Jack Flaherty won a fourth straight start for the first time in two years, and the St. Louis Cardinals beat Washington 8-4 on Sunday to open the second half by taking two of three from the Nationals.
Paul Goldschmidt hit a two-run homer and Nolan Gorman had three hits and two RBIs for St. Louis.
Flaherty (7-5) allowed three runs, three hits and three walks in six innings with seven strikeouts. He had not won four starts in a row since an 8-0 stretch from April 7 to May 19, 2021.
Keibert Ruiz homered in the second, ending Flaherty’s 13 2/3 innings scoreless streak.
Run-scoring singles by Andrew Knizner, Brendan Donovan and Lars Nootbaar in the fourth built a 3-1 lead for St. Louis, which had gone 0 for 8 with runners in scoring position.
Gorman homered in the fifth.
Goldschmidt hit a 443-foot drive to center in the sixth off Jordan Weems, Alec Burleson had an RBI groundout and Gorman added a run-scoring single for an 8-3 lead.
Miles Mikolas (5-5, 4.12) starts Monday’s opener of a three-game series against visiting Miami, which send LHP Jesús Luzardo (8-5, 3.29 ERA) to the mound.
