Padres wins season opener in 11th...

Playing small ball paid off for the San Diego Padres.

Cameron Maybin tied it with a two-out homer in the ninth inning, then grounded a single that led to the go-ahead run in the 11th  in a 5-3 opening win over the Cardinals.

The Padres managed just two hits the first seven innings but scored two runs, and then capitalized on the Cards fielding error.

Cardinals star Albert Pujols an awful start to the season. He grounded into a career-worst three double plays while going 0 for 5 while five men on base.

"Definitely we had our chances," Pujols said. "A couple times we had men in scoring position and I didn't do my job."

Matt Holliday homered in the eighth and had three hits for St. Louis. The Cardinals played extra innings on Opening Day for the first time since a 4-2, 10-inning home loss to the Mets in 1992. The last Padres' opener that went extras was in 1996 during a 5-4 loss at Chicago.

It was tied up at 3 when Chase Headley singled off Bryan Augenstein with two outs in the 11th. Maybin followed with a single through the right side and Theriot bobbled right fielder Jon Jay's bounced relay back to the infield.

Headley kept running and made a headfirst slide to beat the throw home. Nick Hundley added an RBI single for the Padres.

Pat Neshek (1-0) worked around two walks in the 10th and Heath Bell needed only 10 pitches for the save.

Maybin's solo home run came off a curveball from Ryan Franklin, who went 27 for 29 in save situations last season.

The Cardinals outhit San Diego 10-2 the first six innings but hit into three double plays, two by Pujols, and were 2 for 9 with runners in scoring position. Three times they put the first two men on, but totaled one run.

The Padres erased their second one-run deficit on Hundley's two-out, RBI double in the fifth. The Cardinals almost made it out of the inning the previous at-bat when Maybin struck out with Ryan Ludwick running on a full count.

Ludwick looked like an easy out at second, but he rattled the ball out of second baseman Skip Schumaker's glove, what Schumaker called a "perfect knockdown," for a stolen base.