St Louis Win National League Division

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The St. Louis Cardinals simply stayed calm and did what it took to win, erasing an early six-run hole in Game 5.

Slowly but surely, the defending World Series champion Cardinals got a tying two-out, two-run single from Daniel Descalso and a go-ahead two-run single from Pete Kozma in the ninth inning and came all the way back to beat the Washington Nationals 9-7 Friday night and win their NL division series.

It was the largest comeback ever in a winner-take-all postseason game, according to STATS LLC. No other club in this sort of ultimate-pressure situation had come back from more than four down.

"We knew we had a lot of game left after they scored six. Nobody went up there trying to hit a six-run homer," said Descalso, whose solo shot in the eighth made it 6-5. "We needed to scratch and claw and get ourselves back in the game."

They did, barely: Descalso's saving single ticked off the glove of diving shortstop Ian Desmond.

First-year manager Mike Matheny and the wild-card Cardinals, the last team to clinch a playoff spot this year, will open the NL Championship Series at San Francisco on Sunday.

The Nationals, meanwhile, led the majors with 98 wins in 2012 but lost without All-Star ace Stephen Strasburg. The team said he'd thrown enough this year and didn't put him on the playoff roster.

Down 7-5 with two outs in the ninth against Nationals closer Drew Storen, the Cardinals twice were a strike away from losing. But Storen walked both of those batters, Yadier Molina and David Freese, setting the stage for the unheralded Descalso and Kozma -- Nationals manager Davey Johnson even called the rookie "Cosmos" before Game 4 -- to come through.

When Cardinals closer Jason Motte got Ryan Zimmerman to pop out to second base a half-hour past midnight, the Cardinals streamed from the visiting dugout for a rather muted celebration, all in all.

This was nothing new to them.

Over the past two years, St. Louis is 6-0 when facing elimination, including victories in Games 6 and 7 of the 2011 World Series against Texas.

"It's just the kind of people they are. They believe in themselves. They believe in each other," Matheny said. "It's been this style of team all season long. They just don't quit, and I think that just says a lot about their character."

Down to their last strike in the Fall Classic a year ago, trailing by the exact same 7-5 score in the ninth inning, the Cardinals rallied in Game 6 and then took the championship in what turned out to be the final year with the club for slugging first baseman Albert Pujols and then-manager Tony La Russa. Now Matheny, who got the Cardinals into the playoffs as the second NL wild-card team on the next-to-last day of the regular season, has them back in the NLCS.

And to think: Washington, which won the NL East and led the majors with 98 wins, got off to as good a start as possible Friday.

Seven pitches, three runs. Just like that, Jayson Werth's double, Bryce Harper's triple and Zimmerman's homer got the hosts jump-started in their first Game 5.

That opening outburst, plus a big third inning highlighted by the 19-year-old Harper's homer, made it 6-0.

St. Louis was not about to go gently into the night, though.

"Would have been easy for us to go down 6-0 and sort of roll over and let the crowd take us out of it," Descalso said, "and just let them have the game."

The Cardinals chipped away, chipped away. One run off 21-game winner Gio Gonzalez in the fourth, a pair in the fifth, another in the seventh off Edwin Jackson -- the Game 3 starter and loser, and an all-around surprising choice for midgame relief.

Suddenly, it was 6-4. Then came Descalso's homer in the eighth. After Kurt Suzuki drove in a run for Washington to get the lead back up to 7-5, a four-run ninth against Storen -- who had elbow surgery in April, returned to the team in July and reclaimed his closer role in September -- completed the reversal.

"We've had a great year overcoming a lot of hardship," Nationals manager Davey Johnson said, "and to not go after them at the end was not fun to watch."

David Freese, right, and Daniel Descalso celebrate scoring runs for the Giants in the ninth inning against the Cardinals on Friday.

Carlos Beltran began the ninth with a double. Two quick outs later, though, Washington was oh-so-close to a victory. But Storen couldn't get the last strike on Molina. Same thing with Freese. Then Descalso's shot up the middle went off Desmond's glove. The Nationals were inches, perhaps, from advancing. The Cardinals that near to their season finished.

Instead, they carry on, like they always seem to at this time of year. St. Louis is in the NLCS for the seventh time since the start of the 2000 season.

In Game 6 of last year's World Series, the Cardinals twice were one strike from losing, before Freese's two-run triple in the ninth, then Lance Berkman's tying RBI single in the 10th. Freese's homer won it in the 11th, and St. Louis went on to a 6-2 victory in Game 7.

Here they were, doing it again.

All in front of a Nationals Park-record crowd of 45,966 witnessing the first postseason series in the nation's capital in 79 years. So seemingly close to a significant triumph, the Nationals -- and their fans -- left disappointed. Not long after the final out, a few dozen Cardinals fans gathered in the rows right behind the visiting dugout to chant, "Let's go, Cards! Let's go, Cards!"

Hours earlier, the red-dressed D.C. spectators began the night with chants of "Let's go, Nats!" right after the national anthem, then filled the raw October air with roars as run after run scored for the home team. But over the final innings, those Washington baseball fans wound up looking on with hearts in throats.

At the outset, highlights of leadoff hitter Werth's epic, 13-pitch at-bat from about 25½ hours before were shown on the video board as he began the bottom of the first. On Thursday night, he ended Game 4 with a homer in the bottom of the ninth that gave Washington a 2-1 victory.

Picking up right where he left off, Werth doubled to the left-field corner off Adam Wainwright, and Harper followed with an RBI triple off the wall in left-center. Harper won't turn 20 until Tuesday; no other teen had a postseason three-bagger, according to STATS.

Harper was 1-for-18 for a .056 batting average -- yes, .056 -- with six strikeouts and zero RBIs in the NLDS until that moment. After sliding in well ahead of the throw to third, he popped up and pointed at Werth, who kept clapping and clapping after crossing home plate.

A foot or two higher, and that hit by Harper would have been a homer. No matter: Zimmerman completed the crescendo by driving an 86 mph cutter into the first row beyond the wall in right-centre.

In 11 previous postseason appearances -- mainly as a reliever -- Wainwright never had allowed more than one run in any entire outing, much less three in a single inning.

Got worse in the third. Harper led off with a homer, to the same area of right-centre as Zimmerman's but a few rows deeper. Zimmerman doubled, and Michael Morse turned on the next pitch for a two-run homer to left that made it 6-0.

That was it for Wainwright, whose evening was over after 53 pitches across 2 1/3 innings.

His season, however, will continue. He plays for the can't-quit Cardinals, after all.

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Nationals Make Cardinal Move

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Lance Lynn needed only a few words to describe a 13-pitch at-bat.

"Three-two heater. He beat me."

There were more questions for the St. Louis Cardinals reliever, of course, but the answers were more or less the same. He went mano-a-mano with Jayson Werth in the bottom of the ninth inning of a playoff game, losing the battle when the Washington leadoff hitter put the baker's dozen offering off the back wall of the visitors dugout beyond left field.

"Everyone in the stadium knew what I was throwing there," Lynn said. "Tip your cap to him. The guy can play, and he beat me."

The Nationals' 2-1 win Thursday in Game 4 kept the Cardinals from clinching the NL Division Series, and now there will be a decisive Game 5 in Washington on Friday. It'll be hard to top this one -- with Werth going strike, strike, ball, ball, foul, foul, foul, foul, foul, foul, ball and foul before launching the hit that had him circling the bases, tossing his helmet high and leaping into a pile of teammates at home plate.

"He battled that whole at-bat, and I was making good pitches, making my pitches, and you know, he won," Lynn said. "It was just a matter of time. I was challenging him, and he was up for it."

It's the kind of playoff moment all at Nationals Park will remember for a long time. The tension was building with each of the 13 pitches, the sellout crowd ready to explode.

"I guess for the pitcher and the hitter, the pressure on them have to be unbelievable," Cardinals star Carlos Beltran said. "Because Werth is battling, and our pitcher's trying to get him out. He ended up winning that battle right there, but we have one more day."

The Cardinals wasted a stellar effort by Kyle Lohse, who allowed just two hits over seven innings with five strikeouts and a walk, his only miscue coming on Adam LaRoche's dead-center homer in the second.

Mitchell Boggs handled the eighth, and rookie manager Mike Matheny opted to go with Lynn -- a starter relegated to the bullpen for this series -- rather than closer Jason Motte with the score tied in the ninth.

"If we were at home, it would have been a very easy decision to bring in Motte," Matheny said. "We are looking at a team that had every save of our season by Jason Motte, and we take a lead there at any point (in extra innings), you're asking one of our guys, especially one of our young guys, who have never been in that situation to come in and close out a game, and that's a lot to ask.

"Had a lot of confidence in Lance. He came in throwing the ball well. Werth just put together a very good at-bat."

The Cardinals had scored a combined 20 runs in Games 2 and 3, but they managed only one unearned tally against Nationals starter Ross Detwiler. Pete Kozma circled the bases in the second inning by way of a walk, a sacrifice bunt, a booted grounder by shortstop Ian Desmond and a sacrifice fly.

Detwiler allowed three hits over six innings -- the type of performance Washington needed after Gio Gonzalez, Jordan Zimmermann and Edwin Jackson were far from their best in Games 1-3, respectively.

It got worse for the Cardinals against the Nationals' relievers. Zimmerman, the Game 2 loser, struck out the side in the seventh in his first career relief appearance, and Tyler Clippard also notched three Ks in the eighth. Drew Storen got two more strikeouts in the ninth before Desmond ended the inning with a nice, stumble-to-the-ground catch of a deep popup by pinch hitter Matt Carpenter.

Although St. Louis is a wild-card team facing the club with the best record in baseball in the regular season, the intangibles should belong to the visitors Friday. While nearly to a man -- Werth being an exception -- the young Nationals are new to this sort of thing, the Cardinals have quite the postseason pedigree: In the past two years, St. Louis is 5-0 in games where it faces elimination, including must-have victories in Games 6 and 7 of the 2011 World Series against the Texas Rangers.

"We've got a lot of veterans in this clubhouse that have been in big spots before and have lost games and know how to bounce back," second baseman Daniel Descalso said. "We've done a good job of that lately, and we're going to try to do it again tomorrow."

On the mound will be Adam Wainwright, a 14-game winner who was a spectator during last year's title run while recovering from elbow reconstruction surgery.

"Of course I wish we would have won tonight, but you know what? This is every pitcher's dream, I would say," said Wainwright, who pitched well in Game 1 of this series but didn't get the decision. "Every competitor's dream is to go in huge moments like that, so I look forward to the challenge."

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Nationals Win NL East But Lose

Pitcher Gio Gonzalez grabbed Washington Nationals owner Ted Lerner and steered him toward the gaggle of players celebrating the club's first NL East championship.

"Ted, this is your party!" the effervescent left-hander yelled. Then, turning toward teammates, Gonzalez shouted: "Hey! Who's got the cooler? This is the man, right here!"

All in all, 21-game winner Gonzalez and the rest of the first team in 79 years to bring postseason baseball back to the nation's capital threw quite a victory party at Nationals Park on Monday night. Thanks to strong pitching from Gonzalez and Stephen Strasburg, Bryce Harper's burst of energy, and Adam LaRoche's slugging, the Nationals won enough from April through September that even a loss on the first day of October could not stop them from achieving the sort of success that seemed so far away only a few years ago.

"The puzzle came together," the 86-year-old Lerner said, "a little earlier than we expected."

Despite being beaten 2-0 by the Philadelphia Phillies, the Nationals earned their first division title since moving from Montreal in 2005, because the second-place Atlanta Braves lost 2-1 at the Pittsburgh Pirates.

"This is incredible. The excitement. The joy. The fans. Smiles on everyone's faces, the excitement that's going on," Gonzalez said. "Everyone here just witnessed history. Hopefully we can try to continue that journey."

Washington, in first place since May 22, leads Atlanta by three games with two to play in the regular season. The Braves' loss finished as the top of the ninth inning ended in Washington, and the Nationals congratulated each other in their dugout with hugs, high-fives and spiked gloves.

"The way it happened tonight doesn't really matter," said third baseman Ryan Zimmerman, the Nationals' first draft pick in June 2005. "We put ourselves in that position to have the luxury of having the other team have to play perfect baseball. We played a great 159, 160 games to get to that point, and we should be commended for that."

When Michael Morse led off the bottom of the ninth, the PA announcer informed the crowd that the home team was the champion, and when the game ended, red fireworks lit the night sky with the Capitol building off in the distance beyond left field. The scoreboard declared "NL East Division Champions."

It was the second division crown in franchise history. The Montreal Expos won the NL East in 1981, a strike-shortened season, by beating the Phillies in a best-of-five playoff.

When the game ended, the Phillies -- winners of the previous five NL East titles and already eliminated from playoff contention this year -- gathered in the middle of the diamond for regular post-victory handshakes.

The Nationals, meanwhile, collected in their home clubhouse for alcohol-spraying. They gathered around general manager Mike Rizzo and dumped bubbly over his shaved head. Harper, who has more homers (22) than years on earth (19), shared some apple cider with LaRoche's 9-year-old son, Drake.

"I'll remember being in the scrum in the middle of the clubhouse with all the guys, just elated and all together," Rizzo said later, once the excitement had moved out to the field, where some fans stayed to clap and chant. "We live with each other for seven months a year. Culmination of all that emotion and such a successful season for us."

On Sept. 20, the Nationals assured themselves of no worse than an NL wild-card berth -- and guaranteed Washington a postseason game for the first time since the Senators lost the 1933 World Series to the New York Giants.

But even on that night of success, Washington manager Davey Johnson made clear he wasn't all that interested in merely getting a chance to play in a one-game, in-or-out, wild-card playoff. No, he wanted his team to focus on bigger prizes at hand, including a division championship.

With Washington back home from a six-game road trip and on the verge of a big accomplishment, the first roar of the night from the crowd of 35,287 came a few minutes before the first pitch, when a booming voice over the loudspeakers let everyone know that the home team's "magic number is down to one!"

Ready to roar, the spectators often rose at key moments, whether their team was at the plate or in the field. Fans also reacted with applause and cheers when the out-of-town scoreboard in right-center field showed that Pittsburgh had taken a lead against Atlanta in the fifth inning.

It was quite a contrast from the mostly silent, mostly empty ballparks that were home to Nationals teams that lost 100 games apiece in 2008 and 2009. Then again, those worst-in-baseball clubs earned No. 1 overall picks in the amateur draft that turned into Strasburg and Harper.

Rizzo also oversaw a rebuilding of a farm system and two very key additions from outside the organisation: Gonzalez, acquired from Oakland for four prospects last offseason; and Jayson Werth, signed away from Philadelphia with a $126 million free-agent deal in December 2010.

"These guys have been through a lot. That just goes to show you it's not easy. It's not easy getting to this point," Werth said. "Luck plays into it a lot. You've got to be on good teams -- and I'm on a good team."

Werth was brought to Washington, in part, to show the club how to win, having been a part of the Phillies' perennial division champions and 2008 World Series winners. And so it was somehow fitting that the Nationals' title came on a night when they were facing the Phillies.

"Made me mad. Yes it did. Very much so. I'm a bad loser," Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said about watching Washington clinch against his club. "Nobody should be a good loser. I'm a bad loser and I always will be."

Zimmerman lived through plenty of losses in past seasons but twice decided to re-sign and stay with a team close to where he grew up in Virginia.

As he spoke Monday, Zimmerman wore a pair of white ski goggles around his neck, the better to protect his eyes from the spray of beverages.

Not his purchase. Whose?

"This is from Werth," Zimmerman said. "He's been through a few."

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Los Angeles Grab National Victory

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Matt Kemp scored a phantom run early, then hit a go-ahead homer in the ninth inning -- right after Washington rallied with a six-run eighth -- and the struggling Los Angeles Dodgers grabbed a 7-6 victory Wednesday night for a doubleheader split that prevented the Nationals from sewing up a playoff berth.

Kemp was credited with crossing home to give Los Angeles a 6-0 lead in the fourth, even though TV replays showed the inning's last out already had been recorded on third baseman Ryan Zimmerman's head-over-heels, reaching tag of runner Adrian Gonzalez.

That extra run loomed large when the hosts -- who had won the opener 3-1 thanks largely to Jordan Zimmermann's six innings of one-run baseball -- wound up sending 12 batters to the plate while scoring six runs in the eighth.

Michael Morse had a homer and a two-run single, and Washington chased Josh Beckett, who had allowed only two hits through seven innings.

The announced crowd of 26,931 was getting loud, perhaps anticipating a comeback and playoff-clinching victory, when Kemp drove an 0-2 pitch from closer Tyler Clippard (2-5) over the wall in center for his 19th homer.

Ronald Belisario (7-1) earned the win by getting the last two outs of the eighth inning.Brandon League picked up his third save with a hitless ninth.

Washington's victory in Game 1 was Los Angeles' ninth loss in 12 games -- and lowered the host's magic number for securing at least a wild-card spot to one. But the Nationals must wait at least another day to be certain of making the playoffs for the first time since moving from Montreal in 2005.

Beckett wound up allowing four runs -- three earned -- and five hits, with all the scoring in the eighth. By then, the Nationals had sort of indicated a willingness to concede defeat, subbing out starters Jayson Werth, Zimmerman and Adam LaRoche -- their Nos. 1-3-4 hitters.

While Beckett was terrific for a time, retiring 13 consecutive batters in one stretch, Nationals starter John Lannan struggled almost from the outset of Game 2.

Making his second start since taking over Stephen Strasburg's slot in the rotation, Lannan looked little like the guy who entered the night 3-0 with a 2.41 ERA in the majors in 2012 -- and much more like the guy who spent most of the year at Triple-A Syracuse.

He was charged with three runs in each of the third and fourth innings, hurt by singles, walks and a hit batter. In all, Lannan lasted only 3 2-3 innings, giving up eight hits. He departed with the bases loaded in the fourth, giving way to Chien-Ming Wang, who had been out with a hip injury and missed about 2½ months.

Wang's first pitch in a major league game since June 30 missed the mark completely. The wild pitch skipped past catcher Jesus Flores, allowing a run to score. The batter, Hanley Ramirez, eventually sent a grounder to Zimmerman, who flipped over and reached out to barely tag out Gonzalez. The umpires ruled that Kemp, who was running home from third on the play, crossed the plate in time to make it 6-0 -- but he had not.

Beckett faced the minimum number of hitters through five innings, allowing only one baserunner -- LaRoche singled leading off the second -- who was immediately erased by a double play.

Suddenly, though, the Nationals came through in the eighth. Morse led off with his 14th homer, and Steve Lombardozzi added a two-run shot. After Corey Brown reached on an error by Gonzalez, and pinch-hitter Mark DeRosa singled, Bryce Harper made it 6-4 with an infield single off reliever Randy Choate.

Belisario came in to face pinch-hitter Danny Espinosa, who played in Game 1 but was out of the lineup in Game 2 because of a recent left shoulder injury. Espinosa, who got a cortisone shot Monday so he could dull the pain of a bone bruise, smacked a single to left to load the bases.

One out later, Morse was up again, and he bounced a single past diving second baseman Mark Ellis to drive in two more runs and make it 6-all. After Belisario hit Ian Desmond with a pitch to load the bases again, he got Lombardozzi on a comebacker to end the inning.

Earlier in the day, as music blared in the Nationals' clubhouse between games, manager Davey Johnson insisted it didn't matter at all that his team had earned its 90th win and lowered its magic number for a wild-card berth.

"The only thing that's going to mean anything to me is when we clinch the pennant," Johnson said. "That's the only thing, the only number, I'm concerned with."

Nearing their first postseason appearance since arriving in Washington, the NL East-leading Nationals scratched out a victory in Game 1 thanks to two RBI groundouts and a sacrifice fly.

The Nationals' 90 victories are the most for a major league club in the nation's capital since 1933 -- which also was the last time a D.C. team played beyond the regular season.

"We're really not thinking about that. Definitely, I'm not, anyway," said Kurt Suzuki, who drove in Washington's first run with a fly ball in the second inning. "We're thinking about winning the division."

Pitching on seven days' rest because of Monday's scheduled day off and Tuesday's rainout, Zimmermann (11-8) kept putting runners on base and working around it. He allowed six hits, walked four and hit a batter, but Ramirez's RBI single in the third produced the Dodgers' only run.

"I was a little out of sync" in the early going Wednesday, Zimmermann said. "The last three innings, I felt much better and was able to control everything."

Four relievers followed him, combining to allow three hits across four shutout innings. Sean Burnett got out of a potentially troublesome spot in the seventh by striking out Gonzalez with runners on the corners, and Clippard pitched the ninth for his 32nd save.

Two of Washington's runs in Game 1 came off Aaron Harang (9-10), who threw 4 2-3 innings and gave up seven hits.

"He was pretty good," Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said. "He got some big outs to keep us in it."

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National Clean Sweep Red Sox

Roger Bernadina's two-out double drove in the go-ahead run and the Washington Nationals held on for a 4-3 win over the Boston Red Sox on Sunday, completing a three-game sweep.

The franchise was 0-9 all time at Fenway before the weekend series began.

"We were overdue," Nationals manager Davey Johnson. "This is a whole new ball club. There's great makeup, great talent on this ballclub. It's only going to get better."

Boston manager Bobby Valentine stormed out of the dugout during the bottom of the ninth to argue a strike and was quickly ejected by home plate umpire Alan Porter. Valentine argued vehemently well after the ejection and came awfully close to making contact a couple of times before leaving the field.

Valentine felt Bernadina should have been called out on Alfredo Aceves' 2-2 fastball, which Porter called a ball.

"You have to talk to the hitters," Valentine said. "The game is simple: Throw it over the plate, call it a strike; don't throw it over the plate, call it a ball. Simple. That's all anyone asks. I know it's been going on for 100 years, and I'm not the first one to say it, but this was a pretty lousy series."

Valentine said his frustration had been building throughout the weekend, culminating with a face-to-face tirade with Porter.

"It's not right," Valentine said. "Good umpires had a real bad series this series -- a real bad series -- and it went one way. There should be a review."

He can just about count on that after his on-field actions and postgame comments.

Boston catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia, who struck out four times, backed Valentine, although he chose his words much more carefully.

"Nobody's perfect and we understand that," Saltalamacchia said. "We're not asking to expand the strike zone. We're not asking him to completely tighten it up. We're just asking for him to be equal on both sides."

The Montreal Expos went 0-6 at Fenway before the team moved to Washington and became the Nationals, who were swept 3-0 in a 2006 series at Fenway.

The "new" Nationals are unbeaten at Boston's iconic ballpark.

"It shows you we're a good ballclub and that we're not scared of AL East teams. And we're going to come in here and play our best ball," said Jordan Zimmermann, who struck out seven in seven innings before Washington's bullpen and bench rallied for the win.

Rookie Bryce Harper, who was out of the starting lineup because of a sore back, ended up scoring the winning run after drawing a walk while pinch hitting in the ninth with the game tied at 3-all.

Harper's back didn't slow him down as he came all the way around from first on Bernadina's double to right with two outs.

"Something in the gap or down the line you better score. I knew it was going to be maybe a close play at the plate, and thankfully it wasn't," Harper said. "I'm just going. Two outs, you don't really need anything."

Valentine had just left the field when Tyler Clippard ended the game by striking out Dustin Pedroia, picking up his third save of the series and eighth on the season.

Reliever Tom Gorzelanny (2-1) pitched a scoreless eighth and ended up with the win. Aceves (0-4) took the loss, Boston's fifth in a six-game homestand.

David Ortiz hit his 14th homer of the season for the Red Sox, who couldn't hang on to a 2-1 lead. Danny Espinosa hit a two-out double with two runners on in the seventh, putting Washington up 3-2.

Boston tied it in the bottom half after Ryan Sweeney and Nick Punto hit back-to-back singles to start the inning, but Sweeney was the only one to score, coming home on a fielder's choice by Scott Podsednik.

Strasburg Stems Nationals Streak

The Washington Nationals manager called a brief meeting to give his mildly slumping club a confidence boost, and Stephen Strasburg responded with another brilliant performance to lift the Nationals to a 4-2 victory over the Pirates on Thursday.

"That's a good night to have a team meeting, isn't it?" Johnson said with a laugh.

Strasburg (3-0) struck out a season-high 13 as Washington snapped a three-game losing streak.

"When the stuff's working like tonight, you've got to go out there and just throw it, and it doesn't really matter what you throw," Strasburg said.

The performance was reminiscent of Strasburg's electric major league debut against the Pirates nearly two years ago. The former No. 1 pick struck out 14 over seven innings on June 8, 2010, to announce to the baseball world the hype was real.

An elbow injury cut short his rookie season and required reconstructive surgery that sidelined Strasburg for a year, and the Nationals have been careful about bringing their ace along slowly.

It might be time to take off the shackles.

"He thinks he's not throwing hard but the ball's coming out of his hand real quick, and he's also got a good changeup and a good curveball," Johnson said. "I mean, he's nasty."

Roger Bernadina and Adam LaRoche both homered in the sixth off Pittsburgh's Kevin Correia (1-3) to erase a two-run deficit. Henry Rodriguez pitched the ninth for his seventh save.

Strasburg (3-0) lowered his ERA to 1.64 by overpowering one of baseball's weaker lineups. He struck out seven straight batters at one point and for a moment it appeared he was on his way to a record-breaking night.

It didn't happen after Strasburg cooled in the later innings, but he made a believer of Pittsburgh manager Clint Hurdle.

"That's a good arm with a kid with a head to work with it," Hurdle said. "The progress he's made in a very short period of time at this level is something."

The Nationals have been one of baseball's biggest surprises over the first month of the season and began the day in a virtual tie for first with Atlanta atop the NL East. Still, Johnson was so concerned after watching his squad drop three straight -- including two to Pittsburgh -- he called a meeting a couple of hours before the game.

Johnson offered a gentle reminder to his young club that there's no reason to panic, and stressed he wasn't going to let a little dip lead to massive changes.

The way Strasburg is pitching, there's no need.

Still, Pittsburgh somehow steadied itself long enough in the fourth inning to take the lead behind RBI singles from Andrew McCutchen and Neil Walker.

Correia lacks Strasburg's power and instead kept the Pirates in it with his precision. He cruised through the first five innings but wobbled just long enough in the sixth to give up the lead.

Bernadina led off the sixth with his first home run of the season to put Washington on the board. Ryan Zimmerman walked and LaRoche -- a former Pirate who was booed heavily at every turn throughout the series -- drilled his sixth homer of the season into the Nationals' bullpen behind the wall in centre to put Washington ahead 3-2.

"I needed to be efficient," said Correia, who gave up three runs on six hits in seven innings, striking out one and walking two. "I did that. If I could take back a pitch or two, it could have been a pretty good game. When you're facing one of the better pitchers in the league you've got little room for error and that cost us the game."

Given the lead for the first time all night, Strasburg nearly gave it up. He threw 12 balls during a 14-pitch span to load the bases.

Jones stepped in and knew what was coming and swung at the first pitch he saw, fouling it off. The strike appeared to settle Strasburg's nerves, and he fanned Jones with a 95 mph heater to get out of the jam.

"He gave me a couple pitches to hit," Jones said. "I just swung right through them."

Rick Ankiel added some insurance in the ninth with a solo homer and Rodriguez, who blew a save on Tuesday night in a 5-4 loss, bounced back by handling the Pirates in the bottom of the inning.

"You never want to get swept," LaRoche said. "So any time you're down two games in a series, it's always nice to pick up that last one. (Strasburg) pitched his butt off, got out of a couple jams for us and we were able to score some runs."

Washington rookie outfielder Bryce Harper went 1 for 4 and committed his first major league error in the fourth when he tried to gun down Jose Tabata at the plate. The ball bounced off catcher Jesus Flores, allowing McCutchen to move to second.

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