WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Washington Nationals fans have reasons to doubt 2022 will be their year. They got 29 more of them Wednesday.

Pitchers Anibal Sanchez and Cade Cavalli allowed 10 runs each while the Nationals were shellacked 29-8 by the St. Louis Cardinals in a spring training game.

“Things just got a little bit out of hand,” Washington manager Dave Martinez said. “They had some hits where they had the magic wand today.”

The Cardinals scored 15 times in the eighth inning.

St. Louis has never scored more than 12 runs in an inning during a regular-season game. The outburst was so brain-breaking that when Washington’s Gilbert Lara hit a three-run homer in the bottom of the eighth, the scoreboard operator briefly awarded the runs to the Cardinals – perhaps out of muscle memory.

Home runs by Paul DeJong, Paul Goldschmidt and Yadier Molina were among St. Louis’ 26 hits.

Over 131 years in the National League, the Cardinals’ regular-season record is 28 runs in a game.