James Wood, Nationals strive to continue power surge vs. Cards

St. Louis will try to cool off James Wood on Tuesday night when the Cardinals visit the Washington Nationals in the middle contest of their three-game series.

Wood hit a three-run homer in Washington's six-run eighth inning as the Nationals snapped a five-game skid by rallying for a 9-6 win Monday night. It was Wood's second three-run homer in as many days.

He added a single, two walks and scored twice on Monday. Wood also made a huge impact in right field, racing toward the corner and making a leaping catch at the wall to rob a home run from Nolan Gorman in the fourth inning.

The Cardinals will send left-hander Matthew Liberatore (0-0, 1.64 ERA) to the mound Tuesday against Washington right-hander Cade Cavalli (0-0, 2.79) in a matchup of Opening Day starters.

Liberatore has allowed two runs -- both on solo homers -- in 11 innings thus far. Last time out, he gave up one run on three hits over six innings against the New York Mets on Wednesday. He had a no-decision in his team's 2-1 victory in 11 innings.

"I feel really good, and I'm definitely happy about the results so far," Liberatore said. "There is definitely some stuff that I would like to improve on, but that's always going to be the case with me. But I feel like I'm doing a really good job now of pitching with what I've got."

Liberatore is 0-0 with a 14.73 ERA in three career relief appearances against the Nationals.

Cavalli was roughed up a bit by the Chicago Cubs on Opening Day, but most recently he worked six innings against the Philadelphia Phillies on Wednesday and gave up one run on five hits in his team's 6-5 loss in 10 innings.

On Monday night, the Cardinals' Jordan Walker homered leading off the eighth inning to break a 3-3 tie vs. Washington. Before the inning was over, St. Louis had added two more runs to take a 6-3 lead.

But Wood, Brady House and CJ Abrams homered in a six-run eighth inning, and the Nationals closed out the win.

"This is a credit to our guys," Washington manager Blake Butera said. "They've played this way all along. They haven't given up. They find ways to scratch runs across whatever inning it might be. ... They fight back and find a way to pull this one out and get us back on track."

House collected three hits and improved his batting average to .333.

"All around outstanding game from Brady," Butera said of his 22-year-old third baseman. "Had some hard right-on-right matchups, where he hit the home run, the double. Just couldn't be more impressed with Brady, especially a kid that young."

Ramon Urias had three hits, including a homer, for the Cardinals. Walker had a homer and a single, and left fielder Thomas Saggese had two hits and threw a runner out at home to complete a 7-2 double play.

But Cardinals pitchers walked seven batters, and the bullpen surrendered seven runs in three innings.

"You regroup," manager Oliver Marmol said after the game. "You point out the things we did well, and then, no different than any other day, you circle back to the things we can make some improvements on and keep going."

--Field Level Media