The St Louis Cardinals fell into a hole early and couldn’t recover, dropping the first game in their home stand to the San Diego Padres 7-4 on Monday night at Busch Stadium.

Manny Machado put the Padres on the board with two outs in the first inning, delivering a home run over center field. The Cardinals recovered one run in the second inning with a Paul Goldschmidt single. However, the Padres would add two in the third off a single from Jackson Merrill. Matt Carpenter brought in Iván Herrera with a sacrifice fly in the fourth, but the Padres put the game out of reach with three runs in the fifth. Alec Burleson claimed an RBI in the seventh and ninth innings to complete the scoring.

Kyle Gibson took the loss, giving up all seven runs on five hits and four walks over 4.1 innings, claiming two strikeouts. The bullpen contained the damage, allowing no hits or walks while striking out two.

The Cardinals are back below .500 with a record of 65-66, 10.5 games behind Milwaukee in the NL Central and six games behind an Atlanta squad that defeated Minnesota last night. Game two against San Diego is Tuesday evening, with first pitch at 6:45.