Nationals make it two straight over Cardinals

ST. LOUIS -- A bad first inning ruined Jaime Garcia's day.

The St. Louis Cardinals lefty was rocked for four runs in the opening frame en route to a 6-1 loss to the Washington Nationals on Saturday. It wasn't much of a consolation prize that he gave up just one hit the rest of his outing.

"I've just got to make better pitches in tough situations," Garcia (1-2) said. "It doesn't matter if it's the first inning or last inning of your game. That's the bottom line."

The Cardinals have dropped the first two games of the weekend series against the NL East leaders, their first series loss to Washington at home since May 25-27, 2007. Mike Leake struggled in the opener, allowing five runs in seven innings.

"It's the first month, we've got a long season to go," Garcia said. "We're all pulling for each other and giving our best, but I definitely think we are going to be better."

It was a forgettable day for St. Louis all around with the offense mustering eight hits, six of them singles, and center fielder Jeremy Hazelbaker committing two of the team's three errors. If the rookie had conceded a run and hit the cutoff man in the first instead of throwing well wide and late to the plate, manager Mike Matheny thought there might have been a chance to escape the first down just 1-0.

"It's been kind of that way," Matheny said. "We've had the big inning just kind of happen, and it's hard to recover from."

Jayson Werth followed Daniel Murphy's RBI single with a three-run home run on a 2-1 changeup, and Joe Ross had another stingy outing for the Nationals.

Ross (3-0) allowed one run on six hits in six innings, raising his ERA to 0.79. He has given up only two runs in 22 2/3 innings and bounced back nicely after skipping a turn because of a blister on his right middle finger.

Brandon Moss said Ross threw a lot more changeups and sliders than he saw on video, which indicated heavy use of a sinker.

"He's got great numbers," Moss said. "You still have to honor the 95 mph sinker. There wasn't a lot of hard contact."

Werth added an RBI single in the eighth, his 10th of the year. Washington goes for a sweep Sunday after raising its record to 8-24 at 11-year-old Busch Stadium.

Opponents had been 2 for 13 with no runs in the first against Garcia before the Nationals jumped on him for four runs on three hits. Garcia worked 6 1/3 innings, striking out six and walking three. He entered the game 4-1 against Washington.

The Cardinals had two hits, a sacrifice bunt and Matt Carpenter's sacrifice fly for a run in the fifth.

Yadier Molina singled and doubled for an 11-game hitting streak and has reached safely in a career-best 18 straight games.

On leave

Pitcher Carlos Martinez was given permission to leave the Cardinals on Friday to attend to a personal matter. Matheny said Martinez would start today's series finale.

Significant

Aledmys Diaz singled in the ninth for his 30th hit in April. Albert Pujols is the only other Cardinals rookie to do it, with 34 hits in 2001.

Slumping

Randal Grichuk struck out pinch hitting in the seventh and is hitless in his last 16 at-bats.

Trainer's room

Nationals catcher Wilson Ramos remained on the bereavement list while in Venezuela following the death of his grandfather.

Up next

Washington right-hander Max Scherzer (2-1, 4.35) is 0-1 with a 3.27 ERA in two career starts in his hometown. St. Louis' Martinez (4-0, 1.93) is among six pitchers in the majors to win the first four starts of the season.