After the game he was left to answer questions
Posted: Sat Jul 02, 2016 8:17 amST. . LOUIS - The timing was perfect for Matt Adams dad to make a weekend visit to Busch Stadium. The burly first baseman is playing well after a stint on the 15-day disabled list, giving Jamie Adams a lot to smile about. "I think anybody here would like to have their parents around, especially on Fathers Day weekend," Adams said after hitting the go-ahead home run for the second straight game in a 4-1 victory over the Washington Nationals on Saturday. "Tonight was a little better," Adams said. "Coming the day before Fathers Day is great." Adams connected against Stephen Strasburg in St. Louis three-run seventh inning, driving a 3-1 offering over the wall in right-centre. On Friday, he homered on his first swing in his return from a left calf strain, lifting St. Louis to a 1-0 victory. "I think Im just waiting out the pitchers," Adams said. "I went down to Memphis to get my timing back and my confidence is up." The Cardinals batted around in the seventh with the help of two infield hits, a hit batter and two walks, one of them by Matt Holliday with the bases loaded against Drew Storen. Allen Craig added an infield hit off Storen on a slow tapper halfway down the third-base line. "What can you say?" Nationals catcher Jose Lobaton said. "Theyve been throwing good and today was one of those days." Jayson Werth had an RBI double in the first for the Nationals, who managed just four hits for a two-day total of six. Its their first series loss since losing a pair to Miami from May 26-28, and they will try to avoid a three-game sweep in the series finale Sunday. St. Louis reliever Randy Choate (1-2) needed one pitch to escape a bases-loaded threat in the seventh after a strong start from Shelby Miller, who gave up four hits in 6 2-3 innings. Pat Neshek worked a perfect eighth and Trevor Rosenthal finished for his 19th save in 22 chances. Strasburg allowed three runs and seven hits in 6 2-3 innings in his first career appearance in St. Louis. It was his 11th consecutive quality start, but he dropped to 5-3 with a 2.22 ERA in that stretch that began April 20 when he gave up two runs in six innings at home against the Cardinals. Strasburg didnt pitch in the 2012 NL division series against St. Louis after the Nationals shut him down the final month of the season. They lost a five-game series. "It was just fun to finally get a chance to pitch here," Strasburg said. "I wanted to go out there and give it everything I had and I feel like I did that, so I can sleep easy tonight." Strasburg allowed just two homers in his previous seven starts, and Adams long ball was the Cardinals first off the right-hander in four career appearances. "In the grand scheme of things you can always second-guess yourself, but I think if I threw a 3-1 changeup there, especially if hes in swing mode, I probably wouldnt have had that result," Strasburg said. "Who knows? Im not going to dwell on it too much, just going to learn from it and move on." St. Louis pitchers have permitted just one run in the Cardinals last five victories, including a pair of 5-0 wins over Toronto and a 1-0 victory against Tampa Bay. Miller matched his season best with seven strikeouts but walked four, including two for Strasburg, batting .077 with two hits on the year. Strasburgs second walk loaded the bases, but Denard Span grounded out against Choate. "Ill say this just to make him mad, but it looks like he got a little tired," manager Mike Matheny said of Miller. "Those are the things that they dont like to hear, so hell come back and have something to say about that for sure." Span went 0 for 4 and is hitless in his last 18 at-bats over the last five games. Anthony Rendon singled with one out in the first and scored from first on Werths double to right-centre. Craig made a sliding stop to cut the ball off and couldnt recover in time. It was tied in the third after a two-out rally started by Millers fourth hit of the season — and third double. The pitcher scored standing up on Matt Carpenters single. NOTES: Cardinals LHP Jaime Garcia (2-0, 4.26 ERA) opposes Doug Fister (5-1, 2.68 ERA) on Sunday. Garcia is 3-1 against the Nationals and Fister has won his last five starts. ... The game time of 2 hours, 3 minutes for the series opener Friday night was the shortest in the major leagues this season. ... The Cardinals have won 11 of the last 13 regular-season meetings with Washington and are 17-2 at home the last two years against the NL East. ... The Nationals are 30-2 when scoring four or more runs and 5-30 when scoring three or fewer runs. .ca provides the latest rumours, reports and speculation from around the NHL beat. . Currently, the Stars hold down the second and final wild card spot with 87 points while the Coyotes are one point back and the Predators are six points behind the Stars. All three teams have four games remaining. .J. -- A couple of comeback kids helped the New York Giants continue their winning streak.HOUSTON -- Just when it looked as if things couldnt get any worse for the Houston Texans in this dreadful season, it has. The Texans sunk to a new low on Sunday with a 13-6 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars to extend their franchise-record skid to nine games. A playoff team the past two years, Houston (2-9) was expected to contend for a Super Bowl in the preseason and won its first two games. Soon poor play by quarterback Matt Schaub and a slew of injuries started the losing streak. A change at quarterback to Case Keenum gave the Texans some life, but the losses continued to pile up and they were soon dealing with an illness to coach Gary Kubiak. But as bad as things had gotten, most people assumed that facing the lowly Jaguars (2-9), who picked up their first win just two weeks ago, would be just what Houston needed to break out of its funk. Instead Maurice Jones-Drews touchdown on Jacksonvilles first drive put the Jaguars on top, and they never trailed against an inept and ineffective Texans offence. "I respect the Jaguars, but I just never thought ... that this is something that would happen. Especially in the way it happened," running back Ben Tate said. "I feel very embarrassed and bad for the city." Josh Scobee kicked field goals of 30 and 53 yards to help the Jaguars win for the second time in three games. Keenum had the worst performance in his five starts, throwing for just 169 yards with an interception. Kubiak wouldnt commit to sticking with Keenum, saying he never makes decisions right after games. "Obviously we didnt execute worth a darn offensively," Kubiak said. "Defensively we were on the field pretty much the whole football game." Houston (2-9) was driving late when rookie Ryan Davis grabbed a one-handed interception off a deflection by Keshawn Martin to seal the win. The Jaguars pushed their lead to 13-6 with Scobees 53-yard field goal with about seven minutes remaining. Houston got lucky on its next drive when Keenum threw a ball right into the hands of Jacksonville rookie Johnathan Cyprien, but he couldnt hold on to it. It didnt matter much though as the Texans ended up punting a few plays later anyway. Keenum shouldered the blame for the loss. "Im very frustrated right now," Keenum said. "We had guys open, we hadd the right play calls and I didnt see them I didnt hit them. . " Jacksonville entered the game averaging an NFL-worst 61.7 yards rushing a game, but finished with 118. Chad Henne was 23 of 32 for 239 yards and Cecil Shorts led the team with eight catches for 71 yards. Kubiak coached from the booth for the second straight week on the advice of his doctors after returning to work last week after recovering from a mini-stroke. After the game he was left to answer questions about his job security and why his team cant get things together. Henne was sacked and fumbled on third down late in the third quarter. The Jaguars recovered and attempted a 49-yard field goal, but J.J. Watt swatted it down and the Texans returned it 25 yards. It was the second time this season that Watt has blocked a field goal. Houston didnt take advantage of the opportunity, and Jacksonville got the ball at its 40 after Dennis Johnson was stuffed for no gain on fourth-and-1 early in the fourth quarter. Rookie Denard Robinson came in for one play on Jacksonvilles next drive, and launched a long and accurate pass on third-and-5 downfield to Shorts. But Johnathan Joseph was there to break it up and the Jaguars had to punt again. Jones-Drew gave the Jaguars an early lead when he scored on fourth-and-1 from the 1 on the first drive. Jones-Drew had a 41-yard catch and run and Ace Sanders grabbed a 51-yard pass to set up the score. Jones-Drew had a 44-yard run in the second quarter on a drive that ended with a 30-yard field goal by Scobee to make it 10-0. Houston hadnt made a first down on four straight possessions and had just 20 total yards before a 29-yard run by Johnson 4 1/2 minutes before halftime. But the offence soon stalled again after Keenum was sacked and the Texans settled for a 49-yard field goal to cut the lead to 10-3 at halftime. Keenum was terrible in the first half, going 5 for 12 with 32 yards. His tough day started early when he was sacked by Andre Branch for a loss of 19 yards on third down on Houstons first series. NOTES: Olympic gold medallist Mary Lou Retton attended the game and served as an honorary team captain. ... Houstons Andre Johnson, who had a career-high 273 yards receiving in his previous game against Jacksonville, managed just 36 yards receiving on Sunday. ' ' '