Nationals 3, Cardinals 2: Denard Span lifted a walk-off sacrifice fly to left in the bottom of the ninth inning to plate Danny Espinosa as Washington earned a four-game split at home against St. Louis.

Espinosa singled with one out in the ninth and Jose Lobaton followed a single of his own to put runners on the corners against Seth Maness (0-1). Pinch hitter Nate McLouth, who entered the game 2-for-27 on the season, drew a walk to load the bases and Span came through seven pitches later as Espinosa scored easily when Jon Jay’s throw was off-line.

Rafael Soriano (1-0) worked a perfect ninth for the victory as Washington defeated St. Louis for only the fourth time in the last 16 meetings (including the postseason). Lobaton and Espinosa each had a season-high three hits while St. Louis starter Shelby Miller contributed an RBI double.

Matt Adams opened up the second with a double and advanced to third on Yadier Molina’s flare to right before coming around to score on Jhonny Peralta’s double-play grounder to give St. Louis an early lead. Peter Bourjos ended a string of four consecutive strikeouts by Washington starter Stephen Strasburg with a two-out walk in the fifth and Miller ripped a first-pitch fastball from into the gap in left-center.

After stranding 11 runners through six innings – including at least two from the third to the sixth – the Nationals finally broke through in the seventh when Ian Desmond and Espinosa singled home runs on consecutive pitches off Cardinals reliever Carlos Martinez to even it up. Washington put two more runners on in the eighth against Kevin Siegrist before Pat Neshek diffused the rally.

GAME NOTEBOOK: Strasburg yielded two runs on five hits and a walk while fanning nine through six innings to increase his major league-leading strikeout total to 42. … Miller, who matched a career high with five walks over 5 1/3 innings and struck out seven, lowered his ERA in three career starts against Washington to 0.50 ERA. … The Nationals went 2-for-12 with runners in scoring position and left 17 men on base.