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After Ramon Ortiz nearly pitched the majors' first no-hitter in more than two years in their last outing, the Washington Nationals look to extend their winning streak to a season high-tying six games when they continue their series with the first-place St. Louis Cardinals on Tuesday. Ortiz didn't allow a hit to St. Louis (73-63) through eight innings Monday before Aaron Miles led off the ninth with a clean single. After getting Chris Duncan to line into a double play, Ortiz gave up Albert Pujols ' 43rd homer of the season and was taken out of the game by manager Frank Robinson . Chad Cordero came on to strike out Scott Rolen and secure the 4-1 victory, Washington's fifth straight. The Nationals (60-77) won a season-best six in a row from July 21-27. ''I wanted him to leave with a good feeling,'' Robinson said. ''I wanted him to enjoy the moment.''Ortiz also hit his first career homer in the eighth inning.''When I see that ball's a homer, I say, 'Yes!' It's unbelievable. I can't sleep tonight,'' Ortiz said. ''I can't wait to go to my house to watch the TV and watch how hard we hit the ball. ''It was an unbelievable game today. We had everything today. We hit a home run and we throw a good game.''Monday's loss was just the third in 10 games for the NL Central-leading Cardinals.''You just have to give credit to Ortiz,'' St. Louis manager Tony La Russa said. ''He was better. He looked good the whole time. If you took strike one, he just got nastier and nastier.'' Washington will look to the struggling Pedro Astacio (3-4, 6.12 ERA) to keep things rolling on Tuesday. The right-hander is 0-2 with a 13.94 ERA over his last three outings and has posted a 7.03 ERA while winning just once in his previous six starts. Astacio has combined to pitch only 10 1-3 innings in his last three appearances.''It's crippling,'' Robinson said. ''It just tears your bullpen up.''Astacio is 7-12 with a 5.12 ERA in 25 games - including 22 starts - against St. Louis, but has not faced the Cardinals since April 30, 2003, when he was with the New York Mets . Pujols, who homered three times against Pittsburgh on Sunday, is 4-for-11 (.364) with three home runs and seven RBIs against Astacio. St. Louis will counter with Jeff Suppan (10-7, 4.61), who will be looking to continue his solid pitching. The right-hander has given up one run over his last two starts, a span of 14 2-3 innings. ''I think you have quicker innings, I think you have a better rhythm,'' said Suppan, who is 42-26 with a 4.07 ERA in 89 starts since joining St. Louis in 2004. ''I think when you're pitching well, you can feel it.'' He pitched well against the Nationals on April 30, when he allowed two runs and five hits over six innings of a 9-2 victory to improve to 2-2 with a 3.68 ERA in seven career starts against them. Suppan has been able to handle Washington's slugging tandem of Austin Kearns and Alfonso Soriano , who have combined to hit 66 home runs this season. Kearns is hitless with two strikeouts in five career at-bats and Soriano is 4-for-19 (.211) with five strikeouts against Suppan.
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Topic: Gameday Thread: Nationals vs Cardinals, Game 2 (L) (Read 45148 times)
