The St. Louis Cardinals have played a lot of big games in the past few years and they usually end up on the winning side of those contests.
The team faced two elimination games in last year's World Series and won them both. They were down to their last strike twice in the World Series and came back from it both times. The team edged their way past the Atlanta Braves in the single-elimination wild-card round on Friday before facing yet another big moment against the Washington Nationals.
The Cardinals always seem to rise to the occasion in big games and at big moments and Monday was no different. St. Louis busted out on offense on Monday to avoid going down 0-2 to the Washington Nationals.
Carlos Beltran hit two home runs and the Cardinals were able to overcome a short start and injury to Jaime Garcia to beat the Nationals 12-4 on Monday afternoon.
The Nationals took an early lead off of pitcher Jordan Zimmerman's single, but it was the Cardinals the rest of the way. The Cardinals had four home runs on the day and didn't let the game stay close.
"Today, for us, was a must-win game," Beltran said to the Associated Press.
The team busted out in the second inning, scoring four runs on singles from Danial Descalso and John Jay as well as another on David Freese's double to right field. They added more the next two innings, with home runs from Allen Craig and Descalso. Following an error in the fourth inning, the Cardinals sat with a 7-1 lead.
"If we get things going, we feel like we can carry the team," Craig said. "As you saw tonight, we put a lot of good swings on the ball and really drove the ball. It was a lot of fun."
Nationals starter Jordan Zimmerman was ineffective, giving up five runs on seven hits in just three innings. He struggled down the stretch for Washington in September and continued that trend on Monday. According to ESPN.com, Zimmerman has an 11.08 ERA in three starts against the Cardinals this year.
The pitching for the Nationals will make some fans question why Stephen Strasburg was shut down for the season.
"I miss him not experiencing this with us and he misses not experiencing it with us," Nationals manager Davey Johnson said. "But we did the right thing, there's no question. He'd have been the guy that opened the series."
Washington cut the lead in the fifth with back-to-back home runs from Ryan Zimmerman and Adam La Roche, but St. Louis quickly responded. Beltran added his first home run of the game in the bottom of the inning, which followed an excellent play from outfielder John Jay in the top of the inning.
Jay made a fantastic leaping catch to send Danny Espinosa back to the dugout and to keep the Nationals to only two runs.
"One of the best catches I've seen. I think it's his best catch of the year," Cardinals rookie manager Mike Matheny said. "He barely looked up as he was hitting the wall. Very impressive."
Zimmerman added a sacrifice fly in the seventh before the Cardinals really started to pour it on. Beltran his second home run and the Cardinals scored four more runs to take a 12-4 lead.
"We know this offense has the potential to do this," Matheny said. "It was nice to see this, and hopefully it becomes contagious and the guys just keep going."
The Cardinals were able to overcome Garcia's start in the second inning after he threw 51 pitches and hurt his shoulder. Lance Lynn replaced him and struck out five batters in three innings.
"I was ready from the get-go in case anything happened," Lynn said. "Something I was able to do at times this year, able to be down in the bullpen a little bit, and I was able to use that experience."
Garcia knew things weren't going right early in the game.
"It just wasn't right the whole time. I had to come out of the game," Garcia said. "I don't know how it happened, I don't know when it happened.
The series now moves to Washington tied at 1-1. The last time a playoff team played in the city of Washington was for the 1933 World Series.
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