Nationals 2 - 5 Cardinals
Final
  for this game

Garcia aims to pitch Cards to sweep of Nats

Jun 15, 2014 - 2:47 PM (SportsNetwork.com) - Jaime Garcia tries to remain unbeaten and help the St. Louis Cardinals complete a three-game sweep of the Washington Nationals at Busch Stadium.

Garcia is 3-1 with a 3.29 ERA in five career starts versus Washington. He's coming off a win a week ago at Toronto when he threw seven shutout innings.

Doug Fister, who is 8-3 with a 1.94 ERA in 17 career games (16 starts) against NL teams, counters for Washington. Fister has won five consecutive starts and is unbeaten in his last six appearance since a season-opening loss at Oakland on May 9. The righty tossed seven shutout frames at San Francisco Tuesday. Fister has never faced the Cardinals.

Last night, Matt Adams' solo homer off Stephen Strasburg in the seventh inning produced the go-ahead run in the Cardinals' 4-1 triumph.

"He's got a good fastball," Adams said of Strasburg. "He uses it a lot so I was just looking for a ball middle-in and a little bit elevated and he left it there."

Shelby Miller didn't receive the victory in Saturday's matchup, exiting with the game tied at 1-1 and the bases loaded with two out in the top of the seventh. The young right-hander matched Strasburg nearly pitch-for-pitch, however, holding the Nationals to a run on four hits while fanning seven.

The effort came one day after Lance Lynn yielded just two hits over eight scoreless frames in St. Louis' 1-0 verdict over Washington, with Adams providing the only run with another solo shot.

Randy Choate (1-2) got out of the seventh-inning jam by retiring Denard Span and setting up Adams' latest heroics.

Strasburg (6-5) was dominant for most of the evening, but he and the Nationals faltered during a three-run bottom of the seventh that Adams -- in just his second game back from the disabled list -- began by drilling a fastball on a 3-1 count into the Cardinal bullpen.

"The last three games it just hasn't been there for us," said Nationals manager Matt Williams. "If we know anything we can turn it around in a hurry."

St. Louis and Washington split a four-game set in DC from April 17-20.






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