WASHINGTON — This time, the offense provided the Cardinals some relief.
Just when it appeared like the Cardinals could not escape the gravitational pull of another close game and another test of their late-inning relief, Willson Contreras homered and what never really had to be that close of a game … wasn’t. Contreras’ two-run blast in the seventh innings – his third since returning from a fractured forearm – lifted the Cardinals out of their usual tense, taut game and toward a 8-3 victory Sunday afternoon against Washington at Nationals Park.
Kyle Gibson flipped the script on the Nationals by showing an array of speeds and angles through his five innings. Though he left 12 outs for the bullpen to get, the offense provided enough of a gap that the bullpen only faced the tying run at the plate once.
On the day All-Stars get announced, Ryan Helsley even got a break.
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The Cardinals put themselves in position to win the four-game series with a victory Monday by scoring in a variety of ways. Fundamental baserunning with two outs produced the first run and good, old-fashioned power punctuated the output. The Cardinals scored at least eight runs for the third time in this past 27 games. Nolan Gorman had two RBIs by the end of the fourth to give him seven hits and four RBIs so far in the series. His two-out single in the fourth inning snapped a 2-2 tie and put the Cardinals ahead for good. Nolan Arenado had a two-run single that widened the Cardinals’ lead. The Cardinals’ third baseman as at least two hits in every fame of this weekend wraparound series in the nation’s capital.
Contreras finished with three RBIs and two runs scored.
His homer in the seventh inning came on a loopy curveball that he planted in the left-field seats to turn what could have been a save situation and another slim-margin game into a comfier finish.
An interlocking group of relievers, spearheaded by Ryan Fernandez and finished by Chris Roycroft, carried the lead through the final four innings.
Gibson (7-3) allowed three runs on nine hits through five-plus innings. He struck out and took a run at missing bats better than any other starter had so far this season for the Cardinals. In the fourth inning, a leadoff single led to nothing with help from Masyn Winn’s diving stop off the middle and flip to second to start a double play. Gibson did not retire any of the three batters he faced in the sixth inning, prompting the move to the bullpen when the tying run came to the plate.
Fernandez to the rescue
Gibson remained in command of the game until the sixth inning when a few hits slipped through and former Cardinals first baseman Juan Yepez had a chance to erase the Cardinals’ lead.
Giovanny Gallegos’ three innings of work in Saturday’s blowout loss kept the Cardinals’ chase and lead relievers available for Sunday, so manager Oliver Marmol could go swiftly to one of his setup man with the game tilting.
Four batters and no outs into the sixth inning, Ryan Fernandez took over with two runners on. The right-handed, rookie reliever got two groundballs for three outs and with little hassle and no fuss protected the Cardinals’ three-run lead he inherited. Fernandez got Yepez, who already had a double earlier in the game, to bounce into a double play that effectively unplugged the Nationals’ rally.
Get a whiff of Gibson
Through his first five innings, eager-swinging Washington had little chance against the Cardinals’ veteran right-handed Gibson.
A day after the pounced on Lance Lynn’s fastball for two first-pitch homers in the first inning and bruised Lynn with 11 runs (10 earned) by flipping his approach against him, Gibson took advantage of the Nats’ habits. He faced leadoff hitter C. J. Abrams two times in the first two innings and struck him out each time – first on a sinker diving out of the zone and second with a curve that defied Abrams’ timing.
Gibson allowed two runs in the second inning but struck out three around the hits to minimize the damage that the Nationals did.
By the time he started his third look at the lineup, Gibson had seven strikeouts.
Of Gibson’s 15 outs, not one came in the outfield.
Eight came at the plate without a ball in play.
Gibson came one swing-and-miss shy of tying the season high for a Cardinals pitchers. In April, Sonny Gray had a start with 19 swings and misses. During the Cardinals’ most recent home stand, Lynn got 17 swings and misses against the Cincinnati Reds. Gibson’s start Sunday wedged right between those two with 18. Six of those whiffs he got on his sweeping slider, and five more came on the curveball. Gibson threw his curveball 16 times and the Nationals only put one in play. As if directly responding to Washington’s success against the fastball Saturday, Gibson threw three off-speed pitches a total of 31 times Sunday and only four were put in play.
Two by two through two
Not giving up on an inning with full-speed baserunning produced the Cardinals’ first run and led directly to an early 2-0 lead that did not survive the inning.
With two outs in the top of the second, Gorman lifted a high fly ball toward shallow left field. Brendan Donovan broke fast from first and rounded third as if Gorman had plugged the gap with a double. That put Donovan nearly at third base when Gorman’s potential fly out dropped right in front of left fielder James Wood.
Donovan didn’t slow and scored easy to give Gorman an RBI double.
The extra base Gorman took to get into scoring position meant he could score when Dylan Carlson lifted an RBI single to right. Neither run happens without the fly ball falling in front of a fielder and Donovan running as if the out wasn’t a guarantee.
Washington answered the two runs with a pair of doubles in the bottom of the inning to tie the game, 2-2. Yepez had an RBI double off the wall in center for the Nationals’ first run of the game, and No. 8 hitter Riley Adams singled to score Yepez and knot the score on Gibson. The Cardinals’ wily right-hander struck out leadoff hitter Abrams to slip free of the inning with two runners on base.