Nationals cruise past sloppy Cardinals 7-0

JUPITER, Fla. -- Ryan Zimmerman belted his second home run of the spring and the Cardinals committed five errors as the Washington Nationals beat St. Louis 7-0 on Saturday.

Kolten Wong had one of those errors and exited the game after bruising his knee, all in a three-run Washington fourth.

"It just felt tight so I started kind of stretching it out," Wong said. "As I was walking through the infield it just kept getting worse."

St. Louis manager Mike Matheny characterized Wong as being day to day and Wong said he might return to the lineup as early as Sunday.

Wong landed directly on his left knee cap while diving after a bouncer hit by Wilson Ramos. The ball scooted off Wong's glove and into right field.

After Chris Heisey's double off the left field wall moved Ramos to third, Danny Espinosa's grounder rolled through Wong's legs, allowing both Ramos and Heisey to score. Wong said the injury did not affect his ability to field the ball.

Zimmerman's blast came earlier in that inning when he drove a 3-2 Mike Leake offering over the left field wall.

St. Louis' defensive struggles continued in the sixth, when back-to-back errors by Ruben Tejada and Matt Carpenter led to three unearned Washington runs.

Washington struck for a run in the top of the first when Michael A. Taylor's ground rule double to left advanced Matt den Dekker to third. Den Dekker scored one batter later when Zimmerman grounded out behind second base.

Tanner Roark pitched with St. Louis runners on base much of the afternoon but kept them from scoring during his five innings, allowing six hits while striking out four.

Despite striking out seven, Leake took his first loss of the spring after allowing four runs on seven hits in five innings.

Stephen Drew struck out three times in the first four innings, the beginning of a 0-for-4 afternoon. He'd struck out only three times during his previous 26 spring at-bats.

All four of the runs charged to Leake were earned, but the outing wouldn't have looked so bad if the Cardinals had made some plays behind him.

"Just an ugly, ugly day," Matheny said. "When we've got a guy we're trying to encourage to get the ball on the ground, when he gets the ball on the ground, we've got to make plays behind him."

St. Louis will be the visiting team when it faces Roger Dean Stadium co-tenant Miami today, with Jaime Garcia drawing the start against Marlins ace Jose Fernandez.

Cardinals 5, Mets 5

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. -- Mets starter Noah Syndergaard continued his outstanding spring, with six solid innings, and New York scored a run in the bottom of the ninth inning to salvage a tie on Friday.

Jeurys Familia allowed four hits -- including a home run to Randal Grichuk, walked two and retired only one batter as the Cardinals scored three in the top of the ninth.

Syndergaard gave up two runs and five hits and struck out nine. Syndergaard has 19 strikeouts and only one walk in four starts this spring.

Matt Adams was 2 for 4 with a double and an RBI and Ruben Tejada, who was released by the Mets last week, had a pair of singles for the Cardinals.

St. Louis starter Michael Wacha allowed eight hits and two runs in 4 2/3 innings.