Cardinals win 8th straight, send slumping Nats under .500

[August 16, 2018]  Austin Gomber pitched six shutout innings and the streaking St. Louis Cardinals extended their season-best winning streak to eight games with a 4-2 victory over the visiting Washington Nationals on Wednesday night at Busch Stadium in St. Louis.

Marcell Ozuna homered and Harrison Bader went 3-for-4 with an RBI and run scored for the Cardinals.

Matt Carpenter was 0-for-2 with an intentional walk and a hit by pitch while extending his streak of reaching base in 33 consecutive games. Carpenter was plunked on his right hand in the seventh inning by Washington left-hander Matt Grace and departed the contest.

The Cardinals announced the following inning that X-rays were negative, and that Carpenter was removed for precautionary reasons.

St. Louis improved to 19-9 since interim manager Mike Shildt replaced the fired Mike Matheny. The stellar stretch has pushed the Cardinals within four games of the Chicago Cubs in the National League Central and one game behind the Philadelphia Phillies and Milwaukee Brewers, the two teams atop the NL wild-card race.

Washington has dropped four straight games and seven of its last nine, falling below .500 for the first time in August. The Nationals are nine games behind the Atlanta Braves in the NL East and seven out for the wild card.

Daniel Murphy led off the ninth with a homer for Washington. Bryce Harper had two of the Nationals' seven hits.

The left-handed Gomber (3-0) allowed just three hits in his fourth major league start. He struck out six and walked four.

Right-hander Daniel Poncedeleon followed with two scoreless innings before allowing Murphy's homer and Michael A. Taylor's double to start the ninth.

Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina (4) congratulates starting pitcher Austin Gomber (68) after the fifth inning against the Washington Nationals at Busch Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports

Right-hander Bud Norris got the call and gave up a sacrifice fly to Matt Wieters while getting the final three outs for his 23rd save.

Nationals right-hander Jeremy Hellickson (5-3) allowed three runs (two earned) and three hits in 4 1/3 innings. He struck out two and walked two.

Ozuna gave St. Louis a 1-0 lead when he began the second inning with a blast just inside the left-field foul pole.

The Cardinals tacked on two more runs in the fifth with Bader leading off the inning with a double to center field. He was sacrificed to third by Gomber and the Nationals elected to intentionally walk Carpenter, with the free pass extending the 32-year-old's streak of reaching base.

Bader scored on a wild pitch by Hellickson to make it 2-0, and Yadier Molina stroked a run-scoring single to right to score Carpenter.

In the sixth inning, Kolten Wong singled with two outs and stole second. Bader followed with a run-scoring single to left to make it a four-run margin.

--Field Level Media

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