Cardinals at Nationals
The sight of the Washington Nationals was apparently all Kolten Wong needed to snap his early-season offensive funk. The 24-year-old second baseman looks to build upon his best offensive showing of the season on Thursday when his St. Louis Cardinals take on the host Nationals in the rubber match of a three-game set.
Although St. Louis went 5-1 during a six-game homestand heading into
this series, Wong went a mere 2-for-16 over that stretch and saw his
batting average plummet to .219. He bounced back with a 3-for-4 effort
in Tuesday’s 2-1 loss and lifted his average to .325 by repeating the
feat in Wednesday’s 7-5 victory – a performance that included his first
home run, a go-ahead RBI double in the eighth inning and a few defensive
gems after the Cardinals watched their early five-run lead vanish. The
Nationals got a bases-clearing double from Yunel Escobar to cap a
five-run third, but could not muster any offense thereafter to counter
Wong’s tiebreaking hit or Matt Adams’ ninth-inning solo blast. As a
result of Wednesday’s setback, Washington has dropped 12 of its last 15
meetings with the Cardinals.
TV: 4:05 p.m. ET, MLB Network, FSN Midwest (St. Louis), MASN (Washington)
PITCHING MATCHUP: Cardinals RH Michael Wacha RHP (2-0, 1.35 ERA) vs. Nationals RH Max Scherzer (1-1, 0.83)
Wacha
has yielded one run on five hits to Cincinnati in each of his two
turns, both coming on solo homers. The No. 19 overall pick of the 2012
draft improved to 2-0 for the third time in as many major-league seasons
after working seven strong frames during Friday’s 6-1 win against the
Reds, posting a 0.90 WHIP over 13 1/3 innings in the process. Wacha has
been even stingier in two career starts against Washington, going 1-1
with a 0.57 ERA and 0.51 WHIP.
After a pair of hard-luck outings
in which he was unable to pick up a victory despite allowing a total of
one earned run, Scherzer collected his first win as a National with
Friday’s 7-2 triumph over Philadelphia. The St. Louis native, who
permitted one run on four hits and fanned nine over eight frames, has
struck out at least eight in each of his first three outings. The
longtime Detroit Tiger has enjoyed a great deal of success against Mark
Reynolds (1-of-14, seven strikeouts), but hasn’t faced the Cardinals
since 2009.
WALK-OFFS
1. St. Louis 3B Matt Carpenter’s
second leadoff homer in three games on Wednesday extended his on-base
streak to a league-high 20 games.
2. Washington SS Ian Desmond is batting 15-for-34 during an eight-game hitting streak.
3. Cardinals LF Matt Holliday went 0-for-4 with a walk on Wednesday to snap his season-long 12-game hitting streak.