By MATT PIKE
The St. Louis Cardinals battled back from a three run deficit to tie the game in the eighth inning, and went on to win in extra innings, beating the Washington Nationals 7-6 at Nationals Park.
The Cardinals took the lead in the first inning scoring the first two runs of the game. After JJ Wetherholt led the game off with a walk, and stole second base with one out, the rookie second baseman advanced to third on a single by Alec Burleson, and scored as Jordan Walker reached first base on a fielders choice, Burleson winding up safe at second with a fielding error by CJ Abrams. A Nolan Gorman single drove in Burleson to put St. Louis up 2-0.
In the bottom half of the first, the Nationals cut the lead to one run with singles in three of the first four at bats. James Wood led off with a single, and after Matthew Liberatore struck out Curtis Mead, Brady House and Daylen Lile singled, Lile's hit driving in Wood. Washington tied up the game in the third inning on a lead off home run by Wood, ending the third tied 2-2.
Runs continued to pile on in the fifth as the National's took the lead with a two run inning, Mead hitting a solo home run to start the scoring and an RBI single from Abrams driving in Lile after his two out walk. One more run scored in the sixth for Washington, again thanks to Mead, as the Nationals first baseman singled to bring home Wood, who walked and stole second base, to give Washington a 5-2 lead.
The Cardinals started to climb back in the seventh inning, first getting a solo home run from Jordan Walker to cut the lead to two runs. Then in the eighth inning, after Masyn Winn walked to lead off the inning, with two outs, Nathan Church hit his first home run of the season to right field to tie up the game at 5-5. Washington was retired 1-2-3 in the bottom of the eighth, and the game would go to extra innings with neither team able to add a run through the final two innings.
Winn started the 10th at second base for the Cardinals and promptly scored as Thomas Saggese doubled to center field to give St. Louis their first lead since the opening inning. Saggese advanced to third on a ground out by Yohel Pozo, and scored an insurance run on a double by Wetherholt. Leading by two runs going to the bottom of the 10th, Riley O'Brien came on for the save. A wild pitch from O'Brien allowed Lile, who started the inning at second base, to score with two outs. O'Brien recovered to strike out Nasim Nuñez for his third save.
George Soriano earned the win in relief for the Cardinals, improving to 1-0, pitching two innings and giving up no hits while striking out three. At the plate, Gorman was 3-for-4 with a walk and an RBI. Saggese was 2-for-5 with a double and an RBI.
St. Louis and Washington wrap up their series on Wednesday. Michael McGreevy (0-1, 2.53 ERA, 9K's) takes the mound for the Cardinals against former Cardinals Miles Mikolas (0-2, 14.46 ERA, 8K's) for the Nationals. First pitch is at 3:05pm, pregame will air near the start at 2:55 on KY 102 (102.5FM).
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