The St. Louis Cardinals had a Championship Series berth within their grasp Thursday afternoon but could not break through against Washington's lights-out bullpen. Carrying a 1-1 tie into the bottom of the ninth, Nats outfielder Jayson Werth delivered the 2012 playoffs' second walk-off home run in 24 hours, forcing a Game 5 on Friday evening.

For blogger Dan Moore at Viva El Birdos, the Cardinals' Game 4 loss to the Nationals had an air of inevitability to it, but was still incredibly "unpleasant":

[T]he Cardinals' not-entirely-unfamiliar inability to score runs for an effective starter played up a little more sinister than usual in this particular context—it wasn't just the way they'd left the game tied, it was proof that they'd eventually lose it, having failed to properly appreciate what they had...

Add to that the weird angst that comes with having a lead in the best-of-five division series, and that was not an especially pleasant Game 4. It was so unpleasant that nobody could even get worked up about how the Cardinals striking out eight times in the last three innings reflected on their character.

The Cardinals have now blown out the Nationals twice in the series and lost two low-scoring one-run games, continuing the Jekyll and Hyde-like run distribution that plagued them during the regular season.. St. Louis has out-scored the Washington, D.C. squad 23-9 through Games 1-4, but none of those runs carry over to the all-important Game 5.

Game time is set for 8:30 p.m. Eastern at Nationals Park. The game will be broadcast on TBS.