The Washington Nationals had a break down in pitching, their offense ran out of gas and had an inability to completely capitalize on three St. Louis errors which lead to the Nats losing to the St. Louis Cardinals 5-3 at Busch Stadium in Game 2 of a day-night doubleheader. The Nationals won the first game that took place earlier Wednesday afternoon 8-6.
Nationals starter Jordan Zimmermann was able to get two quick outs in the bottom of the fifth, but then walked Albert Pujols. The Cardinals hit three straight singles afterwards to score two runs and break a 3-3 tie. The Cardinals never looked back as the Nationals could not offensively move forward as the Cardinals relief corps shut them down the rest of the way. Zimmermann went six-innings giving up five runs on eight hits, walked two and struck out three while taking the loss.
Wednesday night's game saw the return of Nationals reliever Collin Balester who pitched two-innings with one hit, one walk and a strikeout. Balester also balked and hit a batter on consecutive pitches, but no damage was done during the inning.
The Nationals face a Rubber Match with the Red Birds on Thursday at 1:45 P.M. EST. The Nationals are now 9-8 and are in third place in the NL East.