OCTOBER SKIES: Carlos Beltran added to his playoff power resume with two home runs in yesterday’s 12-4 Cardinals rout of the Nationals in NLDS Game 2. (Getty Images)
ST. LOUIS — Carlos Beltran’s resume might be screaming “greatest postseason hitter of this generation” if not for that little incident with the Mets in 2006.
Just to tell everybody he’s still a viable October force, Beltran yesterday slammed two monstrous home runs for the Cardinals in their 12-4 demolition of the Nationals in Game 2 of the NLDS at Busch Stadium.
That’s the same Beltran who has 13 home runs and 22 RBIs in 25 career postseason games. It’s also the same Beltran who, with the Mets, infamously took a called strike three against the Cardinals’ Adam Wainwright to end the 2006 NLCS.
Yesterday, Beltran hit a solo homer in the sixth inning and two-run blast in the eighth, helping the Cardinals tie the series at 1-1 heading into tomorrow’s Game 3 at Nationals Park.
“I just want to contribute,” Beltran said. “As ballplayers you want to go out there and come through, but there are going to be days where it isn’t what happens. I’m just going to enjoy today.”
When the Nationals shut down ace Stephen Strasburg last month as a precaution because of his innings count, there was still optimism Washington’s rotation was deep enough to win a world championship. But much of that optimism was predicated upon the idea Jordan Zimmermann would step up in October.
The right-hander was awful yesterday, allowing five earned runs on seven hits over three innings before the Cardinals turned the game into a runaway.
“We know this offense has the potential to do this,” Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said. “It was nice to see this and hopefully it becomes contagious and the guys just keep going.”
Zimmermann was 12-8 with a 2.94 ERA for the Nationals during the regular season, but was destined for a short afternoon after surrendering four runs on five hits in the second inning to put the Nationals in a 4-1 hole.
“He didn’t really make a lot of adjustments out there,” Nationals manager Davey Johnson said. “A good fastball-hitting club, you have to use both sides of the plate and he didn’t really use his slider much early on. They are a good fastball-hitting club.”
The offensive fireworks came a day after each team left 10 runners on base in a 3-2 Nationals victory — a game that was decided by pinch hitter Tyler Moore’s two-run single in the eighth inning.
Yesterday, the Cardinals received a Herculean bullpen effort, as Lance Lynn, Joe Kelly, Edward Mujica, Mitchell Boggs and Trevor Rosenthal combined to pitch seven innings and allow three runs behind ineffective Jaime Garcia.
Matheny said Garcia experienced arm discomfort and was expected to receive an MRI exam last night.
The Nationals made a dent in the fifth inning with consecutive homers from Ryan Zimmerman and Adam LaRoche against Lynn that cut the Cardinals’ lead to 7-3. But Beltran hit a solo homer off the facade of the mezzanine in left the following inning and Jon Jay swatted an RBI triple in the eighth before Beltran hit a two-run blast to deep left-center for the team’s fourth homer of the game.
We needed to win, and that was a must-win game for us,” Beltran said. “Unfortunately for Garcia he wasn’t able to go as far as we thought, but offensively we did a good job.’’