Nationals dealt devastating blow in walk-off loss

ST. LOUIS - The replay of the walk-off homer he surrendered had stopped playing several minutes before, but Casey Janssen still sat staring blankly at the monitor screen. When the veteran reliever finally made his way to his locker, he stood for the second consecutive night trying to explain how the Nationals let another late lead slip away.

"These are two big losses and I had my hand in both of them," Janssen said.

Janssen took over the in the ninth with the scored tied 5-5 and promptly recorded the first two outs of the frame. Then it fell apart as pinch-hitter Cody Stanley roped a double to left.

Tommy Pham fell behind 0-2, but Janssen lost him, throwing four straight balls.

Moments later, Brandon Moss launched Janssen's cutter deep to center field for a three-run walk-off homer as the Cardinals beat the Nationals 8-5.

"I was trying to go in and I left it up and more middle .... Middle to almost even outside," Janssen said. "It was terrible."

The Nationals knocked out Cardinals rookie Marco Gonzales in the third on a two-run double by Anthony Rendon, an RBI sacrifice fly from Bryce Harper and a solo homer from Ryan Zimmerman.

Bothered by the humidity, which troubled his grip on the ball, rookie Joe Ross yielded three runs on a whopping six walks and one hit before exiting with two outs in third.

Doug Fister, Matt Thornton, Blake Treinen and Felipe Rivero combined to toss 4 1/3 scoreless innings before Drew Storen took over in the eighth.

With the Nats clinging to a 5-3 lead and the chance to pick up a game on the Mets on the table, Storen quickly allowed a leadoff single to Pham. Then with Moss down 1-2, Storen's slider dove inside, striking Moss on the left knee.

"It honestly just moved more than I thought it was going to," Storen said. "It started out where I wanted it to and it just kinda went a little more horizontal. That happens anytime you're gonna try to get that back-foot slider to a lefty. Sometimes it gets in there a little too much."

Then the inning unraveled as pinch-hitter Greg Garcia dropped a bunt to the third base side. Storen hustled off the mound and fielded the ball, firing to third, but Yunel Escobar couldn't grab it. Pham scored easily. As Escobar jogged after the ball, Moss took third with Garcia advancing to second.

It appeared Pham would've slid in safely regardless if the throw was converted.

"It's a judgement call," Storen said on the decision to throw to third. "You see how it comes off the bat and then (Jose Lobaton) is telling me 'three' so you just, at that point, turn and go. Going out to it, like I said, you really count on a catcher and kind of your instinct, too, where you know where you're gonna go. So if you're gonna go, you gotta go three."

Storen was charged with an error on the play.

"I threw it right over the bag," Storen said.

Asked whether he felt Escobar should've caught the ball, Storen replied:

"I don't know. Like I said, I just turned and put it over the bag. I don't know. I didn't try to gun it over there too much. I don't know. I'm not on the other side of that."

After walking Matt Carpenter to load the bases, Storen induced a double play grounder from Stephen Piscotty, but Moss crossed the plate to even the score and set up the Cardinals' dramatics in the ninth.

"It's tough because you run out of time and it's tough because they're frustrating losses," Storen said. "You can't sit around and feel sorry for yourself. You show up tomorrow and get it done."

At a terrible time, the Nationals registered blown saves in back-to-back games for the second time this season, while Janssen suffered losses in consecutive outings for the first time since 2010.

"Well, similar to last night," Janssen said. "One pitch away to the last two guys and couldn't finish them, didn't finish them. Obviously, I would've like to get those guys out. I had the opportunity to be aggressive and didn't get it done."