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Zimmerman, Nationals complete series sweep of reeling Cardinals

Aug 6, 2007 - 12:04 AM By Tim Hipps PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

WASHINGTON (Ticker) -- The surging Washington Nationals and world champion St. Louis Cardinals are headed in opposite directions.

Ryan Zimmerman delivered a go-ahead RBI single in the eighth inning and Dmitri Young followed with a two-run double to lift the Nationals to a 6-3 victory over the Cardinals on Sunday.

Zimmerman and Young each had three hits for Washington, which completed a three-game series sweep and is riding a season-high six-game winning streak.

"I expected even better things than this," Nationals manager Manny Acta said. "We've got two months to go, and the guys are playing good baseball. I want to play above .500."

Conversely, the Cardinals are mired in a five-game skid, which matches their longest drought of the season.

"We had a shot, but they did everything better than we did for three days," La Russa said. "One game they did it a lot better, and two days better, so they won three games."

The Nationals made the play of the game to stymie a potential Cardinals rally in the eighth inning.

After Jim Edmonds doubled and Chris Duncan drew a one-out walk off Nationals reliever Luis Ayala, lefthander Ray King (1-0) took the mound and started a 1-4-3 double play on a hot comebacker off the bat of pinch-hitter Yadier Molina.

"It went in my glove," said King, a one-pitch star of the game. "I'm not going to say I caught it. It went in my glove."

Washington carried that momentum into the bottom of the frame, when they rallied for three runs against St. Louis reliever Ryan Franklin (4-2).

Nook Logan led off with a bunt single, advanced to second on Robert Fick's sacrifice and stole third after D'Angelo Jimenez. Franklin struck out Ronnie Belliard for the second out but could not get past Zimmerman, who plated Logan with a single to left field.

"He challenged me," Zimmerman said. "I kept fouling them off. He made a pretty good pitch. I hit it off the end of the bat and put it in the right place."

Franklin was reluctant to tip his cap to Zimmerman.

"It was a hit, but just like last game, he didn't hit it hard - just got lucky and hit it in the right spot, that's all," said a dejected Franklin, who allowed a walkoff single by Zimmerman to end Friday's 3-2 decision. "A bunt. Broken bat. They're up. That's it."

Acta gave Zimmerman more credit.

"It was a tremendous at-bat," Acta said. "Once he fell behind, he wasn't trying to hit a home run. He was trying to make contact - trying to get a base hit. He's locked in right now."

Young followed with a long double to left-center field to make it 6-3.

"With Zimmerman up, you have all the confidence in the world," Young said. "He's so doggone good, it's ridiculous. Future greatness - that's all I can say about Ryan Zimmerman. He's a student of the game. He's got all kinds of confidence. He's only going to get better."

St. Louis forged a 3-3 tie in the fifth on a single by Albert Pujols and an RBI double to right by Jim Edmonds. The Cardinals, however, lost manager Tony La Russa for coming out of the dugout to argue a called third strike on Ryan Ludwick for the second out of the inning.

It was the second confrontation of the game between La Russa and first base umpire Mark Wegner, who ejected him. La Russa came onto the field in the fourth inning to support Pujols, who was arguing Wegner's call on an infield hit by Zimmerman.

The Nationals manufactured two runs in the third. Zimmerman doubled to the gap in left-center and scored on Young's RBI double to virtually the same spot.

After Ryan Church drew an intentional walk and Cardinals starter Adam Wainwright plunked Jesus Flores, Logan gave the Nationals a 3-1 lead with a broken-bat, RBI infield single that scored Church.

"I gave up three runs, and two of them are really tough for me to take right now because I actually made good pitches," Wainwright said. "It was just the guys that got on base before that where I got myself into trouble.

"You can look at Logan's ball where he hits it to short and beats it out - he's faster than Carl Lewis. But I think it's how the other guys got on base because I made a good pitch to him."

Wainwright had a solo homer and pitched seven innings, allowing three runs and eight hits with three strikeouts and seven walks.

"I'm not really disappointed a whole lot," he said. "I could've done a better job, but I felt some of those guys got on base when they shouldn't have. I left it all out there."

Wainwright's second career homer pulled the Cardinals to 3-2 in the fourth inning.

Ludwick's eighth homer of the season gave St. Louis a 1-0 lead in the second inning. Pujols and Edmonds each had two hits for St. Louis.