The Padres bullpen has stepped up to fill a hole in San Diego’s rotation.

Eric Hosmer homered Brian Gibbons Jersey , San Diego’s bullpen took a perfect game into the sixth inning and the Padres beat the St. Louis Cardinals 4-2 on Tuesday night for their 10th win in 14 games.

This was the third bullpen game for San Diego this season, all since left-hander Joey Lucchesi went down with a right hip strain.

”These guys are all built to kind of grind through a lineup one time or cruise through a lineup or attack a lineup one time through,” Padres manager Andy Green said. ”They’re all built for nine batters pretty easily or 10 batters so it just makes sense to give them those types of pieces of a lineup for a first time through and keep hitters uncomfortable. I like it.”

Padres reliever Matt Strahm started the bullpen game and retired nine batters on 36 pitches, including four strikeouts. Adam Cimber (3-2) retired the next six with two strikeouts before Harrison Bader broke up the perfect game with an infield single in the sixth. Bader was promptly erased in a double play.

”In that situation, I know on a bullpen day, me coming in the fourth inning I’m probably looked at to get at least a few (innings),” Cimber said. ”You still take it one hitter at a time.”

Strahm, a lefty, and Cimber, a submarine righty, make a stark contrast for opposing hitters.

”It’s the opposite end of the spectrum Cory Schneider Jersey ,” Strahm said. ”He’s down on the right and I’m up on the left. It’s a good combo to come in.”

The Padres’ nine-man bullpen makes the starter-by-committee approach effective. Green said he plans to go with it again Sunday.

”We’ve got seven arms available,” Green said. ”I’m going to guess that’s more arms available than almost every team in major league baseball, so it’s not putting the stress on our bullpen that a lot of people presume it is.”

Brad Hand pitched the ninth for his 20th save.

Hosmer drove the first pitch of the fourth inning to center field to give the Padres a 1-0 lead. It was his second home run in three games.

A.J. Ellis tacked on two more with a two-out hit in the fourth. The Cardinals challenged the safe call on the second run, but replay showed the Freddy Galvis beat catcher Yadier Molina’s tag at home plate.

”Basically the first strike you see you want to be aggressive,” Ellis said. ”I found a pitch to find a hole on.”

Cardinals starter Miles Mikolas (7-2) struck out five in six innings and walked none. He has walked one or less in all seven of his home starts this season, but St. Louis still lost for the second time in three games.

”I felt like my stuff was pretty good today,” Mikolas said. ”I made some pretty good pitches. I think the ball Hosmer hit was a decent pitch.”

Marcell Ozuna’s RBI single snapped the Padres’ shutout bid in the seventh. Ozuna has driven in five runs in his last four games.

”I thought our offense did a pretty good job of getting some things rolling toward the end of the game,” Bader said. ”Just today, it just showed up a little too late.”

TRAINING ROOM

Padres: OF Franchy Cordero (right forearm strain) took batting practice and hopes to begin a rehab in a couple of days.

Cardinals: RHP Matt Bowman (right hand blisters) gave up a run in two innings Monday at Triple-A Memphis and could be activated by the end of the week.

UP NEXT

Cardinals RHP Luke Weaver (3-5, 4.35 ERA) will get the start in the series finale against the Padres and LHP Eric Lauer (2-4, 6.64 ERA) on Wednesday at 7:15 CDT. Weaver has not allowed a run in 12 innings (two career starts) against San Diego. Lauer gave up six runs in 2 1/3 innings against St. Louis on May 11.

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Los Angeles Angels star Mike Trout entered his team’s three-game series in Seattle mired in a 2-for-19 slump with no extra-base hits Drew Stafford Jersey , no RBIs and seven strikeouts in his previous five games.

Consider that mini-slump a thing of the past.

Trout has homered twice in each of the first two games of the series heading into the finale Wednesday afternoon. That has boosted his major league-leading total to 23 for the season.

He also made a leaping catch at the wall in right-center field Tuesday night to rob the Mariners‘ Nelson Cruz of extra bases.

“They have a pretty good player on their team and you saw that again tonight,” Mariners manager Scott Servais deadpanned. “Mr. Trout is giving me and our pitching coach (headaches). He’s really tough to pitch to. Some of the pitches (Tuesday) were where you want to throw them.”

An injury nearly interrupted Trout’s power surge.

After homering in the first inning Monday, Trout fouled a ball off his left shin in his next at-bat. X-rays proved negative and he remained in the game to hit another ball over the wall at Safeco Field.

“It’s all right. Sore,” Trout told MLB.com after Monday’s game. “We got precautionary X-rays, but there wasn’t a break or anything like that, so that’s always good news. It just hit me in a good spot, missed the (shin) guard. It happens. Obviously, it’s going to be sore once the adrenaline from the game stops. It just went numb for a little bit. Just got to monitor it, keep icing it and get the swelling out.”

Remarkably, Trout’s four homers over the past two nights haven’t translated into victories.

Cruz homered twice Monday as the Mariners won the opener 5-3, and Mitch Haniger and Ryon Healy both hit homers in Tuesday’s 6-3 victory for the home team.

“We’re not swinging the bats as a team 49ers Fred Warner Jersey ,” Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. “It puts our pitchers under a lot of pressure to make pitches. And any mistakes we had (Tuesday) they hit out of the park. Give those guys some credit, but one guy can’t carry you. Mike is swinging the bat very well, but we need some other guys to step up.”

The task of keeping Trout in the ballpark on Wednesday falls to Mariners left-hander Marco Gonzales (7-3, 3.28 ERA), who has allowed just three earned runs over his past five starts.

Gonzales doesn’t have a decision in three career starts against Los Angeles with a 4.40 ERA. He pitched six innings against the Angels on May 5, allowing four runs on nine hits with one walk and seven strikeouts in a game the Mariners won 9-8 in 11 innings.

The Angels will counter with right-hander Garrett Richards (4-4, 3.26), who hasn’t won since beating the Mariners 5-0 on May 4 when he allowed just four hits in 6 2/3 innings with one walk and eight strikeouts.

Since then, Richards is 0-3 despite giving up no more than three earned runs in any of his six starts.

Richards is 6-4 with a 2.91 ERA in 19 career appearances against the Mariners, including 11 starts.