NATIONALS 101

Jayson Werth and Bryce Harper combined for four hits and 5 RBI, while Edwin Jackson shutdown his former team as the Washington Nationals beat the St. Louis Cardinals 8-1 Thursday night at Nationals Park.

The Nationals got it started in the first when Jayson Werth lead the game of with a walk. Bryce Harper during the next at-bat hit a screaming line drive into the bullpen, his 15th homer on the year, for a 2-0 Nationals lead. Werth would score again in the third. 

After reaching on a single, Werth went to second on a Ryan Zimmerman infield single and advanced to third on a walk. Werth then scored on an Adam LaRoche sacrifice fly to increase the Nationals (79-51) lead to three. In the fifth, Werth led off with his fourth homer of the season increasing the Nationals lead to 4-0.

Danny Espinosa scored on Jayson Werth's grounder to short in the bottom half of the sixth inning. Harper again followed Werth with a RBI single increasing the lead to 6-0. That would end Cardinals starter Jaime Garcia's night. Garcia (3-6) finished with six runs against him on nine hits in five and a third innings.

Catcher Jesus Flores had a bases loaded single that scored Michael Morse and Adam LaRoche which made it 8-0 Nationals.

Jackson (8-9) cruised through eight innings, striking out 10 Cardinals and only giving up one run on four hits. Jackson struck out seven in the first three innings, retiring his first five Cardinals batters via the strike out. The only run scored on Jackson was a result from an error by Ryan Zimmerman. With catcher Bryan Anderson on second, Zimmerman fielded a hard hit ball to third. Zimmerman over threw LaRoche at first as the ball went into the stands, Anderson scored.

Mike Gonzalez pitched a perfect ninth to secure the win for Washington, their second in a row.   

Notes: Cardinals shortstop Rafael Furcal left the game in the sixth inning with an elbow injury. Friday's game should be a good one as Gio Gonzalez goes against Adam Wainwright in the second game of the series.

PHOTO CREDIT: Jordan Suskind, 2012

Tags: Baseball, Bryce Harper, Edwin Jackson, Jayson Werth, MLB, Washington, Washington Nationals

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