ST. LOUIS — A few hours after they were held to six hits in an extra-inning loss, the Cardinals offense responded with a season-high 17 hits including a pair of doubles, a triple and a pair of home runs in a series-evening win against the Washington Nationals.
The Cardinals waited out a rain delay of one hour, five minutes and then blitzed the Nationals to earn a 9-6 win in front of an announced crowd of 41,900 in the second game of a doubleheader at Busch Stadium on Saturday night.
The win gave the Cardinals (39-53) a split of the doubleheader after they lost the completion of Friday night’s suspended game, 7-5 in 10 innings.
Cardinals outfielder Alec Burleson went 3 for 4 with a home run, two runs scored and a home run-saving catch in left field. All nine position players in the Cardinals’ starting lineup had at least one hit in the second game.
Nolan Arenado went 2 for 3 with two RBIs and hit his 20th home run of the season, while Paul Goldschmidt went 2 for 5 and recorded his team-high 32nd multi-hit game of the season.
Lars Nootbaar (2 for 5), Ivan Herrera (3 for 3) and Nolan Gorman (2 for 4, two runs) also had multi-hit games. Herrera reached base safely three times for the second time in his career. Gorman registered his first multi-RBI game without a home run since April 14 against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
The Cardinals scored five straight runs to take control of the game after the teams were tied 4-4 in the fifth inning.
Cardinals starting pitcher Steven Matz allowed four runs on four hits, including two home runs, and three walks in 4 1/3 innings. He also struck out four batters.
Right-hander Dakota Hudson (1-0) pitched 3 1/3 scoreless in relief to get the win.
The Nationals (37-55) scored two runs in the ninth, but could not get the tying run to the plate.
Cardinals bats create early cushion
The Cardinals took a four-run lead in the second game of the doubleheader thanks to a four-run second inning against Nationals starting pitcher Jake Irvin.
Burleson started the scoring flurry with a solo home run to center field. The 427-foot blast gave the Cardinals their second hit of the game and a one-run edge. Two of the next three hitters reached base on a Nolan Gorman single and when Ivan Herrera got by a pitch.
With two runners on, Brendan Donovan lined a two-run triple into to the right-field corner. That gave the Cardinals a 3-0 advantage, and Paul Goldschmidt’s RBI single up the middle brought home Donovan for the fourth run.
Nats break the ice with the long ball
After the Cardinals scored all five of their runs in the series opener via the home run, the Nationals used a pair of deep drives to give them their first two runs against Matz in the second game of the doubleheader.
Matz, coming off arguably his best start of the season last weekend in Chicago, retired the first seven batters he faced in order on Saturday night.
However, Matz gave up a pair of runs in the top of the third inning on solo home runs by Alex Call and CJ Abrams. Those marked the 11th and 12th home runs allowed by Matz this season.
The Nationals chipped away a little more at what was once a four-run lead when they put two runners on courtesy of back-to-back two out walks in the fourth inning. That put a runner in scoring position with the runners sure to run on contact with two outs. Riley Adams’ single to left field scored the lead runner and made it a one-run game 4-3.
The fourth run charged to Matz scored after he’d turned the game over to the bullpen in the fifth inning. Matz gave up a leadoff double, a sacrifice bunt and a walk to put runners on the corners with one out.
Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol brought in Hudson. The Nationals got the runner in from third on a sacrifice fly to left field by Joey Meneses. Burleson made a leaping catch to steal a home run from Meneses, but the drive was plenty deep enough for the runner to tag and score from third and tie the game.
Unearned runs earn Cardinals a loss
The Cardinals committed three errors and allowed three unearned runs in a 7-5 loss to the Nationals in 10 innings in the completion of Friday night’s suspended game.
The Cardinals led 1-0 in the third inning when the game resumed, but the Nationals tied the score 1-1 in the top of the fourth thanks to an infield hit and a stolen base by CJ Abrams followed by a two-out RBI single from Joey Meneses.
The Nationals tacked on three runs in the fifth without a hit in the inning. All three runs were unearned with the help of two throwing errors by catcher Willson Contreras — one on a failed back-pick attempt and another as a runner stole second base — and another throwing error by All-Star third baseman Arenado, who also made a dazzling over-the-shoulder catch in foul territory in that same inning.
All five Cardinals runs came via home runs. Nootbaar’s solo homer Friday night provided the 1-0 lead. Donovan blasted a game-tying three-run homer after the Nationals had taken a 4-1 lead. After the Nationals took a 5-4 lead on an eighth-inning two-out RBI double by Meneses, Contreras extended his streak to six consecutive games with an extra-base hit when he smashed an eighth-inning home run to tie the score 5-5.
Cardinals closer Jordan Hicks tossed a scoreless ninth inning on seven pitches, but the Nationals hit back-to-back singles with the automatic runner on base to start the 10th and they got a second run in from third on a ground-ball double play.
