WASHINGTON — It took a tag-along pinch runner inserted into the game as part of a larger move to deliver the biggest hit of the Cardinals’ comeback.

Nathan Church, a late-game sub mostly because of his glove, snapped out of deep freeze to deliver the two-run homer that yanked the Cardinals back into the game Tuesday night and toward an extra-inning victory. Church’s homer ended his stretch of eight games without a hit as it tied the game and primed the Cardinals to pull ahead in the 10th inning and best the Washington Nationals, 7-6.

Thomas Saggese broke the tie with a leadoff double in extra innings, and rookie JJ Wetherholt added the important second run with a two-out double to score Saggese.

Riley O’Brien allowed one run in the 10th before striking the final batter to secure his third save.

Five of the Cardinals’ six victories this season have been comebacks, and with the win Tuesday night at Nationals Park, they improved to 3-0 in extra innings through 11 games.

Stuck in a 0-for-22 spiral and out of the starting lineup in each of the first two games in Washington, a game-changing chance in the top of the sixth put the wheels in motion to bring Church into the game.

He had, at best, a bit part in the bigger move.

But he proved the more vital addition to the game.

Church entered as a pinch runner for pinch hitter Ramon Urias in the sixth. While that chance for the Cardinals fizzled to leave Church at first and the bases loaded, Church remained in the game to cover center field, and that brought him to the plate two innings later. A leadoff walk had given the Cardinals another crack at tying the game, and Church pounced.

He drilled a pitch from reliever Gus Varland into the Nats bullpen to tie the game 5-5. The homer was Church’s first hit since he tallied three on opening day.

Cardinals starter Matthew Liberatore had a laborious five innings. He averaged five batters an inning as he tried to sort through nine hits and two walks by the Nationals. The top two spots in Washington’s order went 4 for 6 against him and scored three of the four runs he allowed. Those numbers would have been worse for Liberatore — but better for the top of the Nats order — if not for the Cardinals benefiting from two overturned calls.

The late rally would assure no decision for Liberatore who has yet to win or lose a game in three starts this season.

Liberatore needed 92 pitches to get 15 outs.

Wood. Fire.

For the first six innings, Tuesday could have been the James Wood Game in D.C.

The Nationals leadoff hitter opened the bottom of the first with single. And he scored. He led off the bottom of the third with a solo homer. And that tied the score. In the sixth inning against reliever Gordon Graceffo, Wood worked a walk. He stole second base.

And then he scored.

Wood and Curtis Mead — the top two hitters in the Nationals' lineup — combined for four runs and five hits through the first six innings of the game. They each had a solo homer off Liberatore. And Mead’s RBI to score Wood in the sixth inning widened the Nationals’ lead to 5-2. Wood scored three of those runs.

It took right-hander George Soriano to quiet Wood.

The Cardinals reliever struck out Wood to end the eighth with a 92.8 mph change-up. Wood took it for a called third strike.

Challenges bend 1st toward Cardinals

If not for Major League Baseball’s embrace of technology and challenge options for both calls at the plate and plays in the field, the Nationals would have opened up a larger lead on the Cardinals, and Liberatore’s outing could have been much shorter.

A year ago, the first four batters of the inning would have reached base.

That was interrupted, however, when Pedro Pages challenged a full-count pitch to No. 2 hitter Mead. Initially called a ball for a walk, the call was overturned by an Automated Ball-Strike challenge, and that flipped a base runner into an out for Liberatore.

That proved essential. After allowing a leadoff single to Wood and two more singles in the game, the walk would have assured at least another run or the first run and bases loaded with no outs. ABS give Liberatore an escape route.

It would take instant replay to access it.

Liberatore got a ground ball from Joey Wiemer to shortstop Masyn Winn. The turn at second was tight, and Wetherholt’s throw to first was close. Wiemer was originally ruled safe and first, and that brought Brady House home from third for a tie game, 2-2. The Cardinals challenged the call, and replay showed the throw beat Wiemer.

Instead of a tie game, the Cardinals had a third out, and Liberatore ended the first inning with a 2-1 lead and two overturned calls to help make it that way.

Strategizing in a pinch

As far as compelling baseball decisions go so far this season, one surfaced in the sixth inning as the Cardinals had a chance to tie or overtake the Nationals.

Trailing by two runs going into the sixth, the Cardinals quickly put the runs to tie on base. Nolan Gorman opened with a single. Winn followed when he was struck in the batting helmet by a pitch. They both advanced on wild pitches. And they were still at third and second, respectively, when the inning found No. 9 hitter Victor Scott II with two outs.

Neither Saggese nor Pages had advanced the inning.

And Washington had lefty PJ Poulin awaiting Scott’s at-bat.

And tucked out of side at the base of the dugout steps, the Cardinals had right-hander Urias ready to pinch hit.

The strategy came in how the Cardinals weighed using two players for one spot: Would they opt to put Urias in the game and remove Gorman? Or, if the inning got as far Wetherholt, perhaps remove the rookie? There were many forks in the road that the Cardinals could take from that point — and it began by committing Urias and not, say, Jose Fermin as the pinch hitter for Scott, if they pinch hit at all.

Urias worked a walk, and all that could have followed was answered quickly when Church trotted out to pinch run for Urias. Church would go into center to cover for Scott, and Urias would not making a late-game defensive appearance.

The bases were loaded for Wetherholt.

And that’s how they stayed.

The lefty Poulin struck out Wetherholt to get the Nationals out of that inning, and despite all that strategizing, the Cardinals did not produce a run.

The biggest part of the move proved to be the pinch-runner.

2 trends continue

The failed rally in the sixth nearly gave way to a swift top of the seventh for the Cardinals before Jordan Walker resumed his power surge through the road trip. With two outs in the seventh inning, Walker connected for his second homer in as many days and his third home run of the road trip. Walker now has half as many homers on the road as the six he had for the entirety of the 2025 season.

Walker’s solo shot — his fourth homer total of the season — cut the Nationals’ lead to two runs and began to influence late-game relief choices as the Cardinals tried to freeze the deficit.

Another offensive streak for the start of the season continued in the first inning for the Cardinals. Wetherholt led off the game with a walk. He’s reached base safely in all 10 of his starts to begin his major league career. He’s the first Cardinal to do that since Walker. On Tuesday, Wetherholt added a stolen base to the walk and then scored on Walker’s ground out for a quick 1-0 lead.

The Cardinals opened up a two-run lead by the end of the first.

It had vanished by the time Wood took his second at-bat.

And the Cardinals would not get it back until the 10th.

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