Major League Baseball
BOXSCORE | RECAP
San Diego 5, St. Louis 3
When: 4:15 PM ET, Thursday, March 31, 2011
Where: Busch Stadium, St. Louis, Missouri
Temperature: 53°
Umpires: Home - Jeff Kellogg, 1B - Eric Cooper, 2B - Mark Carlson, 3B - Tim Timmons
Attendance: 46368

Visiting San Diego took advantage of St. Louis' sloppy fielding and spoiled opening day at Busch Stadium, beating the Cardinals 5-3 in 11 innings.

Chase Headley scored the go-ahead run when shortstop Ryan Theriot mishandled a relay, then threw high to the plate. The Padres forced extra innings on Cameron Maybin's deep solo homer to dead center with two outs in the ninth.

St. Louis superstar Albert Pujols struggled mightily, going 0 for 5 and hitting into three double plays for the first time in his career.

The Cardinals grabbed a 3-2 lead on Matt Holliday's eighth-inning solo homer, which just cleared the fence in right-center. But Maybin tied it with his drive off closer Ryan Franklin.

St. Louis ace Chris Carpenter allowed two runs on two hits over seven sharp innings. His defense let him down in the fifth, when Skip Schumaker dropped the ball on a tag at second. Ryan Ludwick was safe and promptly scored the tying run on Nick Hundley's double.

San Diego's Tim Stauffer gave up nine hits over six innings but induced three double plays to keep the game tied 2-2 heading into the late innings. In the sixth, after the Cardinals led off with back-to-back singles, Stauffer whirled to pick off Holliday at second, killing another rally.
Top Game Performances
Starting Pitchers
San Diego   St. Louis
Tim Stauffer Player Chris Carpenter
No Decision W/L No Decision
6.0 IP 7.0
2 Strikeouts 4
9 Hits 2
3.00 ERA 2.57
Hitting
San Diego   St. Louis
Nick Hundley Player Matt Holliday
2 Hits 3
2 RBI 2
0 HR 1
3 TB 6
.500 Avg .750
Team Stats Summary
 
Team Hits HR TB Avg LOB K RBI BB SB Errors
San Diego 8 1 13 .205 12 6 4 3 1 0
St. Louis 12 1 17 .300 17 5 3 3 0 1