The St. Louis Cardinals and Washington Nationals opened a 3-game series on Monday night in Washington. The two teams met last week in St. Louis, and the Nationals won 2 of the 3 games.
The Nationals put Joe Ross on the mound. Ross’ last outing came against the Cardinals, and it was a dominant one. Ross pitched 6 innings, allowed just 4 hits, and struck out 5. Through 2 games this season, Ross has yet to allow a run in 11 innings pitched.
Jack Flaherty pitched for the Cardinals on Monday. Flaherty’s last appearance was against the Nationals last week. He went 5 innings, allowing just 1 run, and struck out 6.
Cardinal’s Offense Pours It On
Yesterday the Cardinals mustered only two hits in a shutout loss to the Phillies. Last week when they faced Joe Ross and the Nationals, they could not get anything going on offense. That was not the story Monday night in Washington.
The fireworks got started early when Paul DeJong hit a home run in the 2nd inning to give the Cardinals an early 1-0 lead. Then in the 3rd Tommy Edman and Paul Goldschmidt hit back-to-back homers to extend the Cardinal lead to 4-0.
Matt Carpenter and Jack Flaherty both drove in runs in the 4th to give the Cardinals a 6-0 lead early.
National’s pitcher Joe Ross loaded the bases in the 5th, and Paul DeJong came up to bat. Dejong cleared the bases with a grand slam to deep left field and gave the Cardinals a 10-2 lead. Outfielder Justin Williams also hit a home run in the 5th inning.
“I thought we did a great job as a group pouring it on, but overall, I think we had just a different mentality today and it showed.” Dejong said after the game.
The Cardinals added one more run in the 8th after Paul Goldschmidt drove in Josh Nogowski.
The offense was the flavor of the night for the Cardinals. They accumulated 12 hits as a team as well as hitting 5 home runs and scoring 12 runs. This comes after a scoreless, 2-hit effort on Sunday against the Phillies.
Flaherty had a good outing on the mound for the Cardinals. He earned the win in this one by pitching 6 innings, allowing 5 runs, just 2 earned runs, and striking out 6.
The win puts the Cardinals at 8-8 on the season.
Not Enough from the Nats
Joe Ross struggled on Monday.
Ross pitched just 4 and a third innings, giving up 8 hits, 10 earned runs, and walked 3 batters. He was also able to strike out 5 batters.
The Nationals offense showed up in the 4th after a slow start. Juan Soto scored after a wild pitch, and Starlin Castro drove in Josh Bell of a sacrifice fly.
They added 3 more runs in the 6th inning. Castro drove in Josh Bell again after a fielder’s choice. Yan Gomes drove in Josh Harrison after hitting a double. The Nationals final run of the night came after Victor Robles singled to left, driving in Yan Gomes.
The 5 runs produced by the Nationals offense just was not enough on Monday as they fell to the Cardinals 12-5.
The loss drops the Nationals to 5-9 on the year.
What’s Next?
The two teams will meet again tomorrow in game 2 of their 3-game series. The Nationals will try to bounce back with Patrick Corbin on the mound. St. Louis will look to stay hot with Adam Wainwright on the mound.
