Cardinals 2, Nationals 0: Michael Wacha lost his no-hit bid with two outs in the ninth inning on Ryan Zimmerman’s infield single while leading St. Louis past visiting Washington.

The 22-year-old Wacha (4-1), who struck out nine and walked two in 8 2/3 innings in his ninth major-league start, retired Steve Lombardozzi on a grounder and struck out Denard Span on a full-count pitch for the first two outs in the ninth. Zimmerman followed with a tapper that bounced over Wacha’s head and shortstop Pete Kozma barehanded the ball but the runner beat the throw to first.

Wacha retired the first 14 batters before Adam LaRoche reached on an error by second baseman Matt Carpenter and he issued walks in the seventh and eighth innings. The walk to LaRoche in the eighth was followed by Ian Desmond’s double-play grounder and Shane Robinson’s running catch into the left-field corner to snag Anthony Rendon’s drive.

Wacha joins Yu Darvish of Texas and Yusmeiro Petit of San Francisco as pitchers to lose a no-hitter with two outs in the ninth this season. Trevor Rosenthal entered to get the final out to record his second save. Robinson and Yadier Molina had RBI hits off Washington’s Gio Gonzalez (11-8) and the Cardinals remained two games ahead of Pittsburgh and three games over Cincinnati.

Carpenter hit a two-out double in the third and scored on Robinson’s single to center. Matt Adams led off the fourth with a single and scored on Molina’s double into the right-center field gap.

GAME NOTEBOOK: Gonzalez allowed two runs and six hits in seven innings. He struck out six and walked none. … The Nationals’ franchise hasn’t been no-hit since David Cone of the New York Yankees threw a perfect game against the Montreal Expos in 1999. … Cardinals OF Matt Holliday (back) missed his third consecutive game.