Coverage of today's Cards and Nats can be heard on Newstalk 97.3 WTIM beginning at 11:30am.

Washington,  DC (SportsNetwork.com) - The Washington Nationals scored two runs 
after  a wild pitch  in the seventh inning to beat the St. Louis Cardinals 3-1 
on Friday night. 

The  Nationals were the beneficiaries of sloppy play one day after making four 
errors  and being two-hit  by Adam Wainwright in an 8-0 loss to open the four- 
game series. 

Anthony  Rendon hit  a solo homer for Washington and Gio Gonzalez (3-1) struck 
out  seven batters in  seven innings, but it was the poor play by St. Louis in 
the seventh that got the Nationals the win. 

They  loaded the  bases with  no outs  after Cardinals  starter Michael  Wacha 
fielded  Danny Espinosa's bunt  and tried to get the lead runner at third, but 
his  hard  throw went  off Matt  Carpenter's glove  for an  error on the third 
baseman. 

The  two  runs scored with  two outs when  Yadier Molina scrambled for Wacha's 
wild  pitch and hurried a throw to his pitcher that skipped into the Cardinals 
dugout. 

The Cardinals made  three errors and had an eight-game winning streak against 
the Nationals snapped. 

"Whenever  you're going against  Gio you have to go out there and match zeroes 
with  him  and he was  pitching very  well tonight and  he got me," said Wacha 
(2-1),  who  gave up five hits  and struck out  seven in seven innings with no 
walks. 

Gonzalez yielded four hits and a walk. The Cardinals put runners at second and 
third  base against Tyler Clippard in the eighth before Drew Storen came in to 
get  two quick outs.  Rafael Soriano worked around a walk in the ninth for his 
fourth save, getting a double play to end the game. 

"Unbelievable job by our pitchers," said Nationals shortstop Ian Desmond. "Gio 
pitched his butt off." 

Wacha picked up his third and fourth strikeouts to start the third inning, but 
Rendon  lined the  next pitch, a 74  mph curve ball, into the visitors bullpen 
behind left field for his third homer of the season and a 1-0 Nationals lead. 

Gonzalez  retired eight  in a row before  Allen Craig hit a one-out double off 
the  wall in  right field that Jayson Werth had trouble tracking. Later, Werth 
slid  but couldn't catch Mark Ellis' single in shallow right, scoring Craig to 
tie the game for St. Louis. 

                                   Game Notes 

The  game lasted 2 hours and 32 minutes ... The Nationals got just their third 
win in their last eight games since starting the season 7-2.