Paul Goldschmidt’s walk-off homer gives the Cardinals a 4-3 victory over the Nationals

“I was just trying to get on base,” Goldschmidt said. “There’s been a lot of times this year, more often than not, where I didn’t get through the ninth or extra innings. So I’m just thankful that I was able to get the job done today.”

It was the Cardinals’ second walk-off win of the season and their first since Nolan Gorman hit a home run against Arizona on April 22.

“I called the walk-off homer,” Cardinals catcher Willson Contreras said. “We needed it. He needed it. Everybody needs it. It was just a good game. We fought, tough innings, but we never gave up.”

John King, Andrew Kittredge and Ryan Helsley (4-2) combined to throw three innings of scoreless relief. Starter Miles Mikolas allowed three runs on seven hits in six innings.

“You try to make a push at this point of the year,” Mikolas said. “It was a big spot for me to come here, keep it close, give us a chance. We played great defense.”

Rookie Washington starter DJ Herz allowed two runs on three hits and struck out eight in five innings.

“He didn’t rely on his offspeed stuff,” Nationals manager Dave Martinez said. “He came out ahead and stuck with the fastball, which was good. Our reports were to try to get the ball to some of those guys, and he did a great job.”

Contreras hit a home run for the Cardinals on the first pitch he saw from Herz in the first inning, his 13th of the season. It was Contreras’ fifth home run in his last eight games against Washington.

Michael Siani hit an RBI single that deviated from the glove from Nationals shortstop CJ Abrams in the seventh inning, tying the score at 3-3.

“The two-out walks hurt us today,” Martinez said. “Overall, I can’t really be disappointed because we’ve played really well this series against a really good team. We just have to come back tomorrow and go 1-0.”

James Wood tripled to right in the sixth inning and scored on a Juan Yepez sacrifice fly to right, giving Washington a 3-2 lead.

Lane Thomas drove in Jacob Young’s second double of the game to tie the score at 2-2 in the third inning.

Pedro Pagés hit a triple to right-center field to give St. Louis a 2-0 lead in the second period and extend its 13-game winning streak.

Nationals: OF Jesse Winker was traded to the New York Mets for minor league RHP Tyler Stuart. OF Alex Call was recalled from Triple-A Rochester.

Cardinals: RHP Kyle Leahy recalled from Triple-A Memphis and RHP Giovanny Gallegos assigned to new assignment.

Cardinals: LHP Steven Matz (lower back injury) will throw up to two innings and 40 pitches when he begins a minor league rehab assignment Thursday.

Nationals: LHP Mitchell Parker (5-6, 4.34 ERA) faces Diamondbacks LHP (7-5, 6.11 ERA) in the opener of a three-game series against Arizona on Monday night.

Cardinals: RHP Andre Pallante (4-4, 3.92 ERA) faces RHP Nathan Eovaldi (7-4, 3.31 ERA) in the first game of a three-game series against the visiting Texas Rangers on Monday night.

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB