Edmundo Sosa, Harrison Bader and Dylan Carlson each drove in two runs and the St. Louis Cardinals edged the visiting San Diego Padres 8-7 to complete their three-game sweep.

Tyler O'Neill scored three runs and drove in another for the Cardinals (79-69), who extended their winning streak to eight games.

Tommy Pham drove in three runs for Padres (76-73), who have lost eight of their last 10 to fall 3 1/2 games behind the Cardinals for the second National League wild card spot.

Cardinals starter J.A. Happ allowed three runs on four hits in four innings. Alex Reyes (9-8) earned the victory in relief and Giovanny Gallegos earned his 10th save.

Padres starter Jake Arrieta (5-14) retired just one of the six batters he faced before departing with a groin muscle strain. He allowed five runs (four earned) on three hits and a walk.

The Cardinals took a 5-0 lead in the first inning. Tommy Edman led off with a double, Paul Goldschmidt hit a single, and O'Neill walked to load the bases.

Nolan Arenado lifted a fly ball to shallow center field that Fernando Tatis Jr. dropped for a run-scoring error. Carlson hit a sacrifice fly and Sosa added an RBI double before Arrieta departed.

Bader greeted reliever Craig Stammen with a two-run double to make it 5-0.

The Padres got one run back in the third inning on Tatis' RBI single.

They cut the lead to 5-3 in the fourth inning on Manny Machado's single, Austin Nola's double, Eric Hosmer's RBI groundout, and Wil Myers' RBI single off Happ's foot.

The Cardinals pushed their lead to 7-3 in the fifth inning. Goldschmidt lined a double, O'Neill hit an RBI single, Arenado reached on an infield single, and Sosa dropped an RBI double into right field.

Pham's solo homer in the sixth cut the lead to 7-4, but the Cardinals made it 8-4 in the seventh with Carlson's RBI single.

Jake Cronenworth and Machado hit singles to open the eighth inning and Pham hit a two-run double. Hosmer's run-scoring grounder pulled San Diego to within 8-7.

--Field Level Media