ST. LOUIS — The Cardinals got back in the game with a hand from the Washington Nationals and when they lost the game in the 11th it all started with a mitt.

A catcher’s interference forced home the first run of the Nationals’ winning rally in the 11th and proved prelude to an outburst the Cardinals could not answer in their half of the inning. The Nationals, who never trailed in the game, fended off late rallies and overcame their own four errors and slippery defense, for an 8-5 victory Saturday night at Busch Stadium.

The Cardinals tied the score twice — first in the ninth and again in the 10th — and they got the tying run on base with no outs in the 11th. Strikeouts unplugged the opportunity and they could not overtake the Nats and avoid a fourth consecutive loss.

They left the bases loaded in the ninth and 11th innings.

At 75-80, the Cardinals must win their seven remaining games for a winning record.

Their home schedule ends Sunday as they try to salvage the Nats series.

The teams traded runs in the 10th inning with Masyn Winn poking a single down the first-base line to score teammate Leo Bernal, the extra inning’s spontaneously generated runner. Winn attempted to push for second base and was thrown out there to halt the Cardinals’ chances to taking their first lead. The 11th arrived and the Cardinals were on their way to their longest game, by minutes, since the advent of the pitch timer. And all in the closing hours of their home schedule.

The Nationals challenged a non-call at home plate to reveal a catcher’s interference with the bases loaded. That forced home the go-ahead run in the 11th and three more runs followed for the four-run lead going into the bottom of the 11th. Jose Tena, a late entry into the game, had two RBIs that helped increase the Nats’ lead.

A game initially shaped by plays trapped within the confines of the infield threatened to leave the Cardinals coming up short.

The Washington Nationals turned three infield ground balls into the run that gave them a lead going into the ninth inning. The Cardinals began their rally in the seventh with the assist of two errors by the Nationals that primed the rally. In the ninth, a dropped popup gave the Nationals’ their fourth error and Jordan Walker new life with the bases loaded before he struck out. Even the Cardinals’ ninth-inning rally that tied the game began with Nathan Church pinballing a double off a Nationals infielder. He took second base when the ball carried into left field. That extra 90 feet proved vital to leveling the game.

Church scored on Pedro Pages’ single for a 3-3 knot.

With a lefty on the mound to start the game, the Cardinals did not have Alec Burleson or JJ Wetherholt in the starting lineup. Both emerged during the rally in the ninth. Wetherholt pinch ran for Pages at first base, and Burleson struck out as a pinch hitter with a chance to send Wetherholt home for the win.

Cardinals starter Michael McGreevy weathered an arduous first inning to pitch four innings and allow only two runs, both of which came on a first-inning homer.

The game was lousy with errors, including three by the Nationals through the first seven innings, but it also had moments of sublime defense.

In the fifth, shortstop Masyn Winn went deep behind second base to snare a well-struck ball off the hop. The play carried him into shallow center field, where he settled himself and fired a strike to first base for the out. Already a 99-mph throw earlier in this home stand to catch a runner by a blink at first, Winn had to put some heat on his throw Saturday to get the speedy CJ Abrams and deny him a base hit.

In the 11th, Walker kept the Nationals from clearing the bases with a diving catch in right-center field. He extended his 6-foot-6 frame to rob extra bases from Dylan Crews.

Nats’ mistakes yield Cards comeback

A game already littered with errors and misplays provided two more in the seventh inning, and that was the jolt the snoozing Cardinals’ offense needed.

A pair of singles in the first inning didn’t generate any answer for the Nationals’ early lead. Ivan Herrera’s second hit of the game was a one-out double, and he watched the next two outs from that base without budging in the third inning. The Cardinals seven struck out in order against Washington starter Andrew Alvarez in the sixth inning, the lefty’s final inning.

But once he was out and the defense stumbled, the Cardinals pounced.

Two errors in the infield by Washington opened up the way for the Cardinals to rally for two runs in the seventh inning and get the tying run into scoring position. An error by third baseman Jorbit Vivas put Winn on base to begin the inning. He was able to score when reliever Richard Lovelady slipped trying to field a ground ball and threw wildly to first base.

That error came when trying to stop catcher Pages from an infield single and instead allowed Pages to rumble to second base.

Two batters later, Jose Fermin dropped a single into left-center field to score Pages for the two-out RBI that trimmed the Nats’ lead down to a run. Herrera’s third hit of the game moved Fermin to second and gave No. 3 hitter Jordan Walker a crack at tying the game. Walker had previously blistered a liner to deep center field that left his bat at 112 mph and traveled an estimated 407 feet. The issue was that outfielder Dylan Crews’ glove was there to meet it for a frustrating out.

In the seventh, Walker bounced into a grounder to end the inning and left the Cardinals short of tying the game.

Church crashes, comes up shy

Center fielder Church pursued the fly ball that started the Nationals scoring as far as the Busch Stadium dimensions would let him — and took the bruise for his effort.

Two batters into the game, Nationals’ outfielder Daylen Lile stung a pitch to center field, and Church gave chase. A few hours earlier, Cardinals manager Oli Marmol had agreed with the description of Church as the incumbent in center field. He leads all Cardinals rookies in games played, and Church is finishing the season on a strong offensive surge while maintaining his reputation within the team for above average defense.

His angles and closing speed are an asset.

And he came just shy of showing that in the first.

Church jumped and slammed in the outfield wall, just to have Lile’s fly ball carry over his glove. The wall that Church crashed into is almost 400 feet away from home plate, and Lile’s home run carried an estimated 404 feet.

Before McGreevy got an out, the Nationals had a 2-0 lead and the Cardinals had a center fielder doubled over on the warning track.

Marmol and an athletic trainer met their center field out near the wall, where it appeared that Church was pointing to an ache near his hip and backside — right where he mashed himself into the wall. Church remained in the game after walking it off. He led off the second inning with a single, but the rally went nowhere for the Cardinals.

McGreevy regains his groove

The home run over Church’s reach came early in a prolonged inning for McGreevy, and by the time he was able to Frogger out of all the traffic that homer as the only runs of the inning.

Nationals leadoff hitter James Wood poked a single to left field to open the game, and Lile’s 22nd home run of the season gave the Nats’ the swift lead. From there, McGreevy retired two batters on hard-hit balls before an error and a single put the inning back in motion for Nationals. There were several delays within the inning — from checking on Church’s health to checking on McGreevy’s feel.

And eventually the right-hander got a fly out to avoid further trouble.

It took him a season-high 34 pitches to get through the first inning.

McGreevy untracked from there. He got three groundouts in the second inning to regain some economy to his start and neutralize any threat a two-out single produced. After stranding two runners in the first inning, McGreevy retired seven of the next eight batters. When the Nationals opened the fourth inning with baserunners on a single and a walk, McGreevy left them stranded too. His lone strikeout of the game came for the second out of the inning and gave him the exit to his start.

The length of the first inning shortened his outing overall, and McGreevy left the final four innings of the game for the bullpen to solve.

He allowed two runs on the one homer and five hits total in four innings.

3 meager grounders, 1 run

Rookie right-hander Luis Gastelum entered the game with a runner on base and the bottom of the Nats’ order coming up in the sixth inning. He did exactly what he was out there to do.

He got meek contact.

He got ground balls.

He got stung by bad bounces.

The first three batters that Gastelum faced did not get the ball out of the infield, and yet they produced two hits and were enough to score a run that pushed the Nats’ lead out to 3-0. When the Cardinals turned two errors into two runs in the seventh, the run cobbled together by infield singles was the difference for the Nationals. No. 9 hitter Nasim Nunez delivered the run with a ground ball up the middle that the Cardinals kept from reaching the outfield but could not stop from scoring the one runner that Gastelum inherited.

Those were the only batters that Gastelum faced, and fellow rookie reliever Brycen Mautz successfully executed the only way to avoid risking batted-ball risk and meager singles.

He struck out Wood to end the threat.

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