WASHINGTON -- The Cardinals had benefited from lockdown pitching recently, including back-to-back shutouts as part of a 21-inning scoreless streak.
“They’ve done a nice job. Nothing out of the ordinary, to be honest with you," manager Oliver Marmol said. "They’re committed to using their stuff the way they know it plays. They’ve done a nice job at understanding who’s in the box, and worked really well with our catchers. I don’t speak to it enough, but what [catchers Pedro] Pagés and [Yohel] Pozo have done, it’s been really good.”
Digging deeper, the Cards had received three consecutive outings of at least six innings and two or fewer earned runs from their starting pitchers. Andre Pallante continued the latter trend Saturday, with a season-high 7 1/3 innings of two-run ball on three hits, zero walks and a season-high seven strikeouts in a 4-2 win -- St. Louis' seventh straight victory -- over the Nationals at Nationals Park.
“I felt like I pitched pretty well,” Pallante said. "Compared to my last outings, I’ve been going away from my best pitches. Today, I pitched around my four-seam fastball, which felt really good. I’ve been able to add more spin when pitching to lefties, and something I started doing last year was mixing more sliders to lefties.”
The right-hander was able to pound the zone early in the count throughout the game, which was his mission coming in.
“My personal goal today was to be aggressive with the first pitch of the at-bats," Pallante said. "I want to get ahead in the count, and it’s something I’m known for. When I’m going really well, that's what I’ve been doing, so we did a good job at attacking that.”
Aside from Pallante’s gem, Marmol was impressed with the team’s hitting and fielding efforts.
“It was another good game on all sides," Marmol said. "We did some work on [Nationals starter Trevor] Williams early, and then we made some nice diving plays defensively. All sides are clicking and it’s been fun to watch.”
No stranger to diving plays, Victor Scott II added another to his 2025 highlight reel in the bottom of the first. The center fielder closed in on a sinking line drive hit by Nathaniel Lowe and laid out to rob Lowe of a hit.
“I think it was just the ability to get a good read on that and kind of know where the ball is going to end up and beat the ball to a spot and make a play on it,” Scott said.
St. Louis’ bats continued to back the strong pitching with a four-run second inning. Pedro Pagés began the rally with an RBI single through the right side to plate Willson Contreras for a 1-0 lead. Scott II extended the lead by redirecting a fastball down the middle to left field, which scored Nolan Gorman.
The RBI base knock extended Scott’s hitting streak to a career-high 10 games. During the streak, Scott is hitting .387 (12-for-31) with one home run, seven RBIs, seven runs and two stolen bases.
Then, with runners on first and second, Lars Nootbaar drove a two-out two-run double that left the bat with an exit velocity of 110.5 mph and one-hopped the right-field wall to cap off the four-run frame.
Down four in the bottom of the eighth, Washington made a late push. Dylan Crews smacked a two-run homer off Pallante to trim St. Louis’ lead to 4-2. The homer led to Pallante’s exit, but the bullpen duo of JoJo Romero and Ryan Helsley combined for 1 2/3 scoreless innings to secure the Cards’ seventh straight victory. Helsley escaped a bases-loaded threat in the bottom of the ninth for his seventh save.
The last time the Cardinals won seven straight games was an eight-game streak from Aug. 14-22, 2022.
“Seven straight sounds awesome," Scott said, "but we've just got to keep it going and make it eight Sunday."