Cardinals Storm Back in Atlanta, Beat Braves 11-5

The Cardinal Chronicle
Cardinals Storm Back in Atlanta, Beat Braves 11-5
St. Louis, MO
By Ray Mileur

The St. Louis Cardinals opened Thursday night with a with the first sound of thunder.

Then they had to survive a storm.

After jumping ahead early, watching the game flip in the bottom of the first, and spending most of the night chasing Atlanta, the Cardinals finally broke through with a seven-run seventh inning and beat the Braves, 11-5, at Truist Park.

It was a big road win. It was a series win. And after the way the game started on the mound, it was also one of the more impressive in-game recoveries the Cardinals have put together in a while.

This one could have gotten ugly in a hurry.

Instead, St. Louis turned it into one of its better wins of the season.

Jordan Walker got the Cardinals started in the first inning. JJ Wetherholt reached, Iván Herrera got aboard, and Walker stepped in against Hurston Waldrep with a chance to make an early statement.

He did exactly that.

Walker launched a three-run homer to left-center field, his 19th of the season, giving the Cardinals a 3-0 lead before Dustin May ever took the mound.

It was the kind of first-inning punch a road team wants in a rubber game. Quiet the crowd. Put pressure on the home starter. Make the other club play from behind.

For a few minutes, it looked like the Cardinals had the game set up perfectly.

Then May could not hold it.

Atlanta loaded the bases immediately in the bottom of the first, and the inning unraveled quickly. Mauricio Dubón singled home the Braves’ first run. Dominic Smith followed with a three-run double, putting Atlanta in front 4-3. Mike Yastrzemski then lifted a sacrifice fly to make it 5-3.

May did not make it out of the inning.

His night ended after just two-thirds of an inning, with five runs allowed on five hits and two walks. It was a rough outing, and there is no way around it. After being skipped in his last turn because of back tightness, May looked anything but sharp.

The Cardinals had a 3-0 lead.

Before the inning was over, they were trailing 5-3.

That kind of turn can take the life out of a club, especially on the road against a first-place team. But the Cardinals did not fold.

The bullpen saved the night.

Justin Bruihl entered in the first inning with two runners on and two outs. He stopped the bleeding there, then gave the Cardinals 2 2/3 scoreless innings. That was not a minor contribution. That was the bridge that kept the game from getting completely away.

Bruihl’s work changed the temperature.

Ryan Fernandez followed and continued the job, keeping Atlanta quiet through the middle innings. Gordon Graceffo then entered in the sixth and kept the Braves stuck at five. By the time the Cardinals came to the plate in the seventh, the bullpen had done more than buy time.

It had given the offense a chance to win the game.

The Cardinals took it.

Nathan Church opened the seventh inning with the swing that changed everything, driving a two-run home run to right field to tie the game at 5-5. Church had already delivered a big three-run homer earlier in the series opener, and on Thursday night, he came through again.

That was the reset.

Then the Cardinals kept coming.

Wetherholt singled home a run to put St. Louis back in front, 6-5. Herrera followed with an RBI single, pushing the lead to 7-5. Walker then added an RBI single of his own, driving in another run and continuing a huge night at the plate.

Lars Nootbaar followed with a run-scoring double. Masyn Winn brought home another run with a fielder’s choice. By the time Atlanta finally escaped the inning, the Cardinals had scored seven runs and turned a 5-3 deficit into a 10-5 lead.

That was not just an inning.

That was an answer.

For a team that had been hearing plenty about a cold offense, quiet bats, and missed opportunities, the seventh inning felt like a release. St. Louis did not wait for one big swing and stop there. The Cardinals stacked at-bats, kept pressure on the Braves bullpen, and finally put together the kind of inning that can flip a series.

Walker was right in the middle of it all.

He homered in the first, singled home a run in the seventh, and continued to look like the most dangerous bat in the Cardinals’ order. His production has become more than just flashes of potential. He is changing games.

On Thursday, he helped start one big inning and helped finish another.

Church deserves plenty of credit too. His two-run homer in the seventh tied the game and opened the door for everything that followed. When a team is trailing late on the road, somebody has to create the spark.

Church did.

The rest of the lineup followed.

That is the part the Cardinals have been missing too often. They have had individual swings. They have had isolated moments. But Thursday’s seventh inning looked like a lineup moving together. Wetherholt. Herrera. Walker. Nootbaar. Winn. One after another, they turned pressure into runs.

That is how winning baseball is supposed to look.

The Cardinals added another run late to stretch the lead to 11-5, giving the bullpen even more breathing room and turning what had once been a stressful night into a comfortable finish.

Atlanta, after scoring five in the first, never scored again.

That may be the biggest part of the story.

The Braves had the game tilted their way early. They knocked out May before he could finish the opening inning. They had the crowd involved, the lead in hand, and every reason to believe the Cardinals might be in for a long night.

Instead, the Cardinals bullpen shut the door.

Bruihl, Fernandez, Graceffo and the rest of the relief group gave St. Louis the kind of work that often gets overlooked in a game where the offense scores 11 runs. But without that bullpen reset, the Cardinals never get to the seventh inning close enough to make their comeback matter.

The offense will get the headlines, and rightly so.

The bullpen earned one too.

The win gave St. Louis the series in Atlanta, taking two of three from the Braves at Truist Park. That matters. The Cardinals opened the series with a 5-3 win behind Matthew Liberatore and big swings from Nelson Velázquez and Church. They dropped Wednesday’s game, 5-1, when the offense went quiet behind Michael McGreevy.

Thursday was the response.

Not a quiet one.

Not a cautious one.

A loud one.

The Cardinals scored 11 runs on a night when their starting pitcher lasted only two outs. That is not easy to do. They trailed by two after the first inning and still won by six. That is not ordinary. They beat a first-place club on the road in a rubber game after the Braves had every early advantage.

That is a good win.

There are still concerns. May’s outing cannot be brushed aside. The Cardinals need more stability from that rotation spot, especially with the schedule tightening and the trade deadline moving closer. A starter lasting two-thirds of an inning puts a heavy burden on any bullpen, and over a long season, that is dangerous living.

But Thursday night was not the time to bury the club under the warning signs.

The Cardinals answered the bell.

The bullpen stabilized the game.

The offense finally broke loose.

Walker led the charge. Church delivered the tying blow. Wetherholt and Herrera kept the inning moving. Nootbaar and Winn added the kind of production that turns a rally into a runaway.

The Cardinals came to Atlanta needing a series win.

They got it.

The Cardinal Chronicle, in association with Gateway Sports & MiLB Today
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Photo Credit: Jordan Walker, St. Louis Cardinals | MLB