Bullpen woes lead to crushing 8-5 loss to Cardinals

ST. LOUIS - The road to the playoffs took a gloomy turn for the Nationals in the seventh inning of Monday's 8-5 loss to the Cardinals.

"It's a tough one," Nationals manager Matt Williams said three different times after the game.

The Nationals entered the frame trailing by a run and knowing they needed to pull off a win to not lose ground to the first-place Mets, who had already finished off the Phillies earlier in the night.

With the Nats down to their final seven outs, Ryan Zimmerman worked the count to 3-1 and then unloaded on left-hander Kevin Siegrist's changeup, sending a towering three-run homer to center.

Tasked with holding a two-run lead, Casey Janssen took the mound for his seventh-inning role. Mark Reynolds quickly reached on a base knock to left. Brandon Moss then followed with a broken bat weak grounder to Anthony Rendon. With Zimmerman pulled off first, Janssen was a fraction of a second late to cover the bag because of the flying debris, and Moss reached safely with an infield single.

"I flinched and tried to track the ball and then I saw the barrel going and just that little flinch," Janssen said. "It sucks because I take a lot of pride in fielding my position and getting to the bag. That shouldn't happen."

It seemed like no harm would be caused when Janssen coaxed pinch-hitter Greg Garcia into a double play grounder, but then Matt Carpenter drew a dreaded two-out walk.

"Once I got to 2-0, I had two righties on deck and I wasn't going to challenge (Carpenter) right there," Janssen said. "If I could get back in the count somehow and get a little bit more aggressive. But 2-0, I wasn't going to give and 3-0 definitely wasn't. I liked my chances right on right."

Stephen Piscotty and Jhonny Peralta followed with RBI singles and suddenly the game was tied as the Nationals' emotional roller coaster headed off the tracks.

"Had both of those guys with two strikes and threw the pitch I wanted to throw and got the swing I kinda wanted to get and they were just able to barrel it enough to get it to the outfield where we weren't," Janssen said after throwing 26 pitches in the frame, his second-highest total of the season.

Williams called on left-hander Felipe Rivero to get out of the jam, but Jason Heyward drilled a two-run double off the rookie to give St. Louis the lead.

"Trying to make a pitch," Rivero said. "Just didn't happen."

Kolten Wong drove in the Cardinals fifth run of the marathon inning moments later on a sharp liner to right.

The Nationals had a chance to rally in the ninth when Cardinals closer Trevor Rosenthal yielded a leadoff base hit to Jayson Werth. Rendon followed with a single, bringing Bryce Harper to the plate as the tying run with no outs.

Rosenthal's first-pitch changeup bounced in the dirt and Rendon took off for second thinking the ball skipped past Yadier Molina, but Molina quickly located it. Rendon was hung up between first and second, committing a costly out.

"He's just got to keep his head up on that one," Williams said about Rendon's blunder.

Harper eventually walked for the third time on the night, but Zimmerman popped out and pinch-hitter Clint Robinson struck out to end the game.

Zimmerman factored in all five of the Nationals' runs, driving in four and scoring the other. But it was wasted as the Nats fall 6 1/2 games out of the lead in the National League East.

"Well, you can't do anything about today now unless we want to sit here and pout about it," Zimmerman said. "But that's not gonna do us any good. You move on to tomorrow."

Janssen was charged with surrendering four runs in a loss that could have crippling effects on the Nationals' hopes of playing in the postseason.

"Obviously, the situation we're in every game matters," Janssen said. "We've got to win every game we've got the opportunity to win. We had a pretty good opportunity tonight. It stings a little bit more when I'm the one that didn't allow us to let that happen. Gotta regroup and get ready to go tomorrow."