Coverage of tonight's Cards and Mets can be heard on Newstalk 97.3 WTIM beginning at 5:35pm.

Washington, DC (SportsNetwork.com) - Denard Span's sacrifice fly in the bottom 
of the ninth inning gave the Washington Nationals a 3-2 win over the St. Louis 
Cardinals on Sunday in the finale of a four-game set from Nationals Park. 

Danny Espinosa and Jose Lobaton had three hits apiece for Washington and poked 
back-to-back  singles with one  away in the home half of the ninth off of Seth 
Maness  (0-1). Nate McLouth  then stepped in as a pinch-hitter and drew a walk 
to load the bags for Span, who fouled off four pitches before plating Espinosa 
with his lineout to left. 

Rafael  Soriano (1-0) pitched a perfect top of the ninth to each his first win 
of the season. 

The  Nationals were  winners despite  hitting  just 2-for-12  with runners  in 
scoring position and leaving 17 men on base. 

The Cardinals went  up 1-0 in the second inning when Jhonny Peralta's double- 
play  grounder allowed Matt Adams, who doubled to lead off the frame, to score 
without a throw. 

The  score  stayed  that  way  until the  fifth.  Washington  starter  Stephen 
Strasburg  struck  out Peralta and  Mark Ellis to  start the inning but walked 
Peter Bourjos and allowed his counterpart Shelby Miller to drive in a run with 
a double to deep left. 

Strasburg  fanned  nine in six  innings, allowing two  runs on five hits while 
Miller  struck  out seven  and kept  Washington scoreless  over 5 1/3 innings. 
Miller had trouble with his command, however, walking five batters. 

Miller walked the bases loaded in the third inning but struck out Adam LaRoche 
to end the threat. He had a no-hitter until the fourth, when Espinosa broke it 
up with two outs with a single to right. 

Carlos  Martinez took the  hill in the bottom of the seventh for St. Louis and 
lost  the lead after surrendering four consecutive singles. LaRoche got things 
started  with a one-out single to center, Anthony Rendon followed with another 
single  to  center and Ian  Desmond put the  Nats on the  board with a slap to 
right. Espinosa's RBI single made it 2-2. 

                                   Game Notes 

Both  teams won  two  games in  the  series ...  Adams had  two  hits for  the 
Cardinals,  who close out  an 11-game road trip when they travel to Citi Field 
Monday  for a four-game set with the Mets ... The Nationals host the LA Angels 
in an interleague series starting Monday.