Cardinals pound four homers, even series

ST. LOUIS – Three hits and an excruciating loss one day, double-digit runs and a laugher the next. The St. Louis Cardinals have been that type of team all season.

The defending World Series champions tied their National League Division Series with Washington at one game apiece by doing what they do best – forgetting about what happened the day before and concentrating on the game at hand.

They lost the division series and National League Championship Series openers last year, and look how that turned out.

Carlos Beltran hit the last two of the Cardinals' four home runs, and St. Louis chased Jordan Zimmermann early in a 12-4 rout of the Nationals on Monday.

"We know this offense has the potential to do this," Cardinals rookie manager Mike Matheny said. "It was nice to see this, and hopefully it becomes contagious and the guys just keep going."

Daniel Descalso (UC Davis) and Allen Craig also went deep to help the Cardinals build a big lead that compensated for a two-inning start from an ailing Jaime Garcia. Craig hit his fifth career postseason homer and scored three runs.

"If we get things going, we feel like we can carry the team," Craig said. "We put a lot of good swings on the ball and really drove the ball. It was a lot of fun."

Ryan Zimmerman and Adam LaRoche hit consecutive homers in the fifth for the Nationals, who head home for the remainder of the best-of-five series.

Garcia was removed with a shoulder injury and sent for an MRI. The left-hander missed two months this season with shoulder fatigue.

"It just wasn't right the whole time. I had to come out of the game," Garcia said. "I don't know how it happened. I don't know when it happened. I'm just hoping it's not too bad."

Game 3 is Wednesday at Nationals Park, the first postseason contest in the nation's capital since the original Senators played the New York Giants in the 1933 World Series.

"We knew how big this game was for us," Cardinals center fielder Jon Jay said. "We've seen it all year. When we are able to do that, we are pretty dangerous."

After the Nationals rallied late to win the opener 3-2, there were no lineup changes for St. Louis in Game 2 – just more clutch hitting from players accustomed to October pressure.

Beltran homered twice in the postseason for the third time in his career, connecting in the sixth off Mike Gonzalez and in the eighth off Sean Burnett. Jay had two hits and three RBIs, plus an outstanding catch at the center-field wall to deprive Danny Espinosa of extra bases in the sixth.

"One of the best catches I've seen. It's his best catch of the year," Matheny said. "He barely looked up as he was hitting the wall. Very impressive."

Descalso hit his first postseason homer in the fourth.

• Read more articles by R.B. Fallstrom

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