“I promise, I’m not psychic,” Gyorko said later.

The sense Gyorko had about what was about to happen, Mike Matheny had about Gyorko. Before Saturday’s game, Matheny said he wanted to start the former Padre because “guys tend to do pretty amazing things against their former team.” That night, Gyorko added on to the Cardinals’ win with a three-run homer in the eighth inning. At second base on Sunday, Gyorko robbed an RBI single from Brett Wallace with a diving stop in right field and then, as so often happens, led off the next inning with a triple. He scored for a 3-2 lead.

It didn’t last as San Diego’s No. 8 hitter and backup catcher, Christian Bethancourt, turned on an 0-2 pitch from Mike Leake for a game-tying homer in the fourth.

The Cardinals won for the first time in a Leake start, but the sinkerballer did not figure in the decision. He threw five innings and allowed five runs (three earned) on seven hits. He didn’t have a clean inning, and even with the lead didn’t have command of the strike zone.

“I want to be pretty aggressive just in general,” Leake said. “I guess the adage is if you have a big lead you attack them with your fastball. Didn’t get to that point. I was keeping them in it. Letting them trickle back in and not putting them away.”