More on Saturday's agonizing loss in St. Louis

ST. LOUIS - The focus of Saturday night's 2-1 loss to the Cardinals wound up being the final at-bat of the game, when Adrian Sanchez was rung up by Manny Gonzalez on a 3-2 pitch outside the strike zone to strand the bases loaded. But there's more worth dissecting from the game, so let's take a look back at some other developments ...

* Gio Gonzalez pitched the best game of his season. Which is saying something, given how well the left-hander has pitched all season.

Gonzalez was as sharp as we've seen him be in 2017, getting ahead of hitters, putting hitters away and inducing weak contact.

Even when he has been highly successful this year, Gonzalez regularly has been forced to pitch his way out of jams. But on Saturday, he rarely even found himself in those situations, with the Cardinals taking only two at-bats against him with runners in scoring position.

Gonzalez struck out eight and let only four balls leave the infield: the two singles he surrendered, plus two flyouts.

"I think it was just mixing the pitches, attacking the strike zone, being more consistent," he said. "There were times I was behind (in the count); again, that's credit to my catcher. He called a good game, and I was on the same page as him. Obviously, the defense kept me in the game as long as possible. They made great plays that, if they get through, change the whole game."

We'll get to those defensive gems in a moment, but just to wrap things up on Gonzalez: He finishes the first half of the season 7-3 with a 2.77 ERA, perhaps good enough to earn a trip home to Miami for the All-Star Game. His case would be even stronger had he simply received some more run support, or had the Nationals bullpen held onto a couple of leads earlier in the season.

Gonzalez, like everyone else, will find out this evening whether he got the nod for the Midsummer Classic.

* Anthony Rendon also will find out this evening whether he has made the All-Star team. And like Gonzalez, he used his final game before the announcement to bolster what already was a strong case.

Rendon went 2-for-4 with a double, briefly raising his batting average to .300 before it fell back to .298 at night's end. He also made three impressive plays at third base, none better than his first-inning tumble into the stands to snag Tommy Pham's foul popup.

Rendon covered plenty of ground to get there, then fell all the way into the front row of the stands, with Stephen Drew nearly landing on top of him. Somehow he emerged with the ball still in his glove.

"Oh man, that was outstanding," manager Dusty Baker said. "And he hurt something in his leg on the tarp. And then Drew twisted his ankle on the tarp. You could see how Anthony was limping around after that. I guess it subsided, because he was running around better in the game. But that was an outstanding catch. Anthony's one of the best in the game, especially at his position and going back on balls, like he exhibited today."

* Sammy Solís made his return from a two-month stint on the disabled list. And, as has been the case for too many of his bullpen mates this season, his appearance included yet another home run.

Rookie Alex Mejia clobbered Solís' very first pitch to left field for his first career homer, a solo shot in the bottom of the eighth that ultimately proved the difference in the 2-1 game. It was the 39th home run allowed by the Nationals bullpen in 81 games this season. For comparison's sake, last year's bullpen allowed 48 homers in 162 games.

Solís rebounded from the home run to retired three of the other four batters he faced, pitching around Randal Grichuk's two-out double.

"It surprised all of us," Baker said of the homer. "And then it didn't seem to bother him. The damage was already done, so he settled down and he threw the ball well."

* The Nationals reached the official halfway point of the season on something of a down note, having lost three straight and five of their last seven. Before this downturn, they were on pace to win 99 games by season's end. Now they're on pace to win 94.

"They're playing hard," Baker said. "That's all I can ask them, to play hard. And I know the second half, we're going to slowly but surely get our bullpen back together. Hopefully we have (Shawn) Kelley and Koda (Glover) here going into the second half. We've got to make a run here before this first half (ends) and start another one after the (All-Star break)."