Paul Goldschmidt, Cardinals prevail in Padres’ return to playoffs

Given a chance to catch their breath after a crazy month and a half, the Cardinals settled into the playoffs with yet another win against San Diego .

Paul Goldschmidt hit a two-run homer during a four-run first inning, St. Louis’ bullpen held strong after starter Kwang Hyun Kim stumbled in his playoff debut and the Cardinals ruined the Padres’ long-awaited return to the playoffs with a 7-4 victory Wednesday in San Diego in the opener of their NL wild-card series.

The Cardinals need one more win to eliminate San Diego from the postseason for the fourth time since 1996. They swept the Padres in the NL Division Series in 1996 and 2005, and won 3-1 in 2006, which was the last time San Diego made the postseason. Game 2 is Thursday.

Right-hander Chris Paddack failed to give the Padres the boost they needed after Mike Clevinger and Dinelson Lamet were left off the wild-card roster because of injuries suffered in their final regular-season starts. Paddack lasted only 2 ⅓ innings and gave up six runs.

Dodgers 4, Brewers 2: Host Los Angeles scored two runs in the first inning on bases-loaded walks issued by Milwaukee’s Brent Suter and Corey Seager added a homer in the seventh as the Dodgers took the opener of the series.

Braves 1, Reds 0: The scoreless innings kept piling up in Atlanta, along with the strikeouts. Finally, Freddie Freeman had seen enough. The MVP candidate delivered the winning hit in the 13th inning, ending the longest scoreless duel in postseason history as the Braves defeated Cincinnati in the opener of their series. It was the first game in postseason history to be scoreless through 11 innings. The scoreless streak then went through 12. The East champion Braves won a postseason opener for the first time since Game 1 of the 2001 NL Division Series....