For the St. Louis Cardinals, it was almost like a home run derby.

Home runs by Justin Williams, Tommy Edman, Paul DeJong and Paul Goldschmidt all catapulted the Cardinals over the Washington Nationals 12-5 on Monday night. DeJong hit two home runs, including a grand slam.

“We were just really disciplined today as a group… not missing the ones we needed to hit,” DeJong said, calling the performance “a validation of what we do.”

Meanwhile, to add on to the positive scoring results, Matt Carpenter, who entering tonight’s game was batting just a mere .069 and was dropped to seventh in the batting lineup, hit an RBI single in the fourth inning as the Cardinals built a 6-0 lead.

On the mound, Jack Flaherty made history as he reached the 500 strikeout mark faster than any pitcher in Cardinals history, achieving the mark in just 80 games. Flaherty (3-0) has also been the beneficiary of strong run support by the Cardinals this season, as they are averaging 11 runs in his four starts this season. As for the other four starters, the Cardinals have averaged 3.25 runs per game.

Nationals pitcher Joe Ross, who entered the game with an ERA of 0.00, left with an ERA of 5.87 after he gave up 10 runs in just 4 1/3 innings of work.