The Washington Nationals have struggled in Game 2 of the NLDS. Despite taking an early 1-0 lead, the club has received shaky pitching performances all afternoon and now trails the Cardinals, 7-3, in the fifth inning.

St. Louis scored four runs in the second inning to go up 4-1 on Jordan Zimmermann. In the bottom of the third, Allen Craig hit a solo homer to plate another run. Zimmermann departed after three innings on the mound in what was one of his worst starts of the year.

Daniel Descalso followed in the fourth with a solo homer of his own that just cleared the right-field wall. Jon Jay then drove in another run after Danny Espinosa misplayed a routine ground ball to make the score 7-1.

The Nats showed signs of life in the fifth with back-to-back solo homers from Ryan Zimmerman and Adam LaRoche. Christian Garcia allowed the first two Cardinals runners to reach in the bottom half of the frame, but was able to get out of the jam without allowing any more runs to score.