Ross pitches Nats to victory
ST. LOUIS — Jayson Werth is finding his stroke for a team that wrapped up a big first month.
Werth’s three- run home run capped a four-run first inning and Joe Ross had another stingy outing for the Washington Nationals in a 6-1 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals on Saturday.
“The way things have been going, I feel like I can’t just catch a break,” Werth said. “I think it got us going, it got me going. Hopefully I can build on that and we can get this thing rolling.”
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 middle finger.
“I felt good, I felt pretty strong,” Ross said. “There wasn’t really like an inning or two of trying to settle in, so I think the time off, I guess, paid off for me.”
Manager Dusty Baker said he just kept an eye on the right-hander.
“He got out of trouble a couple times and made some pitches when he had to,” Baker said. “He wasn’t on a pitch limit, he was kind of on a performance limit.”
Werth added an RBI single in
the eighth, his fifth in the first two games of a weekend series and 10th of the year, and raised his batting average to .211. With the victory, Washington clinched its first series win in St. Louis since May 25-27, 2007. It goes for a sweep today after raising its record to 824 at 11-year-old Busch Stadium.
The NL East leaders are 16- 7, their best start since moving from Montreal in 2005.
“You can’t win anything in April, but you can lose it,” Werth said. “We’ve got great chemistry.”
Opponents had been 2 for 13 with no runs in the first against Jaime Garcia (1-2) before the Nationals jumped on the lefty for four runs on three hits. Daniel Murphy had an RBI single before Werth hit his fourth over the left-
field wall on a 2-1 changeup.
“I thought it stayed too much in the middle of the plate,” Garcia said. “I’ve just got to make a better pitch there.”
The Cardinals had two hits, a sacrifice bunt and Matt Carpenter’s sacrifice fly for a run in the fifth.
Garcia gave up only one more hit before leaving after 6 1- 3 innings, striking out six and walking three. He entered the game 4- 1 against Washington.
“My job is to keep us in the ballgame and give us a chance to win,” Garcia said. “I didn’t get the job done.”
Yadier Molina singled and doubled for an 11-game hitting streak and has reached safely in a career-best 18 straight games.