ST. LOUIS — The Cardinals offense found success against lefthanded starter Mackenzie Gore on Friday night, getting home runs from Masyn Winn and Nolan Arenado.
Unfortunately, the success was short-lived when the Nationals turned the game over to their bullpen on Friday night at Busch Stadium.
Staked to leads of 5-2 after three innings and 6-3 after four innings, Sonny Gray let the Nationals back into the game while the Cardinals offense was held to just two hits between the fifth and ninth innings.
The result was a 6-6 tie going to the 10th inning, when the Nationals got a bases-loaded triple from ninth-place hitter Jacob Young in a four-run inning that carried them to the win in the opener of a three-game series.
Paul Goldschmidt hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the 10th, the 2,000th hit of his career, but all that did was reduce the final margin of the game.
Here is how Friday night’s game broke down:
At the plate: Winn hit a two-run homer and Arenado added a three-run shot in the five-run third inning … Pedro Pages led off the fourth with a single, extending his hitting streak to 12 games, and then scored on Winn’s single … After that hit, the only hits for the Cardinals before Goldschmidt’s homer in the 10th were a one-out double by Goldschmidt in the fifth and a leadoff single by Pages in the sixth as the Nationals retired 16 of 17 batters over that stretch.
On the mound: The Cardinals pitchers combined to issue eight walks, and five of them came around to score, including two in the 10th inning by Ryan Fernandez … Gray struck out the side in the first inning but then gave up two runs in the second, one in the third and two in the fifth … Former Cardinal Juan Yepez had three hits and a sacrifice fly, driving in two runs and scoring twice … The Nationals, who were no-hit on Thursday by the Padres’ Dylan Cease, had 18 at-bats with a runner in scoring position and also stole five bases in the game … Ryan Helsley pitched the ninth inning in the tie game, issuing a leadoff walk, but Lane Thomas was thrown out trying to steal second.
Key stat: In four starts in July, Gray has allowed 32 hits and 18 runs in 24 innings, an ERA of 6.75. He is 1-1 with two no-decisions in those games.
Worth noting: There is no update on when Tommy Edman will begin playing the outfield during his minor-league rehab assignment. To this point he has been limited to being the DH during his games at Double A Springfield, and he is scheduled to be in that role again on Saturday night … Also on Saturday night, top prospect Tink Hence is scheduled to start for Springfield. He has not pitched since leaving a game after one inning on June 23 and has only pitched twice, for a total of three innings, since May 30 … Major League Baseball announced on Friday that Cardinals’ minor leaguer pitcher Kener Perez, who was on the Dominican Summer League roster, has been suspended for 56 games after testing positive for a performance-enhancing drug.
Looking ahead: Kyle Gibson will get the start on Saturday night in the second game of the series against the Nationals.