Sunday’s Game Report: Cardinals 6, Nationals 1
By Rob Rains
The Cardinals carried a streak of four consecutive wins without hitting a home run into their game on Sunday but Lars Nootbaar didn’t wait around to see if they could add to that total.
Nootbaar hit the fifth pitch of the game over the wall in right field and the Cardinals went on to defeat the Nationals in Washington, D.C.
The victory extended the Cardinals’ winning streak to eight games, their longest since they also won eight in a row in 2022, and gave them their second consecutive series sweep.
Willson Contreras and Nolan Arenado also homered for the Cardinals.
The last time the Cardinals had won four games in a row without hitting a home run had been in 2015; they have not won five games in a row without hitting a home run since 1988.
Here is how Sunday’s game broke down:
At the plate: Nootbaar’s homer was his sixth of the season. Contreras tied him for the most on the team with his home run leading off the second inning. Arenado added a two-run homer in the eighth, his fourth of the year, to provide some insurance runs … Yohel Pozo and Victor Scott II also contributed RBI singles in the seventh inning, increasing the lead from 2-1 to 4-1. Scott extended his hitting streak to a career-high 11 games … Brendan Donovan was 0-of-4, with a walk, to snap his 10-game streak.
On the mound: The Cardinals’ streak of getting at least seven innings from their starting pitcher ended at four games when Miles Mikolas was lifted after just 5 1/3 innings and 69 pitches. One of the four hits he allowed was a home run by Nathaniel Lowe … Steven Matz retired all five of the hitters he faced in relief of Mikolas … Phil Maton pitched around a walk and single in the eighth before John King worked a 1-2-3 ninth.
Key stat: Jordan Walker was hitless in four at-bats, dropping his average to .186. He has five hits in his last 47 at-bats and has just one extra-base hit, a double, in his last 63 at-bats dating back to April 15 with 23 strikeouts.
Worth noting: The last time the Cardinals saw their starting pitcher work at least seven innings in four consecutive games was in 2015, when they did that for seven starts in a row … Contreras has reached base in 23 consecutive games. His brother William also homered for Milwaukee on Sunday, the seventh time in their careers they have homered on the same day … This was the first three-game sweep by the Cardinals in Washington since 2013.
Up next: The road trip will continue on Monday night with the first of three games against the Phillies in Philadelphia. Matthew Liberatore is the scheduled starter.
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