Albert Pujols hit his 35th home run and left-handed pitcher Jaime Garcia repeatedly shackled the Nationals’ offense with runners in scoring position as the St. Louis Cardinals took a 4-2 victory at Nationals Park on Friday night.
Garcia, a National League rookie of the year candidate, pitched 5 1/3 innings, allowing no runs on eight hits. He also struck out seven Nats batters. But Washington (54-75) had its chances, leaving 14 runners stranded on base, including the bases loaded three separate times. The Nats’ first run came in the bottom of the eighth inning when Willie Harris hit a pinch-hit home run. But even that solo shot was overshadowed by Nyjer Morgan getting picked off first base moments before. Washington manager Jim Riggleman said afterwards he should have made sure Morgan knew to stay close to the bag in a non-running situation.
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“We take a little something from the fact that it’s Atlanta, Philadelphia, a very good Cardinals ballclub. We’re giving them a good battle every night,” said Riggleman, whose team has lost 14 of its last 19 games. “But that and a couple dollars gets you a cup of coffee at Starbucks nowadays.”
Pujols hit his homer in the first inning off Nats starter Scott Olsen (3-7, 4.91 ERA). Matt Holliday had a solo homer of his own in the eighth inning to give St. Louis (69-57) an insurance run. In between, the Cardinals scored twice in the third inning. Jon Jay produced an RBI single to right field and Holliday followed two batters later with a run-scoring infield single.
There was some mild controversy in the sixth inning when first-base umpire Dan Bellino ruled Adam Kennedy’s bid down the line in right a foul ball. Washington first-base coach Dan Radison disputed the call as did members of the Nats’ bullpen in right field. But television replays confirmed the ball hit just inches to the right of the chalk. What would have scored at least two runs – and maybe three – instead was harmless. Kennedy then grounded out to second and Ian Desmond grounded out to first to kill the rally.
Morgan’s gaffe proved costly in the bottom of the ninth. Desmond led off with a double, was sacrificed to third base on a Ryan Zimmerman fly ball and then scored on a Ryan Franklin wild pitch. One night after Franklin blew a two-run lead to Washington in the ninth inning he found himself in trouble again.
After striking out Adam Dunn, Franklin allowed a triple to Michael Morse and walked Roger Bernadina, who had hit the game-tying homer off him Thursday night in the bottom of the ninth of an eventual 11-10 victory. But this time Franklin got Ivan Rodriguez to ground out to second base to end it. It was his 22nd save of the season.
For the Nats, Desmond batted 3-for-5 and clubbed with his 22nd double. Morse was 2-for-4 with a double and a triple. Garcia improved to 12-6 with a 2.33 ERA for the Cardinals. Olsen, meanwhile, lasted six innings for Washington, giving up three runs – only one earned – on five hits with a walk and five strikeouts. He had to endure some rough defensive play behind him, especially in the third inning when Dunn had a two-base error at first and Rodriguez threw a ball into center field on a pickoff attempt.
“I’ve had a lot of big innings this year, a lot of crooked numbers up on the board,” Olsen said. “And a two is still a crooked number, but it could have got a lot worse with two guys on and Pujols coming up. Luckily we made a double play and were able to minimize the damage in that inning. And that just carried over the rest of the game.”
