Major League Baseball
BOXSCORE | RECAP
Washington 8, St. Louis 6
When: 2:15 PM ET, Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Where: Busch Stadium, St. Louis, Missouri
Temperature: 48°
Umpires: Home - Jeff Nelson, 1B - Mark Ripperger, 2B - Bill Welke, 3B - Tim Tschida
Attendance: 32340

Washington pushed across six runs in the third inning and hung on to beat St. Louis 8-6 Wednesday in the first game of a day-night doubleheader at Busch Stadium.

Leading 1-0, the Nationals peppered St. Louis starter and loser Jake Westbrook (1-2) with RBI singles by Jayson Werth, Ian Desmond, Laynce Nix and a double by Ivan Rodriguez. Desmond also stole home. Nix later added a solo homer, his second, in the eighth inning.

The beneficiary of the support was John Lannan (2-1), who has not given up more than three runs in four starts. Lannan allowed seven hits and walked three in five innings.

St. Louis got both of its runs against Lannan via solo homers, from Colby Rasmus, his third, and Albert Pujols, his fifth.

Washington used five relief pitchers to secure the win. Tyler Clippard pitched 1 1/3 innings and enticed Pujols, who represented the tying run, to fly to left field with a runner on base in the sixth inning. Drew Storen pitched the final 1 1/3 innings to earn his second save.

It was a frustrating day for St. Louis, which outhit Washington 14-10, but hit into four double plays.
Top Game Performances
Starting Pitchers
Washington   St. Louis
John Lannan Player Jake Westbrook
Win W/L Loss
5.0 IP 3.0
2 Strikeouts 1
7 Hits 7
3.60 ERA 21.00
Hitting
Washington   St. Louis
Danny Espinosa Player Ryan Theriot
3 Hits 4
0 RBI 1
0 HR 0
5 TB 4
.600 Avg .800
Team Stats Summary
 
Team Hits HR TB Avg LOB K RBI BB SB Errors
Washington 10 1 16 .286 10 6 7 3 2 1
St. Louis 14 2 22 .368 25 4 6 6 1 1