Juan Soto lost a fly ball in the sun, leading to three runs. Dexter Fowler then robbed Asdrubal Cabrera of a three-run homer. Such was Wednesday for the Washington Nationals.
The Nats lost to the St. Louis Cardinals, 5-1, leaving the door open for the Chicago Cubs and Milwaukee Brewers, both of whom started the day a game and a half back in the NL wild-card race, to make up more ground.
Max Scherzer (10-7, 2.81 ERA) had a rough-looking line, charged with five runs on seven hits in six and two-thirds innings.
But three of the runs came after Soto lost a two-out fly ball off the bat of Paul DeJong in the sun. Ruled a double, because Soto didn’t touch the ball on its way down, the play opened the floodgates for the Cardinals.
Paul Edman followed with an RBI single, and then former Nat Matt Wieters hit a pinch-hit two-run homer to chase Scherzer.
Adam Wainwright 13-9, 3.83 ERA) gave up a run on eight hits in seven innings.
Washington heads next to Miami for a three-game weekend series with the Marlins that starts on Friday.
The Nationals have won 13 of the 16 games they have played against the Marlins in 2019.
Anibal Sanchez (9-8, 3.86 ERA) faces Miami righty Robert Dugger (0-2, 3.95 ERA) in the opener.
Story by Chris Graham
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