Nationals increase lead
WASHINGTON - Edwin Jackson had the St. Louis Cardinals swinging at pitches in the dirt, so often that catcher Jesus Flores ended up with three assists throwing the ball to first after strikeouts.
Jackson fanned 10 in eight stellar innings Thursday as the Washington Nationals padded their National League East lead with an 8-1 victory over the punchless Cardinals.
"That was a gem," Washington manager Davey Johnson said. "He had electric stuff."
Bryce Harper hit his third home run in two games, and Jayson Werth homered for the first time since May for the Nationals, who opened an 11-game homestand with an overwhelming performance against a wild-card contender that failed to score an earned run for the third straight game.
The win moved the Nationals 5½ games ahead of the idle Atlanta Braves. Washington has come out of a recent funk with 16 runs in two games, led by the top-of-the-order tandem of Werth and Harper.
A day after his first two-homer game, Harper hit a drive so hard that it short-hopped the back wall of the Nationals bullpen and bounced back over the right-field fence. It was a two-run shot in the first inning, and the Las Vegan followed by hitting a ball even farther in the third - only to have it caught on the warning track in straightaway center field.
Harper added an RBI single in the sixth, further evidence that he's fully emerged from a post All-Star Game slump.
"Bryce is a totally different animal," Werth said. "He's a special player. He's 19. It's unbelievable. When I was 19, I don't know if I would have been ready for all this."
As for Werth, he led off three innings and scored each time. He walked and singled, then hit his first homer since returning Aug. 2 from a long stint on the disabled list with a broken wrist.
The way Jackson (8-9) was pitching, the Nationals didn't need all that offense. Once Flores realized the Cardinals hitters were fishing for the slider, he kept calling it - even if it meant adding another 2-3 putout to the scorebook.
"It definitely lets you know either they're trying to get you, or either they're just not seeing that pitch that well," Jackson said. "Either way, you just want to try to continue to throw it and keep it out of the zone if they swing."
