CARDS TURN TRIPLE PLAY, STILL FALL TO NATS
Strasburg Dominant as Washington Seizes Control Early
WASHINGTON, Apr. 20 (AP) - The St. Louis Cardinals turned a triple play, but
succumbed to Washington 6-1 at Nationals Park. Nats starter Stephen
Strasburg shut the Cardinals out over six innings of work, allowing just one hit
while striking out nine. Bryce Harper homered for the Nationals.
Washington roughed up St. Louis starter Shelby Miller, scoring five runs over
the the first two innings and, but for the triple play, might have knocked him
out of the game in the first frame. The first six Nationals batters
reached base safely in the opening inning. Denard Span led off with a base
hit and Harper followed by drawing a walk, putting runners on first and
second. Jayson Werth then singled to right-center, scoring Span and
advancing Harper to third. Adam LaRoche walked to load the bases.
Anthony Rendon's single to right-center brought home Harper and Werth, giving
the Nationals a 3-0 lead, with LaRoche taking third. Ian Desmond then drew
a four-pitch walk, refilling the bases. A meeting at the mound ensued, but
Cardinals manager Mike Matheny stuck with Miller despite the brutal start, not
wanting to go to his bullpen in the very first inning. The move paid off,
but more than a bit of luck was involved. Danny Espinosa swung at the
first pitch and hit a bullet right back at Miller, who speared the ball in the
air and fired to third baseman Matt Carpenter to double up Rendon.
Carpenter threw across to first baseman Mike Adams to nail Desmond--who was more
than halfway to second--at first to complete the triple play.
This was to be the high point of the game for the Cardinals. Washington
scored two more runs in the bottom of the second when Jose Lobaton led off with
a single and trotted home two outs later on Harper's two-run shot to right,
putting the Nationals on top 5-0.
That was effectively the game. Strasburg wss overpowering during his
stint; the only hit he allowed was Carpenter's two-out single in the
third. After walking Yadier Molina with two outs in the fourth, he retired
the next seven batters he faced, five of them on strikes.
St. Louis broke the shutout in the top of the seventh on Jhonny Peralta's
two-out solo home run off Xavier Cedeno. Cedeno then allowed back-to-back
singles to Mark Ellis and pinch hitter Peter Bourjos and walked Shane Robinson,
bringing the tying run to the plate. But Jerry Blevins came on for the
Nationals and retired Carpenter on a fly to right to end the inning.
Washington got the run back in the bottom half of the frame on Desmond's RBI
single, upping the lead to 6-1. Blevins, Drew Storen and Tyler Clippard
navigated the final two innings, never allowing the Cardinals to get back in the
game.
4/20/2014, StL14-Was14, Nationals Park 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E LOB DP 2014 Cardinals 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 5 1 7 0 2014 Nationals 3 2 0 0 0 0 1 0 x 6 9 0 10 0 Cardinals AB R H BI AVG Nationals AB R H BI AVG Carpenter,M 3b 4 0 1 0 .203 Span cf 5 1 1 0 .326 Jay rf 4 0 1 0 .351 Harper lf 3 2 2 2 .261 Craig lf 3 0 0 0 .203 Werth rf 3 2 2 1 .269 Adams,Ma 1b 4 0 0 0 .261 Clippard p 0 0 0 0 .000 Molina,Y c 3 0 0 0 .273 LaRoche 1b 3 0 0 0 .277 Peralta,Jh ss 4 1 1 1 .333 Rendon 3b 4 0 2 2 .290 Ellis,M 2b 3 0 1 0 .091 Desmond ss 2 0 0 0 .203 Descalso ph 1 0 0 0 .188 Espinosa 2b 4 0 0 0 .146 Bourjos cf 4 0 1 0 .262 Lobaton c 3 1 2 0 .250 Miller,S p 2 0 0 0 .333 Strasburg p 1 0 0 0 .300 Fornataro p 0 0 0 0 .000 Cedeno,X p 0 0 0 0 .000 Robinson,S ph 0 0 0 0 .353 Blevins p 0 0 0 0 .000 Martinez,C p 0 0 0 0 .000 Storen p 0 0 0 0 .000 Siegrist p 0 0 0 0 .000 McLouth ph 1 0 0 0 .071 32 1 5 1 29 6 9 5 Cardinals INN H R ER BB K PCH STR ERA Miller,S L 1-2 5.0 7 5 5 5 2 91 47 4.01 Fornataro 1.0 1 0 0 0 1 12 8 0.00 Martinez,C 1.0 1 1 0 2 2 27 15 2.79 Siegrist 1.0 0 0 0 2 1 26 11 14.40 8.0 9 6 5 9 6 156 81 Nationals INN H R ER BB K PCH STR ERA Strasburg W 4-1 6.0 1 0 0 2 9 97 61 2.90 Cedeno,X H 1 0.2 3 1 1 1 1 22 14 10.80 Blevins H 1 1.0 1 0 0 0 1 13 9 3.00 Storen 0.1 0 0 0 0 0 3 2 0.00 Clippard 1.0 0 0 0 0 1 6 6 2.08 9.0 5 1 1 3 12 141 92 StL: Robinson,S batted for Fornataro in the 7th Descalso batted for Ellis,M in the 9th Was: McLouth batted for Storen in the 8th McLouth moved to rf in the 9th E-Molina,Y. 2B-Jay(4). HR-Peralta,Jh(5), Harper(4). RBI-Peralta,Jh(8), Harper 2(12), Werth(15), Rendon 2(8). K-Carpenter,M, Jay, Craig, Adams,Ma 3, Peralta,Jh, Ellis,M 2, Bourjos 2, Miller,S, Harper, LaRoche, Rendon, Desmond, Lobaton, McLouth. BB-Craig, Molina,Y, Robinson,S, Harper 2, Werth 2, LaRoche 2, Desmond 2, Lobaton. SH-Strasburg 2. GWRBI: Werth Temperature: 45, Sky: partly cloudy, Wind: left to right at 11 MPH. Attendance: 30,698 Game Time: 2:54