burrows (0-2) gave up two doubles and a walk in his one-third of an inning, including Young’s RBI double that scored Ray Lankford for a 4-3 lead.

Rookie Todd Erdos relieved Burrows and hit Mike Difelice before giving up Clayton’s triple to the gap in right-center. Delino DeShields, who went three for four, hit his second double of the game to score Clayton.

Benes (6-5) struck out 11 through 5 2/3 innings, but then gave up three walks and a single to let San Diego tie the score, 3-3.

Ken Caminiti and Wally Joyner walked back-to-back, and Quilvio Veras singled to right to score Caminiti.

Benes gave up three runs and four hits in six innings, with four walks. His older brother, Andy, defeated the Padres, 9-1, on Monday.

Gwynn, whose average dropped to .402, went 0 for 3 against Benes before striking out against Petkovsek. His 20-gamer matched John Mabry’s for the longest in the NL this year. Mabry’s streak ended Tuesday night against San Diego.

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