The St. Louis Cardinals ended their four game losing streak as they defeated the Washington Nationals 10-9 on Saturday. Early on in the game it did not look like the Cardinals would end their losing streak as the Nationals bolted out of the gate by scoring four runs in the bottom of the first off of starter Kyle Lohse.
The Cardinals responded when third baseman David Freese hit a two-run home run to make it a 4-2 lead, but in the top of the second the Nationals came back to score two more runs and led 6-2 after two innings.
However, the St. Louis offense stayed on fire in the third and fourth innings where they scored six of their own runs to go up 8-6 after just four innings. The Cardinals runs came on a Matt Holiday solo home run, a base clearing double by Matt Carpenter which scored three runs and then a RBI single by Allen Craig.
The Nationals made another scoring run when they put up three runs in the bottom of the sixth when Ryan Zimmerman hit a solo home run, and then a two-RBI single. After six innings the Cardinals trailed once against 9-8.
The Cardinals scored a run in the eighth to tie the game on a Carlos Beltran RBI single to tie the game at nine, and the game winning play was also a RBI single which was hit by in the top of the ninth. Cardinals closer Jason Motte was able to pitch a perfect ninth inning to earn his 32nd save of the season.
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