The brooms are out and the Washington Nationals are sweeping the St. Louis Cardinals under the carpet. The Nationals finished off the Cardinals in a three-game series at Nationals Park in convincing fashion on Thursday night by the score of 7-4. The Nationals lead for most of the game, but the Cardinals were able to get to the Nationals bullpen and put the game into extra-innings. The Nationals needed only one more inning to seal the deal.
Tied at 4-4 in the bottom of the 10th-inning third baseman Ryan Zimmerman lead the inning off with a single. After Laynce Nix struck out, Michael Morse came to the plate and on the very first pitch Cardinals reliever Fernando Salas pegged the first baseman. Morse took his base while Zimmerman moved to second with Danny Espinosa coming to the plate. Espinosa merely needed to just get the ball into the outfield or move the runs up. Instead, the red hot second baseman took care of things all by himself. On the fourth pitch of his at-bat Espinosa made contact with an 88 mph change-up from Salas and put it over the wall for a three-run walk off home run.
The Nationals errorless streak ended at 131 innings after Espinosa committed an error in the ninth (but he more than made up for it later), but the Nationals extend their winning streak to six straight games. At 33-36 they have roared three games away from .500 and into fourth place in the NL East.