WASHINGTON — Rested and refreshed after a day off on Monday, Cardinals outfielder Dylan Carlson launched a pair of home runs into the night sky, and left-hander Jordan Montgomery kept the Washington Nationals hitters from inflicting any significant damage as the Cardinals matched their longest win streak of the season with their fourth consecutive win.
The Cardinals led from the second inning on in a 9-3 series-clinching win over the Washington Nationals at Nationals Park on Tuesday night. The Cardinals can sweep the series with a win in Wednesday’s finale of the three-game set.
Carlson, who started in right field, went 2-for-4 with his first multi-homer game of the season and the third of his major-league career. His last multi-home run game came against the Milwaukee Brewers on Sept. 30, 2021.
Carlson’s second home run of the night, a 404-foot smash, pushed him to 300 career hits. His mammoth second-inning blast traveled an estimated 445 feet, the third-longest by a Cardinals player this season behind Tyler O’Neill (461 feet) and Nolan Gorman (446 feet).
Montgomery (4-7) matched his longest outing of the season with seven innings. He allowed one run on four hits and one walk. He struck out six. He’s won his last two decisions and allowed four runs in his last three starts (19 1/3 innings).
Rookie outfielder Jordan Walker’s hitting streak extended to a career-high 13 games with his second inning single up the middle. He was on base for Carlson’s first home run. Walker’s hitting streak is now the longest for a Cardinals rookie since Albert Pujols hit in 17 consecutive games in 2001.
Paul DeJong (1-for-4) crushed his 11th home run of the season, while Paul Goldschmidt (2-for-5, RBI), Willson Contreras (3-for-4, two RBIs), Nolan Arenado (sacrifice fly) and Carlson (three RBIs) all drove in runs.
Brendan Donovan went 3-for-5 and joined Contreras with a three-hit game. Donovan also reached on a throwing error in the ninth inning. Donovan now has a nine-game hitting streak.
Confidence high in Contreras
Catcher Willson Contreras batted fourth and served as the designated hitter against the Nationals’ left-handed starting pitcher MacKenzie Gore. Andrew Knizner started at catcher. Contreras hadn’t started at DH since May 22.
After having been mired in an offensive slump in recent weeks — he’d gone just 5-for-66 in his previous 20 games before the start of the road trip — Contreras had shown signs of coming out of his malaise.
He went 2-for-4 with a home run in the series opener in New York against the Mets, and he added a hit and an RBI on Monday’s series opener against the Nationals. He snapped an 0-for-12 with runners in scoring position with his seventh-inning RBI single.
“We have trust in what he’s going to be able to do,” Marmol said of Contreras before the game. “Everybody goes through a time in their career where it sucks and they don’t love it. It’s just a part of playing the game for a long time. He’s played the game and hasn’t ever struggled to this degree. It won’t be the last time he struggles like this either. It is the first.
“So continuing to instill confidence in him and for him to know that everybody is behind him is important. But my concern level with him getting going is super low right now. He’s fine.”
Marmol said keeping Contreras in the lineup was important from a “timing standpoint.”
Contreras responded with doubles in back-to-back at-bats in the fourth and fifth innings. The fifth-inning double came with two outs and drove in a run. He added an RBI single in the seventh inning as he recorded his first three-hit game of the season.
Monty a model of efficiency
Montgomery held the Nationals to just one hit through the first 10 batters he faced.
The lone run he allowed came after a leadoff triple by Luis Garcia that one-hopped off the right field wall in the fourth inning.
Montgomery nearly managed to strand the runner on third base in the inning. He got a groundball out and a pop-up to get to two outs with Garcia still at third.
However, Stone Garrett lined an RBI double to left field on a first-pitch changeup from Montgomery. The Garrett double was one of few hard-hit balls against Montgomery in the outing.
Montgomery stayed on the attack and didn’t issue his first walk of the night until his 3-2 pitch to Garrett missed outside with one out in the seventh inning. Montgomery made it through six innings on 76 pitches.
He finished his outing having thrown 94 pitches. He hasn’t thrown more than 100 pitches in a start since April 24 at San Francisco.
The Nationals other rund came against relief pitcherd Drew VerHagen (one in the eighth inning) and Jake Woodford (one in the ninth).
Arenado trending well in fan voting
Cardinals third baseman Nolan Arenado remains the club’s top candidate in the fan balloting for National League All-Star selections. If selected, he’d earn his eighth All-Star bid and the fifth by fan election. Heading into the final 48 hours of Phase 1 of fan voting, which ends on Thursday afternoon, Arenado led NL third baseman with 936,057 votes.
The Atlanta Braves’ Austin Riley (832,996) and the LA Dodgers’ Max Muncy (629,180) rounded out the top three.
Arenado added to his resume with a fifth-inning RBI on Tuesday night via a sacrifice fly. He’s now reached the 50-RBI mark for the 10th time in his career. The only season he didn’t collect at least 50 RBIs came in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season. He had 26 RBIs that year.
Cardinals second baseman Nolan Gorman ranked third among NL vote getters at his position with 382,285 votes. He’s trailing the Miami Marlins’ Luis Arraez (1,056,439) and Atlanta’s Ozzie Albies (884,328).
