Dylan Carlson belts 2 HRs as Cardinals club Nationals

Dylan Carlson hit two home runs and Jordan Montgomery pitched seven strong innings, boosting the St. Louis Cardinals to a four-game winning streak with Tuesday night's 9-3 victory against the host Washington Nationals.

The Cardinals won for just the second time in the last 13 games started by Montgomery (4-7), who limited the Nationals to one run on four hits and one walk. He struck out six while matching his longest outing of the season.

Willson Contreras had three hits, including two doubles, and drove in two runs, Paul DeJong belted a two-run homer and Brendan Donovan provided three hits for the Cardinals. St. Louis racked up 14 hits and walked four times, though it stranded 10 runners on base.

The Nationals are on a five-game losing streak.

Carlson opened the scoring with a two-run homer in the second inning. His solo blast in the sixth was his fifth long ball of the season and stretched the Cardinals' lead to 5-1.

Nationals starter MacKenzie Gore (3-6) worked six innings, giving up five runs on nine hits. Washington has lost nine of its last 10 games when Gore has pitched.

The Nationals scored on Stone Garrett's fourth-inning RBI double to cut their deficit to 2-1.

But the Cardinals stretched their lead to 4-1 in the fifth on Nolan Arenado's sacrifice fly and Contreras' run-scoring double.

Contreras added an RBI single in the seventh. Paul Goldschmidt's run-scoring groundout made it 7-1 in the eighth before Lane Thomas lofted a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the inning for the Nationals.

DeJong's 11th homer of the season came with two outs in the ninth inning. Riley Adams poked a run-scoring triple in the bottom of the ninth.

Garrett and Victor Robles each had two of Washington's eight hits.

Drew VerHagen and Jake Woodford both threw one inning in relief of Montgomery.

Washington relievers Thaddeus Ward and Hunter Harvey each gave up two runs.