Nationals Stave Off Elimination, Game Four Scheduled Tuesday

Kolten Wong and John Lackey have helped the St. Louis Cardinals grab a two-games-to-one lead in the National League Division Series.

Wong belted a tiebreaking, two-run homer in the bottom of the seventh to lift the Redbirds past the Los Angeles Dodgers 3-1 in St. Louis. Wong's blast came off Scott Elbert, who entered the game after Hyun-Jin Ryu (hee-YUHN'-jihn YOO) held the Cards to a run and five hits in six innings.

Lackey picked up the victory by holding L.A. to a run and five hits in seven innings. Lackey had a shutout and a 1-0 lead until Hanley Ramirez lined an RBI double in the sixth.

Matt Carpenter stayed hot by smacking a solo homer and a double. Carpenter is hitting .500 with three homers and seven RBIs in the series.

The fourth game of the series will be played in St. Louis today, and the Dodgers have announced that Clayton Kershaw will start on three days' rest. Kershaw is the heavy favorite to win a third NL Cy Young and won on short rest in the NL Division Series last year. But he was tagged for eight runs in 6 2/3 innings in the opener of the series last Friday.

Meanwhile, the Washington Nationals have extended their season at least one more day.

Doug Fister pitched shutout ball and the Nats took advantage of a throwing error to beat the Giants 4-1 in Game 3 of the National League Division Series San Francisco. Fister allowed four hits in seven shutout innings to improve to 4-2 with a 2.60 ERA over 55 1/3 innings in nine postseason appearances.

The game was scoreless in the seventh until losing pitcher Madison Bumgarner threw away Wilson Ramos' bunt attempt, allowing two runs to score. Asdrubal (as-DROO'-bul) Cabrera followed with an RBI single to make it 3-0 in the seventh, two innings before Bryce Harper homered.

The Nats blanked the Giants until Brandon Crawford hit a sacrifice fly in the ninth.

The series stays in San Francisco for Game 4 today. Gio Gonzalez starts for the Nationals against Ryan Vogelsong.