ST. LOUIS _ The Cardinals continued their offensive blitz on Friday night, scoring eight or more runs for the fourth time in the past six games, in an 8-1 win over Washington at Busch Stadium.
The win was the Cardinals' third in a row and fifth in their past six as they moved within three games of .500.
The Cardinals bunched their runs, scoring three in the third and five in the fourth and had a runner on in six of the first seven innings, with no small thanks to the Nationals starting pitcher, Tanner Roark, who walked five in three innings.
The Cardinals' bats have been on a tear lately. In the past six games, their run totals have been 8, 8, 5, 4, 10, 8.
While the three runs in the third were the result of walks and singles, the five in the fourth _ off reliever Jacob Turner _ were the result of some heavy hitting. Paul DeJong homered to center, his sixth in his first 100 at-bats in the majors, and Matt Carpenter and Jedd Gyorko doubled.
The game also had what has become commonplace of late: a great catch by Tommy Pham in center field. On Friday, he leaped to take a home run away from Nationals leadoff hitter Brian Goodwin in the first inning.
Yadier Molina extended his hitting streak to 15 games, the longest active streak in the majors, with a single in the third that drove in two runs and started the scoring for the Cardinals. Molina had a 16-game hitting streak earlier this season; the record hitting streak for a Cardinals catcher is 19 by Ted Simmons.
Leake walked a fine line on his way to his sixth win in 12 decisions. In addition to having Pham save a home run, the Nationals got a runner to third with one out in the second but with the infield in, a grounder to Greg Garcia at second turned into an out at the plate. Leake got other help from the Cardinals defense, which turned double plays behind him in the fourth, sixth, seventh and eight innings. He retired all three batters he faced just once in eight innings. Leake went eight innings, allowing five hits and walking three while striking out four. Sam Tuivailala pitched the ninth.
The Cardinals had chances in the first two innings as well thanks to Roark's wildness. In one stretch spanning the second and third innings, he walked four of five batters he faced. The Cardinals loaded the bases in the third with no one out before Molina singled to drive in two. Two batters later, a single by Garcia scored another run.
The Nationals got one run back in the top of the fourth before the Cardinals put it away in the bottom of the inning. Carpenter doubled, Pham grounded out, Stephen Piscotty walked, Gyorko doubled, Molina singled, and after Bryce Harper made a nice catch on a fly ball by Randal Grichuk, DeJong homered.
