St. Louis Cardinals at San Diego Padres: Final Score & Recap

The St. Louis Cardinals shut out the San Diego Padres 6-0 on May 8, 2026 at Petco Park, collecting all six of their runs in a single explosive fifth inning against a Padres team that managed just one hit across nine frames. The DiamondIQ model entered the game giving San Diego a 51% win probability, but by the time the Cardinals had finished their fifth-inning damage, that figure had fallen to 0%, reflecting just how decisively one half-inning settled the contest.

The pivotal sequence unfolded in the top of the fifth against Griffin Canning. JJ Wetherholt delivered the single most impactful play of the game, a single that swung win probability by plus 27.0 percentage points and served as the engine of the Cardinals' six-run outburst. Victor Scott II followed with a walk that added another plus 9.6 percentage points, and Masyn Winn contributed a single worth plus 4.5 percentage points to keep the rally alive. The only interruptions to the Cardinals' momentum came from César Prieto, whose strikeout cost the batting team 5.3 percentage points, but the overall inning was an unrelenting accumulation of damage. Looking back one half-inning earlier, Miguel Andujar's groundout in the Padres' fourth off Michael McGreevy had represented San Diego's best chance to generate something, costing the home side 8.4 percentage points when they came up empty.

Individually, Wetherholt finished as the game's most valuable offensive contributor with a WPA of plus 25.9 and a RE24 of plus 1.9, while Victor Scott II and Masyn Winn added plus 7.9 and plus 5.1 WPA respectively. On the mound, Michael McGreevy was the standout, posting a game-best plus 19.2 WPA as he kept the Padres' lone hit isolated and prevented any hint of a home comeback. Gordon Graceffo and Ryne Stanek closed out the effort with minimal additional impact, preserving a Cardinals performance that left San Diego with a two-error, one-hit afternoon to reflect on.