PSP » FL title at Glendale, Arizona, on Feb. 1. In Sunday nights lopsid

SAN DIEGO - Rookie Jesse Hahn gave himself a nice present on his 25th birthday and his teammates gave him far more run support than he needed. Hahn held St. Louis to one run and four hits in seven innings and Jedd Gyorko and Will Venable each homered and drove in four runs to lead the San Diego Padres to a 12-1 victory Wednesday night. Yangervis Solarte, obtained from the New York Yankees in the trade for Chase Headley, had four hits and the Padres tied their season high with 16. The Padres fell one run shy of their season high. "To get a win on your birthday is awesome," Hahn said. His seven wins in nine appearances are the most in Padres history and tied for the third-most by a big league pitcher since 1914. "We havent had it enough," manager Bud Black said of the scoring outburst. "But its great to see. It starts with starting pitching, and Jesse pitched a great game. Hes not a secret, even though hes facing teams for the first time. Theres video, theres scouting reports. Hes being talked about because hes made a number of starts and his innings are getting up there a little bit." Hahns latest impressive start put the Padres, buried in third place in the NL West, in position to sweep the series with a win Thursday. The Cardinals are in the race for the NL Central crown a season after going to the World Series. "It was probably our ugliest loss of the year. Thats the best way to describe it," Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said. Hahn (7-2) struck out three and walked two in winning his third straight start. The lanky righty retired the first seven batters before Tony Cruz beat out an infield single. Hahn was acquired in a seven-player trade with Tampa Bay on Jan. 22. Hahn took a shutout into the seventh before allowing a one-out RBI single by Peter Bourjos singled in Matt Adams. "I was a little mad but at that point I was going for the double play to get out of the inning," Hahn said. "It was a good pitch; unfortunately the runner scored. Venable hit a 379-foot, three-run homer to right to cap the eight-run seventh. It was his fourth. The Padres had five hits, three walks and a hit batter off three relievers in the inning. Gyorko hit a three-run double, his third hit. Gyorko, who returned Monday from a 44-game stay on the disabled list with plantar fasciitis, homered to left on a 1-0 pitch from Joe Kelly with one out in the fourth to give San Diego a 3-0 lead. It was his sixth. Yonder Alonso followed with a triple and came in on Venables single. "It obviously feels good to swing the bat the way I wanted to," said Gyorko, who has struggled since the Padres gave him a $35 million, six-year contract extension on April 14, based on his strong rookie season. "It feels a lot like how I was swinging it there at the end of the year last year. Its something to build on but I still have a long way to go." Alexi Amarista had three hits and scored three runs, and Solarte also had three hits. Kelly (2-2) went five innings, allowing four runs and seven hits while striking out five and walking one. "Kelly was OK," Matheny said. "It looked like good pitches were getting hit hard. It should have worked out a little better for him." Overall, "Thats not the kind of baseball weve played all year," Matheny said. No excuses. We were terrible." TRAINERS ROOM Cardinals: Manager Mike Matheny said the sound of pinch-hitter Daniel Descalso getting hit on the knee by a pitch from Joaquin Benoit in the ninth inning Tuesday night was "as loud as a hit batsman as Ive heard. It sounded terrible. But I was happy to see him get up, walk around." Descalso was replaced by a pinch-runner. Padres: RHP Andrew Cashner threw another bullpen Wednesday and is scheduled to throw a simulated game during the weekend. He could begin a rehab assignment next week. Hes on the disabled list with soreness in his right shoulder. ON DECK Cardinals: Shelby Miller (7-8, 4.20) is 0-1 with a 5.19 ERA in one career start and two appearances against San Diego, both at Petco Park Padres: Odrisamer Despaigne (2-2, 1.66) tries to bounce back from rocky start in 5-3 loss to Atlanta, when he lasted only 3 2-3 innings. RBI MACHINE Solarte has eight RBIs since joining the Padres on July 23 and has knocked in at least one run in seven of eight games. TRADE The Cardinals acquired RHP Justin Masterson from Cleveland for minor league OF James Ramsey. Masterson is scheduled to start Saturday against Milwaukee in St. Louis. Fake Rangers Jerseys .com) - Calgary Flames forward Johnny Gaudreau has been selected as the NHLs Rookie of the Month for December, the league announced Friday. Stitched Rangers Jerseys . Every. Single. Game. Thats 1,230 in total to cover the regular season. The man is Corey Sznajder, a soft-spoken 23-year-old Salisbury University grad who lives in Annapolis, Maryland and has been charting zone entries and zone exits throughout the NHL. I love big projects, he said. No kidding. At the 2013 Sloan Sports Analytics Conference, I met Eric Tulsky, who presented research on the value of controlled zone entries (short answer: about twice as valuable to enter with control of the puck rather than dumping it in) and Sznajder had charted a couple hundred games that were included in that study. https://www.cheaprangersbaseball.com/ . The 25-year-old native of Milford, Conn., has 18 points in 41 games this season. The five-foot-eight 166-pound centre also has 28 points (10-18) in 15 games with AHL Oklahoma City. Texas Rangers Shirts . Long snapper Patrick Mannelly announced Friday that he is retiring after a 16-year-career with the Bears, a span in which he played in a team record 245 games and snapped the ball 2,282 times. Texas Rangers Store .com) - Lloyd Sam struck in stoppage time on Wednesday as Red Bull New York hung on for a crucial 1-0 win over Atlantic Cup rivals D.The NFL is investigating whether the New England Patriots deflated footballs that were used in their AFC championship game victory over the Indianapolis Colts. We are looking into it, league spokesman Brian McCarthy wrote in an email to The Associated Press on Monday. We do not have anything further to add at this point. The inquiry was first reported by the website for WTHR-TV in Indiana, citing an unnamed source. The Patriots have come under scrutiny with regards to NFL rules in the past, most infamously when they were punished for videotaping sideline signals used by the New York Jets during a 2007 game. Coach Bill Belichick was fined $500,000, and the team was docked $250,000 and stripped of its 2008 first-round draft pick. According to the NFL rule book, home teams are responsible for furnishing playable balls at all time. Each team brings 12 primary balls, while home teams are required to also bring 12 backup balls. Once the referee makes sure the footballs are properly inflated, theyre delivered to ball attendants provided by the home team. The leagues game operations manual notes: If any individual alters the footballs, or if a non-approved ball is used in the game, the person responsible and, if appropriate, the head coach or other club personnel will be subject to discipline, including but not limiteed to, a fine of $25,000.dddddddddddd Deflating a football could change the way it would be gripped by a player or the way it travels through the air. The Patriots beat the Colts 45-7 to reach the Super Bowl. New England will play the defending champion Seattle Seahawks for the NFL title at Glendale, Arizona, on Feb. 1. In Sunday nights lopsided AFC finale, quarterback Tom Brady threw for three touchdowns and running back LeGarrette Blount gained 148 yards while scoring three touchdowns to send New England to its sixth Super Bowl in the past 14 years. Colts quarterback Andrew Luck had his worst game as a pro, completing only 12 of 33 passes for 126 yards, no touchdowns and two interceptions. On his regular weekly morning-after-game appearance Monday on WEEI radio, Brady said he wasnt aware of the report about the leagues investigation into whether footballs were properly inflated against Indianapolis. I think Ive heard it all at this point, Brady said with a laugh. Thats the last of my worries, he said. I dont even respond to stuff like this. ___ AP Sports Writer Howard Ulman in Boston contributed to this report. ___ Follow Howard Fendrich on Twitter at http://twitter.com/HowardFendrich ___ AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org and AP NFL Twitter feed: http://twitter.com/AP_NFL ' ' '