WASHINGTON _ The expected pitching duel between an established ace from Missouri and a young, rising talent representing Missouri took an inning to get going. Both Washington starter Max Scherzer and Cardinals counter Jack Flaherty had unsteady first innings that scarred the scoreboard with three runs.
And then the zeroes started flowing.
Scherzer struck out 11 and pitched seven strong innings, but that wasn't enough for the Nationals to overcome the Cardinals. Flaherty gave them five innings and the bullpen handled the rest. The relievers got a two-run lead as far as the ninth inning before Bryce Harper tagged a 3-1 pitch from closer Bud Norris for a home run that tied the game, 3-3.
The Nats would win it, 4-3, in the 10th.
A blown save nearly became a blown game as the Nationals loaded the bases with two outs in the ninth inning. Chasen Shreve struck out Matt Wieters to end the inning and send the game into extra innings, the Cardinals second game in less than 24 hours to need more than nine.
Having tied the game with a homer, Harper won it in the 10th inning with a sacrifice fly. Harper's RBI flyout against Shreve made a winner of Greg Holland, the reliever the Cardinals paid $14 million to be their closer before releasing him during the bullpen purge of July. Harper skied a fly ball to left field that scored pinch-runner Michael Taylor for the walk-off win.
To build the Cardinals' 3-1 lead, Yairo Munoz, starting in right field, had three hits, including a home run off Scherzer in the sixth inning to widen the lead against the right-hander.
For most of Flaherty's outing the Cardinald didn't have a lead greater than two runs. The right-hander was tested in the first inning by three walks that loaded the bases. He was able to get a slider past Wilmer Difo to strike out the final batter and shimmy free of the trouble. That became a trend. If he tiptoed into trouble, a strikeout was his escape. In the third inning, a hit batter and a stolen base got the tying run into scoring position. Flaherty elevated a fastball against fellow rook Juan Soto to end the inning.
Flaherty walked Soto, intentionally, in the fifth inning to get more favorable matchup against Ryan Zimmerman.
The veteran obliged by chasing after a 3-1 slider with the bases loaded.
Zimmerman then flew out to left to end the inning.
The Cardinals opened a 2-0 lead in the first inning thanks to a balk from Scherzer. Munoz singled, and former Nats teammate Matt Adams followed with a walk. With Munoz at second, Scherzer took a peak behind him and fouled up his delivery drawing the balk call. The next batter, Paul DeJong, laced a two-run, two-out single for the lead.
Munoz's seventh homer of the season put the score at 3-1 in the sixth.
For Scherzer, the 11 strikeouts meant the 15th time this season he's had at least 10 strikeouts in a game, and it was the 79th time the Mizzou alum had at least 10 strikeouts in a single game in his career.
For the Cardinals, the catch was using the expanded rosters and personnel in the bullpen to get the final 12 outs. John Brebbia retired all three batters he faced on strikeouts. Carlos Martinez rumbled into trouble with two walks, and then was able to retire the middle of the Nats' order to hold the lead. Jordan Hicks got through the eighth.
