Everything was in readiness for a celebration.
It was the first time in Cardinals righthander Adam Wainwright’s career that ball one, the result of his first pitch to Washington's Trea Turner, merited a standing ovation. And it wound up that Wainwright would be leading the cheers.
Wednesday’s game was stopped as the Busch Stadium fans, besides players and coaches, gave Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina a standing ovation on the occasion of his becoming the first player to catch in 2,000 games for only one team. Molina saluted the fans and the two teams—the Cardinals were out front of the dugout—and then wanted to return to action.
But Wainwright was not, standing well behind the mound and waving his arms wildly, imploring the fans for more. For all the times Molina has stood in front of home plate to properly honor (in his mind) a prominent former Cardinal when he came to bat, Wainwright was going to make Molina wait this time.
It was the best part of the day.
Washington went on to wrap up a series victory and the Cardinals, amid another day of loose defense in the outfield, wrapped up a losing home stand at 2-4 by falling to Joe Ross and the Nationals 6-0. In their four losses, the Cardinals were outscored by 29-10, rather negating the 14-3 win they exulted in on Tuesday.
Molina, who had homered in Monday's series opener, singled in his first at-bat Wednesday to extend his hitting streak to 10 games. But, with two runners on in the first, Matt Carpenter grounded hard into the Washington shift to end the inning. Molina later flied to center, struck out with a man at second in the sixth and flied to left.
Nationals manager Davey Martinez’s strategy of hitting the pitcher eighth blew up in his face in the second inning. After a missed diving attempt by center fielder Lane Thomas—his second such misfire in as many starts in center--turned Starlin Castro’s single into a double, the Nationals had runners at second and third with one out and catcher Yan Gomes at bat ahead of Joe Ross.
Cardinals manager Mike Shildt quickly waved ball four and Rose, just as quickly, fell behind 0-2 and then futilely bunted foul on the third strike. Center fielder Victor Robles, batting ninth, narrowly missed a bases-clearing double to right before Wainwright fanned Robles on a cutter that bore in on the hitter.
But the Nationals took a 2-0 lead in the third. Juan Soto beat out an infield single to the shortstop area where third baseman Nolan Arenado had been shifted. Arenado bobbled the ball but really.
Ryan Zimmerman then homered off a full-count pitch to deep left center, the ball hitting off the concrete atop the wall as Thomas leaped against the wall but did not extend his glove over the wall.
Another misplay by Thomas helped the Nationals to two more runs in the fifth although one was earned.
Trea Turner stroked a double to right and was held at third on Soto’s single to center. But a charging Thomas let the ball go under his glove and by the time Thomas had recovered and thrown to third base, Turner had scored and Soto had slid safely into third.
Wainwright almost was out of the inning at 3-0 as he retired Zimmerman on a short fly to right fielder Tommy Edman and fanned Kyle Schwarber for his seventh strikeout. But Josh Harrison, who had six hits and two walks in the series, singled up the middle through a shift and Soto scored.
That was it for Wainwright, who yielded to pinch hitter John Nogowski after Edmundo Sosa had singled with one out in the Cardinals’ fifth. But rookie Nogowski, struggling with his pinch hitting assignments, bounced into an inning-ending double play and is one for eight for the season.
Jordan Hicks, after allowing an opposite-field single to the light-hitting Ross in the sixth, walked two hitters and the Nationals scored their fifth run on a forceout grounder. Hicks, who started the inning throwing at 96 mph, gradually got into his accustomed triple digits with his last several pitches.
The Cardinals took their final shot at a big inning in the seventh when they loaded the bases on two walks and a hit batter but Edman popped up.
Besides Hicks, Giovanny Gallegos and Alex Reyes also pitched for the Cardinals, probably becoming the first trio of closers to pitch in a shutout loss. Gallegos was assessed a run in the eighth when a catchable fly ball dropped between shortstop Sosa and left fielder Austin Dean.
