Kolten Wong hit his first home run of the season and doubled in the winning run in the eighth inning of the St. Louis Cardinals’ 7-5 win over the Washington Nationals on Wednesday.
Jon Jay drew a one-out walk and Yadier Molina singled to put runners on the corners for Wong, who slapped a 2-1 Blake Treinen (0-2) offering down the left field line.
After Treinen fanned pinch-hitter Mark Reynolds and walked Matt Carpenter intentionally to load the bases, Jason Heyward struck out looking to end the inning. But the damage was done.
Seth Maness relieved Kevin Siegrist (1-0) in the eighth and got through the inning in just eight pitches. Matt Adams padded the lead with a solo blast to right in the top of the ninth and Trevor Rosenthal pitched a clean ninth to secure his fifth save.
Both starting pitchers got roughed up in this one, as St. Louis’ John Lackey and his counterpart Doug Fister each gave up five runs, but one of Fister’s runs was unearned.
Matt Carpenter set the tone for St. Louis with a leadoff home run in the top of the first, and Wong added to the lead with a two-run shot an inning later.
Then in the third, Heyward singled and scored on Adams’ two-bagger to left. Adams made it 5-0, scoring when Ryan Zimmerman failed to handle Jay’s grounder to first.
The Cardinals’ fortune quickly changed when three straight singles with one away in the bottom of the inning loaded the bases for Jayson Werth, who put the Nationals on the board with a sacrifice fly to center. Bryce Harper drew a walk to re-load the bases, and Lackey forgot to cover first on Ryan Zimmerman’s grounder to first, allowing a second run to cross the plate.
Yunel Escobar made him pay, smacking a bases-clearing double down the left field line. When Lackey finally got Wilson Ramos to fly out to right, it was a 5-5 game.
Neither team struck again until the eighth.
