Nationals closer Daniel Hudson returned to the team from paternity leave. Washington took a 1–0 lead in the top of the third inning on a home run by Michael A. Taylor. Washington starting pitcher Max Scherzer did not allow a hit until Paul Goldschmidt led off the seventh inning with a single; Scherzer allowed only the one hit, struck out 11, and walked two in seven innings. By holding the Cardinals hitless through the first five innings of each of their starts, Scherzer and teammate Aníbal Sánchez repeated a feat they accomplished in Games 1 and 2 of the 2013 American League Championship Series, a feat no other pair of pitchers has ever accomplished in the postseason. The Nationals added two runs in the eighth when Adam Eaton hit a double into the right-field corner to drive in Matt Adams and Trea Turner. Paul DeJong scored the Cardinals' first run of the series in the eighth inning ahead of a double by José Martínez over Taylor's outstretched glove. Hudson then retired the final two hitters on fly outs, the second a foul popup to first base, to record the save, his third this postseason.
