ST. LOUIS -- — Brendan Donovan and Willson Contreras hit three-run homers in the second inning and the St. Louis Cardinals beat the San Diego Padres 9-7 on Thursday night in the opener of a four-game series.

Willson had with four RBI and Donovan finished with three hits. Iván Herrera had three hits and two RBI, including a solo homer in the sixth.

Sonny Gray (10-4) gave up seven runs — six earned — on 11 hits with five strikeouts in five innings. Ryan Helsley pitched a scoreless ninth for his 20th save.

Fernando Tatis Jr. and Manny Machado each had three hits for San Diego. Tatis led off the third with a home run and Machado added a two-run shot that made it 7-5.

Contreras drove in Donovan with a two-out double off San Diego Starter Yu Darvish (0-3) in the first.

Victor Scott II drew a leadoff walk, stole second base and move to third on a groundout and scored on Iván Herrera's single to make it 8-5 in the fourth.

Gavin Sheets had an RBI groundout and Xander Bogaerts scored when Bryce Johnson reached on a throwing error in the fifth.

Key moment

Jordan Walker singled and moved to second when Scott drew a two-out walk before Donovan cleared the bases. Herrera singled and Alec Burleson doubled before Contreras homered to make it 7-2 in the second.

Key stat

The Cardinals are 173-87 at home against San Diego. Their .665 win percentage is the third- best by one home team against any visitor in MLB history, with a minimum of 100 games, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

Up next

San Diego's Nick Pivetta (10-2, 2.81 ERA) was scheduled to start Friday against Miles Mikolas (5-7, 5.20).

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