A Yunel Escobar walk-off, or slide-off, homer lifted the Washington Nationals to a 2-1 win in 10 innings over the St. Louis Cardinals on Tuesday.
Escobar went deep off Cards reliever Carlos Villanueva (1-1) for his second home run of the 2015 season, which he punctuated with a headfirst slide home as his teammates showered him with Gatorade and candy from the dugout.
The Nats had a chance to end it twice in the ninth. Washington led 1-0 entering the ninth, but Matt Carpenter singled to lead things off, advanced to second on a wild pitch by Nationals closer Drew Storen, then got to third when Washington catcher Wilson Ramos had to complete a strikeout of St. Louis hitter Jason Heyward with a throw to first.
Matt Holliday singled to score Carpenter with the tying run before Storen was able to get out of the inning with a strike-‘em-out, throw-‘em-out double play with a K of Jhonny Peralta and a peg to second from Ramos that caught Holliday trying to steal second.
The Nats loaded the bases with one out in the bottom of the ninth, but Ian Desmond struck out for out number two, and Jayson Werth lined to center, where Jon Jay made a diving catch to send the game to extras.
Aaron Barrett (2-0) picked up the win for Washington with a scoreless 10th.
Gio Gonzalez scattered eight hits and four walks in six scoreless innings for the Nats.
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