Rendon remains hot with another home run

JUPITER, Fla. -- Gio Gonzalez won his second exhibition start for the Washington Nationals, allowing two runs and five hits in three innings in a 6-2 victory Saturday over the St. Louis Cardinals.

"My arm feels good," Gonzalez said. "I feel healthy. I feel where I want to be."

His counterpart, Adam Wainwright, couldn't say the same, walking off unhappy with his location and his mechanics.

He struggled in his second spring-training start, giving up five runs and eight hits over three innings.

Kurt Suzuki doubled off Wainwright leading off the second and scored on Chris Marrero's single. One out later, Anthony Rendon homered on a drive more than halfway up the batter's eye beyond the center-field wall.

Eury Perez singled and scored on a throwing error by shortstop Ronny Cedeno following Danny Espinosa's single. Chris Marrero added an RBI single in the third that put the Nationals ahead 5-1.

"There are two trains of thought. You go, 'Well, it's just spring training. I'm just getting used to things and working on stuff,'?" Wainwright said. "The other is 'That wasn't very good.' I lean toward the second one, with a small hint of the first one."

Unhappy with his mechanics, Wainwright allowed four earned runs.

"I left a lot of balls up, and the guys obviously made me pay for the ones that were up," he said. "Rather than break with my plan and start flipping breaking balls in there and change-ups and sliders, I kept grinding through it."

Gonzalez allowed Allen Craig's RBI double in the first and Craig's broken-bat, run-scoring infield hit in the third.