With the threat of possibly falling completely out of the National League Central race, the Cardinals snap their three game losing streak and beat the Nationals last night 4-2.  The win keeps St. Louis four games behind Cincinnati.

Jamie Garcia, who shut out the Giants on Sunday, would once again pitch a shutout.  This time though, it be for five and a innings.  At times he did struggle, as he would be in jams in four different innings.  He would throw 94 pitches while striking out seven and walking four. 

Garcia picked up his 12th win of the season, which is something a Cardinal rookie pitcher has not done in 13 years.  The last one to do that was Matt Morris in 1997.

The Cardinals would never trail in this game as Albert Pujols hit his 35th home run in the top of the first.  This put to rest some fears about Pujols as he appeared to tweak his ankle on Thursday night.  He was trying to catch a foul ball when he would catch his foot on the tarp.

St. Louis would tag on two more runs in the third thanks to RBI singles from Jon Jay and Matt Holliday.  Holliday also had the Cardinals holding their breath the night before as he took a pitch off his left wrist. 

In the eighth, that fear was also put to rest as Holliday capped off the Cardinal attack with a solo home run.  It was his 23rd of the season.

The Redbirds remain four games behind the Reds in the NL Central after they had no trouble beating the Cubs.  St. Louis is also one game back in the NL Wild Card race. 

Kyle Lohse will get the start tonight for the Cardinals against the Nationals’ Livan Hernandez. 

Game time is 6:05.