The first postseason game at Nationals Park is not off to the best of starts, as Edwin Jackson has been roughed up through the first two innings of Game 3. The Cardinals struck quickly for a run in the top of the first when Allen Craig ripped a double down the left field line to score Matt Holliday all the way from first. The ball got stuck under the padding of the left-field wall, forcing Michael Morse to run all the way to the corner and providing time for Holliday to get around third and score. An animated gif of the trouble in the corner:
The quick run quelled the Washington crowd a bit, but the big blow in the top of the second brought a hush over the park. No. 8 hitter Pete Kozma turned on a Jackson offering for a three-run homer into the first row of seats in left.
Jackson yielded four straight hits to start off the inning, and it looked like he might not make it out of the second. He's struggling with the location of his pitches, leaving balls out and up over the plate that catcher Kurt Suzuki has repeatedly called for to be down. Jackson faced the Cardinals in his second-to-last start of the season at the end of September, and he did not get out of the second inning in that outing, giving up eight earned runs.
On the other side, the Nationals had an opportunity to respond to the Cards in the bottom of the first, but a scoring chance ended with Jayson Werth stranded on third base.