ST. LOUIS (AP) - Lance Lynn threw eight innings of two-hit ball and Matt Adams homered on his first swing since coming off the disabled list, leading the St. Louis Cardinals to a 1-0 victory over Jordan Zimmermann and the Washington Nationals on Friday night.
Lynn (7-4) struck out eight with no walks against the National League East leaders, who had won 10 of 13. Trevor Rosenthal added three more strikeouts in the ninth, working around rookie second baseman Kolten Wong's two-out error on Dennard Span's routine grounder for his 18th save in 21 chances.
Zimmermann (5-3) gave up three hits, two of them by Adams, in eight innings. He is 0-5 against the Cardinals and 0-2 against the Pirates, the only two NL teams he hasn't beaten.
The Cardinals have won 10 of the last 12 regular-season meetings, and beat the Nationals in the 2012 NL division series.
Lynn retired his first 16 batters. He got some help from his defense when shortstop Jhonny Peralta went into the hole to snare Jayson Werth's one-hop liner in the fourth and threw to first to end the inning.
Jose Loboton singled with one out in the sixth for Washington's first baserunner and took an extra base when left fielder Matt Holliday bobbled the ball. But Zimmermann popped out and Denard Span flied out to center to end the inning.
Lynn is 22-9 at home for his career, and shut out the Yankees in his first career complete game on May 27. He surrendered six runs in a total of 8 1-3 innings in a pair of losses in his next two starts at Toronto and against the Giants.
Zimmermann threw a two-hit shutout at San Diego his last start and worked 19 2-3 consecutive scoreless innings before Adams hit his fourth homer on a 1-0 pitch with two outs in the second. Adams was activated from the 15-day disabled list from a strained left calf earlier Friday and rookie Oscar Taveras was optioned to Triple-A Memphis.
The game was played in a snappy 2 hours, 3 minutes, fastest of the season at Busch Stadium.
NOTES: A pair of 2009 first-round draft picks are matched on Saturday with Stephen Strasburg (6-4, 2.99 ERA) opposing Shelby Miller (7-5, 3.59 ERA). Miller is 2-0 with a 0.50 ERA against Washington. ... All four of Adams' homers have come at home. ... Nationals 1B Adam LaRoche made two nice defensive plays, scooping up the relay on Peralta's double-play ball in the fifth and then snaring Matt Carpenter's smash in the sixth.
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