Morning Marquee: Cardinals take lead; Nationals extend the series

The power outage for the St. Louis Cardinals seems to have rectified itself and the worst possible time for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Matt Carpenter hit his third home run of the series, and Kolten Wong dealt the decisive blow with a two-run shot in the seventh as they took a 2-1 lead in the National League Divisional Series.

John Lackey was superb, pitching seven innings while allowing only one run. The game helped put the Cardinals back in the driver’s seat. Now, the Cards will only have to beat one of the two Dodger stars in Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke, not both in the final two games.

Carpenter, who had only eight home runs all year, had never homered in back-to-back games. He’s also hit all three of a different left-handed pitcher. Before this series, he had only done it twice in the last six months.

Doug Fister outdueled Madison Bumgarner, who made a critical throwing error in the seventh to help give the Washington Nationals the 4-1 victory.

In a scoreless tie, the San Francisco Giants were simply trying to sacrifice the runner to third. Bumgarner fielded on the first base side, then tried to nab Ian Desmond at third. The ball got away and the Nats took the lead. They added two more in the inning to give the bullpen some cushion, and help secure the victory for Fister.

The Nationals will be in another survival game as they look to push the series to Game 5, and bring the series back to D.C.

Here’s some headlines from around baseball:

‘2014 Cubs player review: Luis Valbuena’ – Cubbies Crib

‘Live another day; Fister delivers in Game 3’ – District on Deck

‘NLDS: Cardinals defeat Dodgers, lead series 2-1’ – Call to the Pen

‘Carpenter, Wong, Lackey talk 2014 NLDS Game 3’ – Redbird Rants