In the top of the 7th inning, the Nationals trotted out Christian Garcia to keep their deficit at 5-0. Garcia, a rookie with 12.2 regular-season innings under his belt, chucked five outs of scoreless baseball against the Cardinals Monday. After early struggles, Garcia managed to slam the door and escape the inning with only one earned run.

The Cardinals opened the inning with singles from Jon Jay and Carlos Beltran, who advanced to second and third on a Matt Holliday groundout. Garcia walked Allen Craig, a strong bat, in favor of Yadier Molina ... another strong bat. Molina drew a bases-loaded walk to increase the Cardinals' lead to 6-0.

Garcia then promptly recovered, striking out David Freese and Daniel Descalso to strand three Cards on base. With the Nationals' 2-3-4 hitters due up in the bottom of the 7th, the Nats may well send Garcia back to the mound for another inning, as they did Monday.