Well, say. This is sorta anti-climactic.
After the Nationals scored three runs in the first three at-bats of the game, their bats went quiet. Adam Wainwright struck out the side in the first, and the Nationals went quietly in the second.
Leading off the third, though, was Bryce Harper, who had been slumping. After a triple in the first inning and this ...
... Harper had the hardest two parts of the cycle down. There has never been a cycle in the playoffs, by the way. A reason to keep watching!
The reason you wouldn't keep watching is that the Nationals broke the game open after Harper's homer. Ryan Zimmerman doubled, and after a strikeout of Adam LaRoche, Michael Morse went deep:
That chased Adam Wainwright who gave up six runs, which was his worst outing since ... the last time he faced the Nationals, on Aug. 31.
Joe Kelly is in for the Cards, and they'll need to smoke all the David Freese dust they have in their stash box if they want to get back to the World Series.