A five-run, fourth inning by the Padres erased a Cardinals lead and sent Adam Wainwright and the club to their fifth loss in six tries, a 6-4 final at San Diego. The only saving grace in all of this, is as bad as the Cardinals have been playing lately, Pittsburgh and the L.A. Dodgers haven’t taken advantage. Both lost, so the Cards still hold a game lead over the Dodgers and 2.5 games on Pittsburgh for the second wild card spot. However, Milwaukee and Philadelphia have crept back into the wild card conversation, they are just four back of St. Louis.

David Freese provided one of the few spots for the Cardinals with a solo homer in the seventh that cut San Diego’s lead to 5-4. But St. Louis was just 1-for-14 with runners in scoring position and stranded 13 runners. The Cardinals have also lost seven of their past eight road games.

The Cards were up 2-0 in the fourth, when San Diego loaded the bases with one out after rookie shortstop Pet Kozma threw wildly on Will Venable’s grounder, and Chase Headley and Yasmani Grandal reached on infield singles. Yonder Alonso walked Logan Forsythe hit a two-run double to right-center for a 3-2 lead. The Padres tacked on more with a two-run triple later in the innning.