St. Louis Cardinals manager Mike Shildt changed his lineup after arriving at Nationals Park, dropping catcher Yadier Molina from second to sixth.
Molina responded with a grand slam, Marcell Ozuna homered twice and the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Washington Nationals 11-8 on Tuesday night.
Molina's sixth career grand slam provided a cushion for St. Louis, making it 11-5 with two outs in the ninth.
The Cardinals, who occupy the second NL wild card spot, hit five homers overall as they stopped a three-game skid.
Right fielder Yairo Munoz robbed Ryan Zimmerman of a three-run homer in the bottom of the ninth, reaching over the fence and pulling it back into the field of play for a two-run double.
Tyson Ross (8-9) pitched 1 1/3 innings for the win and Jordan Hicks got the final out for his sixth save in 11 chances.
Ozuna and Paul DeJong homered leading off the sixth inning to break a 4-4 tie, and one out later, Patrick Wisdom went deep to make it 7-4.
Making his second major league appearance, reliever Austen Williams (0-1) gave up all three of those homers. He allowed none in 68 innings this season in Double-A and Triple-A.
The 4-hour, 10-minute game included 16 walks and 20 strikeouts. St. Louis pitchers walked 11.
Wilmer Difo homered and Bryce Harper had a double and three walks in five plate appearances for the Nationals, who fell one game below .500 after relievers Williams and Solis combined to give up seven runs.
Ozuna led off the second with his 17th homer, and Matt Carpenter capped the inning with a two-run single that made it 4-0.
Washington rallied in the fifth when Zimmerman led off with a grounder to second that second baseman Munoz misplayed for an error. Harper later drove in two with his bases-loaded double, and Trea Turner and Juan Soto drew bases-loaded walks.
Erick Fedde allowed four runs in five innings. John Gant of St. Louis allowed three unearned runs in 4 1/3 innings.
Up next for the Cardinals RHP Miles Mikolas (13-4, 2.96 ERA), who was originally listed as Tuesday's starter, will instead go in Wednesday's finale. He gave up four runs in seven innings to Washington on Aug. 13.
