Cardinals close August with win

The St. Louis Cardinals closed August with an impressive come-from-behind victory over the Washington Nationals. Co-editor Steve Ungrey has the latest from Busch Stadium.


There’s no place like home… or the road these days, based on the way the St. Louis Cardinals are playing.

The Cardinals closed August with a bang, unleashing a five-run seventh inning as they topped the fast-fading Washington Nationals, 8-5. in the opening game of a three-game set at Busch.

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St. Louis is now 85-46, only 15 wins from 100 for the season, and it maintained a comfortable edge over the second-place Pittsburgh Pirates.

THE HIGHLIGHTS

*The fourth and seventh innings were where St. Louis scored all of its runs. In the fourth RBI singles by Yadier Molina, Kolten Wong and Mark Reynolds accounted for the three runs. The key blow in the seventh was a two-run double by Jason Heyward, sandwiched around RBI singles by Stephen Piscotty, Jhonny Peralta and Wong.

*Trevor Rosenthal returned to the hill and didn’t miss a beat in picking up his 42nd save of the season. Kevin Siegrist improved to 6-1 overall.

*Five players had two hits apiece in the victory, including Peralta, Heyward, Wong, Reynolds and Brandon Moss.

THE LOWLIGHTS

*Siegrist may have won, but he allowed three earned runs in the process yet still struck out two. Otherwise, it wasn’t a bad night for the Cardinal Nation.

WHAT’S NEXT

St. Louis enters September with an 8:15 p.m. Tuesday game against the Nationals. Joe Ross (5-5, 3.24) starts for Washington and faces Carlos Martinez (13-6, 2.91).