Brendan Donovan and Paul Goldschmidt hit back-to-back home runs in the fifth inning to help the St. Louis Cardinals rally from a five-run deficit and win 8-6 against the host Washington Nationals on Monday.
St. Louis starter Jack Flaherty (4-5) made it through 6 1/3 innings for the victory as the Cardinals produced their first three-game winning streak in more than a month.
The Nationals lost their fourth game in a row despite holding a 5-0 lead through two innings thanks to three of Luis Garcia’s four RBIs.
Lane Thomas doubled twice and scored twice for Washington. Starting pitcher Josiah Gray (4-6) took the loss, giving up six runs on nine hits in five innings. It was his first defeat since May 5.
Donovan’s seventh home run of the season — and first since June 2 — was a three-run shot that tied the game. Goldschmidt followed with his 13th blast to put the Cardinals ahead for the first time. Goldschmidt has only three long balls this month, but two have come over the past three games.
The Cardinals stretched their advantage to 8-5 with two runs in the seventh on consecutive two-out RBI singles from Nolan Arenado and Willson Contreras off reliever Carl Edwards Jr.
Goldschmidt, Jordan Walker, Paul DeJong and Tommy Edman all had two hits for St. Louis.
Flaherty survived a shaky opening two innings to secure his first victory in his last six starts. He was charged with six runs on 10 hits and one walk while striking out five.
Three St. Louis relievers combined to retire the first seven batters they faced. The Nationals’ CJ Abrams reached on a two-out infield single in the ninth before Thomas struck out. Jordan Hicks recorded his third save.
The Nationals cranked out five of their 11 hits and racked up three runs in the first inning, first on Garcia’s sacrifice fly and then on Corey Dickerson’s two-out, two-run single.
Garcia’s two-run single in the second inning stretched the lead to 5-0.
Jeimer Candelario joined Thomas and Abrams with two hits. Garcia’s final RBI came on a seventh-inning groundout.
–Field Level Media
