ST. LOUIS — Jordan Zimmermann always has trouble with the St. Louis Cardinals. Game 2 of the NL Division Series was no exception.

The Washington Nationals right-hander retired the side in order in the first inning, then struggled to get anybody else out in a 12-4 loss Monday that evened the best-of-five series at a game apiece.

Carlos Beltran hit the last two of the Cardinals' four homers and St. Louis chased an ineffective Zimmermann after three innings. Allen Craig and Daniel Descalso also went deep to help the defending World Series champions build a big lead that compensated for a two-inning start from an ailing Jaime Garcia.

"They have a great lineup," Zimmermann said. "You get a few guys out and then you've got Beltran, (David) Freese and it never stops. You have to make your pitches, and I wasn't able to do that tonight."

Zimmermann has never beaten the Cardinals in six career starts counting the postseason, allowing at least five runs in all but one of them. He yielded five runs and seven hits Monday, his shortest start of the season.

After the perfect first inning for Zimmermann, seven of the next 11 batters reached safely as the Cardinals scored four in the second and one in the third to go up 5-1.

Washington catcher Kurt Suzuki said Zimmermann had the same stuff in the second inning as he did in the first. The Cardinals were the ones who made the key adjustments.

"They just came out and put some good at-bats together," Suzuki said. "They put the ball in play, moved runners around, and when you do that, you are going score some runs."

"You hate to get blown out, but you get walked off, it probably hurts a little bit more," Nationals outfielder Jayson Werth said. "The game was out of reach for a while. No big deal, a loss is a loss. We'll head home and feel good about it."

Wednesday's Game 3 will be the first postseason contest in the nation's capital since the original Senators played the New York Giants in the 1933 World Series. Edwin Jackson starts for Washington against longtime Cardinals ace Chris Carpenter.

Beltran homered twice in the postseason for the third time in his career. His drive off Gonzalez in the sixth banged off the facade in the third deck in left, estimated at 444 feet.

Nationals rookie Bryce Harper went 1 for 5 and struck out four times. He also was thrown out at third base on an ill-advised attempt to advance. He is 1 for 10 in the series with six strikeouts.

"Do I look overanxious? You think so?" Harper said to a reporter. "Maybe you should be a hitting coach."

Cardinals 12, Nationals 4

WASHINGTON	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg
Werth rf	4	1	1	0	1	2	.222
Harper cf	5	0	1	0	0	4	.100
Zimmerman 3b	4	1	2	2	0	1	.333
LaRoche 1b	4	1	1	1	1	1	.125
Morse lf	4	0	2	0	0	0	.375
Desmond ss	4	1	1	0	0	1	.500
Espinosa 2b	3	0	1	0	1	0	.167
K.Suzuki c	4	0	0	0	0	2	.143
Zimmermann p	1	0	1	1	0	0	1.000
Bernadina ph	0	0	0	0	1	0	—
Stammen p	0	0	0	0	0	0	—
C.Garcia p	0	0	0	0	0	0	—
Lombardozzi ph	1	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Mic.Gonzalez p	0	0	0	0	0	0	—
Mattheus p	0	0	0	0	0	0	—
Tracy ph	1	0	0	0	0	0	.000
S.Burnett p	0	0	0	0	0	0	—
Gorzelanny p	0	0	0	0	0	0	—
Totals	35	4	10	4	4	11

ST. LOUIS	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg
Jay cf	5	1	2	3	0	1	.250
Beltran rf	4	2	2	3	1	0	.375
Holliday lf	4	1	0	0	1	1	.000
Craig 1b	5	2	3	1	0	1	.333
Y.Molina c	4	1	2	0	1	0	.286
Freese 3b	3	1	1	1	1	0	.429
Descalso 2b	4	2	2	2	0	0	.333
Kozma ss	3	2	1	0	1	2	.200
J.Garcia p	0	0	0	0	0	0	—
Schumaker ph	1	0	0	1	0	0	.000
Lynn p	0	0	0	0	0	0	—
J.Kelly p	0	0	0	0	0	0	—
S.Robinson ph	1	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Mujica p	0	0	0	0	0	0	—
Boggs p	0	0	0	0	0	0	—
M.Carpenter ph	1	0	0	0	0	1	.000
Rosenthal p	0	0	0	0	0	0	—
Totals	35	12	13	11	5	6

Washington	010 020 100	—	4	10	2
St. Louis	041 201 04x	—	12	13	0

E — Morse (1), Espinosa (1). LOB — Washington 9, St. Louis 5. 2B — Harper (1), Craig (1), Freese (1), Kozma (1). 3B — Jay (1). HR — Zimmerman (1), off Lynn; LaRoche (1), off Lynn; Craig (1), off Zimmermann; Descalso (1), off Stammen; Beltran (1), off Mic.Gonzalez; Beltran (2), off S.Burnett. RBI — Zimmerman 2 (2), LaRoche (1), Zimmermann (1), Jay 3 (4), Beltran 3 (3), Craig (1), Freese (1), Descalso 2 (2), Schumaker (1). SB — Jay (2). S — Lynn. SF — Zimmerman. RLISP — Washington 3 (Morse, Harper, Tracy); St. Louis 4 (Craig 2, Kozma, Y.Molina). RISP — Washington 1 for 7; St. Louis 5 for 14. GIDP — Descalso. DP — Washington 1, St. Louis 1.

Nationals	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	ERA
Zimmermnn L, 0-1	3	7	5	5	0	2	15.00
Stammen	1/3	1	2	2	2	0	13.50
C.Garcia	1-2/3	0	0	0	2	2	0.00
Mic.Gonzalez	1	1	1	1	0	1	9.00
Mattheus	1	0	0	0	0	0	0.00
S.Burnett	2/3	3	4	3	1	1	40.50
Gorzelanny	1/3	1	0	0	0	0	0.00

Cardinals	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	ERA
J.Garcia	2	2	1	1	3	3	4.50
Lynn W, 1-0	3	3	2	2	1	5	5.40
J.Kelly	1	0	0	0	0	0	0.00
Mujica	1	2	1	1	0	0	4.50
Boggs	1	2	0	0	0	0	0.00
Rosenthal	1	1	0	0	0	3	0.00

Pitches — Zimmermann 63, Stammen 20, C.Garcia 28, Mic.Gonzalez 16, Mattheus 12, S.Burnett 29, Gorzelanny 3, J.Garcia 51, Lynn 50, J.Kelly 8, Mujica 11, Boggs 17, Rosenthal 22. Umpires — Home, Marvin Hudson; First, Joe West; Second, Jim Joyce; Third, Alfonso Marquez; Right, Paul Emmel; Left, Ed Hickox. T — 3:27. A — 45,840.