With four singles, Holliday's hitting streak at 12 games

ST. LOUIS -- Though it came in a 2-1 loss to the Nationals, Matt Holliday extended his Major League-long hitting streak to 12 on Tuesday while matching a career high with four hits in the game.

It marked the 26th four-hit game of Holliday's career and the sixth time he's reached base in a game five times while tallying four hits. The last of his knocks was the biggest, as it capped the Cardinals' comeback against closer Drew Storen by driving in Matt Carpenter as the tying run.

"Matt coming up with the big hit, he's been doing that -- not trying to do too much, not buying into trying to hit homers except put a good swing on it," manager Mike Matheny said afterward. "He got it done when we needed it."

The four-hit night improved Holliday to 17-for-40 this season, giving him a .425 batting average and an on-base percentage of .520. The only National League player with a higher OBP entering the day was Adrian Gonzalez (.527). Holliday is the only player in the Majors to have hit safely in every one of his team's games this year.

"I feel good. I feel like I'm not swinging at bad pitches," said Holliday, "and when I get a pitch to hit, I'm hitting it well. I'm just going to try to keep it going."

The oddity in his strong start, however, is that 16 of Holliday's 17 hits have been singles. The only exception came in his first at-bat on Saturday, when Holliday doubled off Cincinnati's Homer Bailey. Over Holliday's 12-year career, 39 percent of his hits have been for extra bases, a far cry from his 2015 percentage of six.

"I'd love for them to not be singles, but if you keep hitting the ball, eventually you'll catch it a little more underneath them and they'll start being doubles and home runs," Holliday said. "As long as they're hard-hit balls and have line-drive spin to them, I don't care."