WASHINGTON (AP) — Lance Lynn was sharper than he had had been all season, which made it all the more frustrating for him when he failed to make it out of the sixth inning.

Bryce Harper didn’t get past the sixth inning either, but for a completely different reason.

Lynn won his fourth straight start and delivered an RBI double after yet another error by Washington, and the St. Louis Cardinals scored three unearned runs to beat Jordan Zimmermann and the Nationals 4-3 Saturday.

Lynn (4-0) gave up one run and five hits over 5 2/3 innings in becoming the NL’s first four-game winner. After the right-hander lost his control in the sixth, Kevin Siegrist retired Danny Espinosa on a two-out fly ball with the bases loaded.

“I’m not going to lie to you, my stuff was better today than it’s been all year,” Lynn said. “That’s the disappointing thing about the way the game finished for me today.”

Harper, meanwhile, was pulled after Nationals first-year manager Matt Williams questioned the manner in which the young outfielder ran out a comebacker leading off the sixth.

“Lack of hustle. That’s why he came out of the game,” Williams said. “He and I made an agreement, this team made an agreement, that when we play the game, that we hustle at all times.”

Now in his third season, the 21-year-old Harper is one of Washington’s brightest stars. The two-time All-Star once ran into a wall in the relentless pursuit of a fly ball, but on this day Harper was left explaining an act of nonchalance.

“I respect what he did,” Harper said of Williams’ decision. “That’s part of the game.”

Tony Cruz drove in two runs for the Cardinals, who have won nine of the last 10 games between the teams.

St. Louis took control with a three-run second inning fueled by third baseman Anthony Rendon’s throwing error, capped by Lynn’s first career extra-base hit. The Nationals, under former Gold Glove third baseman Williams, are averaging more than an error per game and lead the majors in miscues.

“I feel like we made a mistake, a couple of minor mistakes that cost us, but we were in the game,” Williams said.

Trevor Rosenthal worked the ninth for his fifth save, but not without difficulty. Washington put runners on second and third with one out, and Kevin Frandsen drove in a run with a groundout before Rosenthal struck out Jayson Werth on three pitches.

Frandsen was batting in Harper’s spot in the lineup.

“Kevin Frandsen put on a nice ‘AB’ against Rosenthal,” Williams said, “but (Harper’s) spot came up with the ability to win the game. And that’s a shame for his teammates.”

Said Harper: “Man, that’s tough to watch, not being able to be up there in that situation. It’s something that I thrive on and I want to be in. You know, it’s in the past and there’s nothing we can do about it now.”

Williams said Harper would start Sunday in the series finale.

Espinosa homered for the Nationals, but he was the only player to get past first base against Lynn until the sixth.

Zimmermann (1-1) allowed four runs, only one of them earned, in seven innings. He struck out six and walked two after coming in with a 0-3 with an 8.27 ERA in six career games against the Cardinals.

Zimmermann took the loss but probably deserved a better fate. The right-hander has beaten every NL team except St. Louis and Pittsburgh (one start).

St. Louis bolted in front for good in the second inning. After Rendon threw wide on a potential force play at second, Cruz sliced a two-out, two-run single to right field and scored on a double by Lynn. It was the pitcher’s first extra-base hit in 115 career at-bats and his fourth RBI.

“I was trying to hold it to a single,” Lynn joked. “I don’t like to run.”

The tainted inning extended a series trend that began Thursday night, when the Nationals made three errors, and continued Friday when Washington scored two unearned runs in a 3-1 win.

Espinosa led off the fifth with his first home run since last May 5.

In the Washington sixth, Werth singled and Adam LaRoche walked before Rendon looked at a third strike after getting ahead in the count 3-0. Lynn then walked Ian Desmond on four pitches before Siegrist retired Espinosa.

Matt Holliday delivered a two-out RBI single for St. Louis in the seventh, and successive doubles by LaRoche and Rendon got Washington to 4-2 in the eighth.

— Associated Press —

WASHINGTON (AP) — Washington’s Ian Desmond took a substantial lead off third base in the seventh inning of a tie game, wondering whether St. Louis pitcher Michael Wacha might leave a changeup in the dirt.

“I was just kind of anticipating,” Desmond explained later.

Sure enough, Wacha threw a wild pitch that bounced away from catcher Yadier Molina, who compounded the problem with a throwing error as Desmond charged home, leading to a second unearned run on the play. That was enough to propel Gio Gonzalez and the Nationals to a 3-1 victory Friday night, ending their eight-game losing streak against the Cardinals.

“I saw it bounce off a little bit. I said, `We’ve got to take a chance here,” Desmond said. “And fortunately for us, it worked out.”

Said Nationals managed Matt Williams: “You never see a ball get away from Yadi. Ever.”

That’s because Molina has won six consecutive NL Gold Glove awards. But his miscue fit, somehow, with this series so far. A night after the Nationals made three errors — they initially were charged with four, but one was changed to a hit Friday — in an 8-0 loss, it was the Cardinals’ turn to be sloppy.

St. Louis finished with three errors, two coming in the pivotal seventh inning.

A pair of singles and an error by third baseman Matt Carpenter — who dropped Wacha’s throw of Danny Espinosa’s bunt — loaded the bases with no outs.

“I stretched before I saw where it was going and ended up missing it. It was a good throw. I should have caught it,” Carpenter said. “But it tipped off my glove and ended up being the difference in the game.”

Wacha struck out Nate McLouth and got Jose Lobaton to hit a roller that led to a forceout at home. But with pinch hitter Zach Walters up, Wacha’s pitch darted to his catcher’s right.

“Just spiked a changeup,” Wacha said.

Molina tried to make an underhand toss to Wacha, but the throw — which did not appear in time to beat Desmond, anyway — was off-target. It went into the Cardinals’ dugout, allowing Espinosa to score, too.

“I’m just trying to make a play,” Molina said. “I threw it away. My fault.”

Desmond shouted and punched the air, a 1-1 game suddenly 3-1.

“Desi made the decision instantly to get toward the plate,” Williams said. “He read it correctly.”

Wacha (2-1) gave up five hits and one earned run. On Sept. 24, in his ninth career start, Wacha no-hit the Nationals until there were two outs in the ninth inning, when Ryan Zimmerman’s infield single ended the bid.

This time, Washington had three hits by the third, when Anthony Rendon’s solo shot came off a first-pitch 74 mph curveball.

Gonzalez (3-1) allowed one run and four hits in seven innings, retiring the last 11 batters he faced. He had seven strikeouts and one walk as Washington beat St. Louis for the first time since Game 4 of the teams’ 2012 NL division series.

“It was one of those games that we needed. We needed to bounce back,” Gonzalez said about Friday. “We needed something like this. It put us back together. Now we go from here, one game at a time.”

Nationals reliever Tyler Clippard came on for the eighth and needed 26 pitches just to get one out. With runners on second and third, and No. 3-4 batters Matt Holliday and Allen Craig coming up, Clippard was replaced by Drew Storen.

“You’ve got two great hitters right there, guys in scoring position,” Storen said.

He was the closer back in October 2012, when he let the Cardinals erase a 7-5 deficit with two outs in the top of the ninth of Game 5 to win 9-7.

But this time, Storen got Holliday on a popup in foul territory, then Craig on a groundout, before Rafael Soriano shook off a comebacker that hit his leg and a walk in the ninth to earn his fourth save.

“A good win. They’re a tremendous team. They’ve gotten the best of us in the past,” Rendon said. “But we’re trying to change that.”

— Associated Press —