Defending champ Cards erase 6-run hole, score 4 in 9th, beat Nats 9-7 in Game 5 to reach NLCS

Howard Fendrich, The Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Doesn't matter how bad things look for the St. Louis Cardinals. Trailing by a bunch, down to their last strike, they simply stay calm and do what it takes to win.

Erasing an early six-run hole in Game 5 slowly but surely, the defending World Series champion Cardinals got a tying two-out, two-run single from Daniel Descalso and a go-ahead two-run single from Pete Kozma in the ninth inning and came all the way back to beat the Washington Nationals 9-7 Friday night and win their NL division series.

It was the largest comeback ever in a winner-take-all post-season game, according to STATS LLC. No other club in this sort of ultimate pressure situation had come back from more than four down.