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The Washington Nationals evened the National League Division Series at two games apiece with a 2-1 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals behind a Jayson Werth walk-off home run on Thursday. Werth capped a 13-pitch at bat off of Cards' reliever Lance Lynn with a rocket into the left-field seats. The home run assured the Nationals will play at least one more game in 2012 when they face the Cards on Friday night. Drew Storen was the winning pitcher, while Lance Lynn took the loss.
Adam LaRoche got the scoring started in the bottom of the second inning with a leadoff home run, putting the Nationals up 1-0. St. Louis would tie the game in the top of the third when Peter Kozma scored on a Carlos Beltran sacrifice fly. Kozma reached third when Nats shortstop Ian Desmond booted a ground ball, allowing John Jay to reach first base and keeping it at one out when Beltran came to bat. Neither team would score another run before Werth's game-winning home run in the bottom of the ninth inning.
The Nats got an excellent outing from starting pitcher Ross Detwiler, who wasn't involved in the decision. Detwiler threw six strong innings, allowing only the one unearned run on the Beltran sac fly. He struck out a pair of batters, allowing three hits and three walks to the Cardinals.
The Nats turned to Jordan Zimmermann in the seventh, and Zimmermann struck out the side. Tyler Clippard came on for the eighth and allowed just a walk while striking out three. Drew Storen continued the excellent bullpen work in the ninth, striking out the first two batters he faced before walking Kozma. Ian Desmond would make a nice over-the-shoulder catch to end the top of the ninth with the score tied at one.
Kyle Lohse had an impressive outing without factoring into the decision for the Cardinals. Lohse went seven innings, allowing one earned run on just two hits. He struck out five and issued one free pass.
Game 5 is scheduled to start Friday, Oct. 12, at 8:30 p.m. ET. The game will be shown on TBS.
