Padres 4, Cardinals 0
ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Once Jake Peavy broke an early sweat in 96-degree heat by surviving a 14-pitch at-bat against Scott Rolen in the first inning, it was clear sailing.
Peavy extended his scoreless streak to 19 innings after prevailing in that confrontation with two men on and the San Diego Padres got their major league-leading 16th shutout of the season, a 4-0 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals on Tuesday night.
"In this kind of weather and this kind of environment, you don't want to throw as many pitches as I did right out of the chute," Peavy said. "And we had a runner on third so it wasn't like it was just a good at-bat, it was a good at-bat with a guy 90 feet away."
Peavy (12-5) allowed three hits in six innings, struck out five and walked two, improving to 6-0 with an NL-best 0.89 ERA in nine road starts. His 2.21 overall ERA in second in the majors behind teammate Chris Young (1.82).
Peavy has no explanation for his road success. For a time, the Cardinals believed he was aided by pitching from six inches in front of the rubber, until he showed the umpires he didn't need any help.
"I don't know, it's just one of those things," Peavy said. "I'm certainly comfortable pitching on the road, but I'm comfortable at home, too."
Rolen popped out in the first and lined out in the fourth in a seven-pitch at-bat.
"He wasn't going to give in and we weren't, either," catcher Josh Bard said of the first-inning at-bat. "It's hard to say, but sometimes the game is won or lost in the first inning."
Cla Meredith, Heath Bell and Doug Brocail finished the five-hitter for the Padres, who lead the major leagues with a 3.50 ERA. The bullpen threw 45 pitches, only 13 of them balls, and had a first-pitch strike on all but one hitter.
No other team had more than nine shutouts entering the night. Only one of the Padres' shutouts was a complete game, a five-hitter by Greg Maddux against Cincinnati on May 14.
"I'm an advocate of complete games, believe me," Padres manager Bud Black said. "But in this day and age, the way most teams use the bullpen and us, and the way our bullpen has thrown all year, it makes sense to go to them."
Bard hit a go-ahead single in the seventh off Anthony Reyes (1-11). Bard was 2-for-3 with a walk and is batting .388 with runners in scoring position for the Padres, who have won five of six.
A night after tying a major-league record with 10 straight hits, St. Louis was blanked for the 10th time, tying Minnesota for the major-league lead. Jim Edmonds was 3-for-4 for the Cardinals, giving him 1,000 hits since coming to St. Louis in 2000.
"I didn't have any idea, I just knew we were losing," Edmonds said. "Anything in this uniform is special. This is where my career was made."
Cardinals manager Tony La Russa batted his starting pitcher eighth for the fourth straight game in an effort to boost his slumping team, which lost for the sixth time in seven games.
Reyes, who has won once since beating Detroit in last year's World Series opener, gave up one run and seven hits in seven innings. It was his longest outing in a shaky season that began with 10 consecutive losses, tying the franchise record set by Kid Carsey in 1898.
St. Louis has been blanked in three of Reyes' last five starts, totaling nine runs in those outings.
"I think I've talked about this several times this year," La Russa said. "He pitched well enough to win but he gets matched up against guys we can't break through against, so there's only so many ways to say it."
Consecutive one-out singles by Rob Mackowiak, Kevin Kouzmanoff and Bard put the Padres ahead.
Scott Hairston added a two-run triple off Jason Isringhausen in the ninth and then scored on a wild pitch. Isringhausen entered with a 0.41 ERA in 19 home appearances, giving up one earned run in 22 innings.
Game notes
Edmonds was 2-for-13 against Peavy before Tuesday, when he went 2-for-3 with a warning-track fly ball. ... Padres catcher Michael Barrett missed his second game after a foul ball went off his mask on Sunday. ... Peavy leads the NL with 159 strikeouts. ... San Diego's Geoff Blum was 3-for-5 and is batting .500 (13-for-26) his last seven games.