ST. LOUIS – Three hits and an excruciating loss one day, double-digit runs and a laugher the next. The St. Louis Cardinals have been that type of team all season.

The defending World Series champions tied their NL Division Series with Washington at one game apiece by doing what they do best – forgetting about what happened the day before and concentrating on the game at hand. They lost the division series and NLCS openers last year, and look how that turned out.

Carlos Beltran hit the last two of the Cardinals’ four homers, and St. Louis chased an ineffective Jordan Zimmermann early in a 12-4 rout of the Nationals on Monday.