Ivan Herrera’s second homer sparks eighth-inning swing as Cardinals rally past Nationals 5-3

The afternoon became a home-run ledger

St. Louis set the tone immediately when Ivan Herrera opened the scoring with a first-inning homer to left. Washington answered in the second, Daylen Lile coming home on Jacob Young’s sacrifice fly to center, but the Cardinals nudged back in front in the third when JJ Wetherholt singled to right to score José Fermín. Through three innings, the game had the shape of a tight one: a run here, a clean answer there, neither club pulling away.

The Nationals finally landed the biggest swing of their day in the sixth. CJ Abrams drove a two-run homer to right, Brady House scored ahead of him, and Washington moved in front 3-2. It was a useful summary of the Nationals’ better offensive pieces: House reached three times in a 2-for-2 day with a walk, Lile added two hits, and Abrams supplied the damage. Washington actually finished with more hits than St. Louis, 7-6, and for a moment that looked like the line that would matter most.

It didn’t. The eighth inning rewrote the game in two swings. Herrera launched his second homer, this one to left-center, to tie it 3-3. Then Leo Bernal drove a two-run shot to center with Jordan Walker aboard, flipping the score to 5-3 for good. That sequence distilled the Cardinals’ entire afternoon: not much room for error, not much traffic converted, but enough thunder to cancel out a hit deficit in a hurry. Three homers accounted for all five St. Louis runs.

Strong starting work, then a late split

Jake Irvin deserved better than to have his outing fade into the final score. Washington’s starter gave up only three hits and two runs over 5.1 innings, did not issue a walk, and struck out eight. Outside of Herrera’s first-inning solo shot and the third-inning run that followed José Fermín’s second hit, Irvin kept the Cardinals quiet. Against a lineup that would eventually win on power, that stretch mattered.

Quinn Mathews was less overpowering, but just as important to the result. The Cardinals left-hander worked seven innings, allowed seven hits and three runs, and kept Washington from stacking scoring innings together. The Nationals got their lead on Abrams’ sixth-inning homer, yet Mathews still gave St. Louis the one thing every offense wants in a close game: time. After he departed, Luis Gastelum handled the eighth with two strikeouts, and Riley O’Brien needed only six pitches to finish the ninth.

That contrast in relief work is where the game finally separated. Washington got 1.2 scoreless innings from Will Dion, but the next two bullpen lines were decisive: Erik Tolman allowed Herrera’s tying homer, and Yovanny Cruz surrendered Bernal’s go-ahead shot after also issuing a walk. The Cardinals, meanwhile, closed the final two innings without allowing a baserunner. In a one-run game turned two-run finish, that difference was enormous.

Our take: the loud contact covered St. Louis, and Washington needed one more answer

Our take: Washington can point to several encouraging pieces and still feel the missed opportunity. The Nationals out-hit St. Louis 7-6, got multi-hit games from House and Lile, and received a crisp start from Irvin. But seven hits, two walks and 11 total bases produced only three runs, and all of that scoring came from just two plays after the second inning. Once Abrams put them ahead in the sixth, the offense could not add a cushion before the eighth turned against them. That is less about one missing swing than about a lineup that, on this day, did not build enough separation.

Our take: St. Louis should enjoy the result without pretending it was a fully polished offensive performance. The Cardinals hit .194, struck out eight times and left nine men on base. Yet they also saw 155 pitches, drew two walks, and turned four extra-base hits into the entire game. That combination matters. Herrera’s two homers changed the tone twice, Bernal supplied the biggest blow, and Fermín’s two-hit afternoon helped keep innings alive. If the Cardinals can pair that kind of impact contact with a little more consistency, games like this will feel less dependent on a late rescue.

In the end, this was baseball’s blunt arithmetic. Washington had more hits and, for long stretches, the cleaner path to victory. St. Louis had the louder swings at the exact moments that mattered most. On Sunday, that was enough to turn a 3-2 deficit into a 5-3 Cardinals win.

Scoring moments

1. 1st Inning

   Herrera homered to left (375 feet).

2. 2nd Inning

   Young hit sacrifice fly to center, Lile scored, Ford to second.

3. 3rd Inning

   Wetherholt singled to right, Fermín scored.

4. 6th Inning

   Abrams homered to right (397 feet), House scored.

5. 8th Inning

   Herrera homered to left center (439 feet).

6. 8th Inning

   Bernal homered to center (424 feet), Walker scored.