Paul Goldschmidt connected on a 2-2 pitch from Dylan Floro to send St Louis Cardinals fans home happy from Busch Stadium, as the Redbirds avoided the sweep Sunday afternoon with a 4-3 win over the Washington Nationals.

St Louis entered the game on a three-game losing streak, having fallen behind the New York Mets in the wild card race. The Redbirds struck quickly with Willson Contreras’ home run in the first, followed by a Pedro Pagés triple in the second. The Nationals would tie the game in the third with an RBI groundout by CJ Abrams and double from Lane Thomas. Juan Yepez put the Nats up in the sixth with a sacrifice fly to score James Wood. The Cardinals tied the game back up in the seventh with a Michael Siani single scoring Lars Nootbaar.

Ryan Helsley claimed his fourth win of the season after pitching scoreless ninth, allowing one hit. Starter Miles Mikolas allowed three runs on seven hits and one walk while fanning three in six innings of work.

At 54-51, the Cardinals are one game behind the Mets and a half-game behind Arizona for the third wild card spot, while six games behind Milwaukee in the NL Central. The Cardinals remain at Busch Stadium for an interleague matchup against Texas on Monday evening, with first pitch at 6:45.