Casey Janssen coughed up a seventh-inning lead, sending Washington to a crushing 8-5 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals in a series opener at Busch Stadium Monday night.
The Nats (66-64) lost a game in the National League East standings to the first-place New York Mets (73-58), who defeated Philadelphia 3-1 on Monday to go up six and a half games on Washington.
Janssen (1-3, 4.18 ERA) came in with the Nationals up 5-3 in the seventh. The Cardinals got RBI singles from Stephen Piscotty and Jhonny Peralta off Janssen, and then Jayson Heyward hit a two-run double off Felipe Rivera, and Kolten Wong added a run-scoring single, to go up 8-5.
Gio Gonzalez gave up three runs on five hits in six innings on the mound for the Nats, who wasted a big night at the plate from Ryan Zimmerman, who hit his 13th homer and knocked in four runs on the night.
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