Cardinals pile up early runs off Gonzalez (Nats lose 9-4)

As he walked off the mound following a dominant top of the first, having struck out all three batters he faced on 15 pitches, Gio Gonzalez had the look of a pitcher primed for a big night.

As he walked off the same mound following a disastrous top of the second, having allowed four runs on 40 pitches, Gonzalez had the look of a pitcher primed for a long night.

Suffice it to say that things escalated quickly here at Nationals Park, where the Cardinals lead 5-2. The Cardinals rocked Gonzalez during that unsightly second inning, taking advantage of two walks and some effective two-strike swings to take an early lead.

Three times in the inning, Gonzalez had two outs and two strikes on an opposing batter. And each time, he failed to put him away. He walked Jedd Gyorko with a full count, then surrendered an RBI single to Greg Garcia on a 2-2 count, then (after giving up a two-run double to Adam Wainwright on a first-pitch fastball) allowed another run-scoring double to Matt Carpenter on a 2-2 pitch.

That completed a four-run inning for the Cardinals, who added another in the top of the third when Matt Holliday crushed an 0-1 fastball into the left field bullpen.

All of this came after Gonzalez struck out the side in the top of the first, getting Carpenter and Aledmys Diaz on curveballs and Holliday on a fastball.

The Nationals are trying to keep this game close, with Ryan Zimmerman's opposite-field homer in the bottom of the second accounting for two runs. That blast, Zimmerman's seventh of the season, came moments after Daniel Murphy blooped a single into shallow right field for his 41st hit of May.

That hit by Murphy established a new Nationals club record for hits in a single month, held previously by Denard Span. Murphy still has another 3 1/2 games to try to add to his record.

Update: Gonzalez couldn't make it through the fifth inning. After surrendering yet another two-out, two-strike, run-scoring hit (this time an RBI single by Randal Grichuk), the left-hander's night was over. The Cardinals lead 6-2 in the fifth, and Gonzalez's ERA has ballooned in the last five days from 1.86 to 3.57.

Update II: Bryce Harper brought the crowd back to life a bit in the bottom of the sixth, crushing a 1-1 fastball from Wainwright to straightaway center field, off the grass batter's eye. That's Harper's 13th homer of the season, his second of this series. And it has trimmed the defict to 6-3 as this game heads to the seventh.

Update III: Make it 6-4 after Zimmerman homered for the second time tonight off Wainwright. This one was a line shot to left-center in the top of the seventh. The Nats had the tying run at the plate when Dusty Baker pinch-hit Wilson Ramos for Jose Lobaton. But Ramos grounded into a 6-4-3 double play, so the deficit remains two runs heading to the eighth.

Update IV: Just when you thought the Nats might claw their way back into this one, the deficit is back to four runs. That's because after summoning Sammy Solis to face Matt Adams with two on in the top of the eighth, Baker watched as the lefty-lefty matchup backfired. Adams lined a two-run double to right, and so it's now 8-4 Cardinals after eight, the Nats needing something miraculous now to come back.

Update V: It's over. Nats lose 9-4 after Shawn Kelley allowed a run in the top of the ninth. They've dropped two straight and need to win tomorrow afternoon to salvage a four-game split with St. Louis.