WASHINGTON — The St. Louis Cardinals found a limit to their early habit of coming back.

Down early and tied in the middle, the Cardinals found multiple ways to take a lead Monday night against the Washington Nationals.

They just could not overcome their bullpen.

The Nationals hit three home runs in the bottom of the eighth inning to vaporize the Cardinals’ three-run lead and pull away for a 9-6 victory at Nationals Park. Two of the right-handers the Cardinals are counting on allowed all six runs in the inning. Nats leadoff hitter James Wood tied the game with a three-run homer off veteran reliever Ryne Stanek, and then Matt Svanson allowed two first-pitch home runs as the Nats zoomed past the tie and straight to their first win of April.

Washington had lost five consecutive.

After Woods upended Stanek, Svanson entered to hold the tie and allowed the first two batters he faced to not just reach, but score. Brady House ripped a first-pitch sweeper from Svanson for a two-run homer to break the tie. Two batters later, CJ Abrams lifted a first-pitch cutter over the wall for his 500th career hit. Svanson and Stanek combined to face nine batters in the eighth and six of them scored, three of them homered.

The lead the Cardinals’ bullpen could not hold, the Nationals did.

Cionel Perez chewed into his 20.25 ERA to start 2026 with a scoreless ninth and was awarded the win.

The final out left Jordan Walker stranded at third base after is second hit of the game. Walker delivered the Cardinals’ final comeback of the game. He drilled his second homer of the road trip and third of the season to break a 3-3 tie in the top of the eighth inning. Walker’s beeline homer to right field traveled 378 feet and seemed to propel the Cardinals toward a fifth come-from-behind victory.

Ramon Urias added some welcome insurance with his third RBI of the game. The veteran infielder homer to give the Cardinals’ their first lead of the game in the top of the sixth, and he doubled three batters after Walker to widen the Cardinals’ lead. Urias’ double to center scored Masyn Winn, a late addition to the lineup as he returned from hip tightness. Urias then scored on a sacrifice bunt by Victor Scott II, his second in as many days.

That gave the Cardinals a three-run lead going into the eighth.

It did not survive.

Outfield defense erases runs

It took an assist from the outfield by a career infielder to keep the score tied, and that was the second of superb plays in the outfield Monday that robbed runs from the scoreboard.

In the bottom of the seventh inning, back-to-back base hits against JoJo Romero put two runners in scoring position with on outs. The only reason the Nats didn’t break a 3-3 tie with the pair of hits was out of respect for Walker’s arm in right field. With no outs, House held up at third rather than test Walker’s arm.

He was more eager to take a run at Thomas Saggese.

Shortstop and All-Star Abrams lofted a fly ball to left field that Saggese caught near the line, about midway up between third and the left-field wall. When Saggese, a middle infielder most of his career, made the catch, House broke from third to turn Abrams’ fly ball into a tie-breaking sacrifice fly. Saggese’s throw was true – and beat House to the plate in time for Ivan Herrera to make the tag.

This was just a new twist on the double plays Saggese is used to turning as an infielder, and it kept the score tied, 3-3, while also erasing the Nats’ lead runner.

Washington challenged, but officials determined that Herrera did not block the plate and that there was not enough evidence in the replays to overturn his tag.

The play at the plate came three innings after a play in right field stole a home run from Nolan Gorman. Washington’s right fielder, Wood, made a running/leaping jab at the ball near the right-field corner that caught it just before Gorman’s shot ducked into the Nats’ bullpen for a solo homer. That catch kept the Cardinals scoreless in the fourth.

Walks catch up, then Nats do

The invitations for a comeback were issued four pitches at a time to two batters toward the bottom of the Nationals’ lineup.

Into the game to hold a one-run lead in the bottom of the sixth inning so lefty Romero wouldn’t have to, reliever Justin Bruihl got two quick outs. He then committed the classic mistake of walking into trouble. Twice. Bruihl, a lefty, walked left-handed batting designated hitter Jose Tena on four pitches to give Washington a two-out baserunner.

Tena wasn’t alone for long.

Bruihl also walked backup catcher Drew Millas, a switch-hitter, on four pitches to then move the tying runner into scoring position for the Nats’ No. 9 hitter.

The walks became a run.

A right-handed batter against the lefty Bruihl, Jacob Young pulled a double down the left-field line to score Tena and knot the game, 3-3. An out away from finishing the sixth inning and saving Romero for later in the game, Bruihl had to challenge Tena, a .230 hitter in his career against lefties. The non-competitive walk instead lost the lead and called Romero into the inning anyway. A day after collecting a pivotal five outs in the Cardinals’ comeback win at Detroit, Romero froze the Nats in the sixth by getting a bases-loaded fly ball to end the sixth.

Good glove, timely bat

In the lineup for his glove, Urias delivered again with his bat.

The Cardinals spent the first half of the game meandering offensively against Nationals starter Zack Littell. He struck out four of the first six Cardinals he faced, and by the start of the fourth inning, Littell had scattered three baserunners around six strikeouts. The Cardinals mustered a run against Littell in the fifth to trim the Nats’ lead down to 2-1.

Urias would reverse that with one swing in the sixth.

Reliever Ken Waldichuk, a lefty, walked Gorman to start the sixth inning. Two batters later, Urias cashed in on the generosity with his second homer of the season.

Urias hammered a curveball from Waldichuk and took a moment to watch it soar toward center field. The two run shot traveled 414 feet and flipped the game on Washington. What was once a one-run lead of the Nats had become a 3-2 deficit.

Andre Pallante grinds through five

There were too many walks and two few swings and misses for starter Pallante to get much deeper into his start Monday than five innings. But he found ways to get five.

Pallante did not have a swing and miss until his 55th pitch of the 88 he threw, and he was quickly behind in the game because he walked two batters in the first inning. The first two Nationals batters of the game reached base and scored, and neither of them got the ball out of the infield against Pallante to reach base.

Pallante also walked a batter in the second before finding some rhythm.

He would finish his five innings with six swings and misses and two strikeouts. The second came at the end of the fifth inning with a runner in scoring position and helped hold the Nats quiet before the first of the Cardinals’ rallies.

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