May Gets the Ball as Cardinals Go for Sweep Over the Braves
The Cardinal Chronicle
May Gets the Ball as Cardinals Go for Sweep Over the Braves
St. Louis, MO
By Ray Mileur
The Cardinals needed to turn the page after losing four of five to the Milwaukee Brewers and they didn, now they have a chance to close the first half with a broom.
St. Louis hosts the Atlanta Braves this afternoon at Busch Stadium in the final game of a three-game series and the final game before the All-Star break. First pitch is scheduled for 1:15 p.m. CT, with right-hander Dustin May getting the ball for the Cardinals against Braves right-hander JR Ritchie.
After a frustrating five-game series against Milwaukee, the Cardinals have answered with exactly the kind of weekend they needed. They beat Atlanta 2-1 in a rain-delayed opener Friday, then came back Saturday night with a cleaner, stronger 4-1 win to clinch the series.
Now the Cardinals enter Sunday at 50-44, while the Braves come in at 54-40.
That matters.
The Cardinals cannot erase the Brewers series, but they have done the next best thing. They have stopped dragging it around with them. They have played cleaner baseball, gotten better starting pitching, protected late leads and beaten a first-place club on back-to-back nights.
Now they have a chance to finish the job.
Saturday was one of the better responses of the week. Lars Nootbaar gave the Cardinals early control with a three-run homer in the first inning, his third of the season and the swing that put Atlanta on its heels. Matthew Liberatore gave St. Louis six scoreless innings, allowing four hits while striking out six and walking one. Blaze Jordan added a two-out RBI single in the fourth after Nootbaar walked and stole second.
That was enough.
Luis Gastelum, George Soriano and Riley O’Brien handled the final three innings, with O’Brien working through a little ninth-inning traffic to secure his 24th save. After the late-inning problems that defined too much of the Milwaukee series, the Cardinals have now spent two nights looking far more composed at the end of games.
That is no small thing.
Friday was tight. Saturday was controlled.
Sunday is about finishing.
May enters at 5-6 with a 4.55 ERA and 85 strikeouts. His season has had enough sharp turns to keep every start interesting, but this is the kind of outing the Cardinals need from him heading into the break. Give the club length. Keep the ball on the ground. Stay out of traffic. Avoid the crooked inning.
When May is right, his movement can make hitters uncomfortable and produce quick contact. When he is not, the walks, deep counts and hard contact can stack up quickly. Against Atlanta, there is not much room for searching.
The Braves still have plenty of damage in the lineup, even if St. Louis has held them down through the first two games of the series. Matt Olson remains a major power threat. Ozzie Albies can create trouble from both sides of the plate. Austin Riley drove in Atlanta’s lone run Friday. Michael Harris II, Drake Baldwin, Mauricio Dubón, Joey Bart and the rest of the order give Atlanta enough ways to make a pitcher pay for mistakes.
May does not need to pitch around the whole lineup.
He needs to attack it.
That means first-pitch strikes. That means finishing hitters when he gets ahead. That means no free passes in front of Olson, Albies or the middle of the order. The Cardinals have controlled the first two games because the pitching staff has not allowed Atlanta to build big innings.
May has to keep that pattern in place.
The Braves counter with Ritchie, who enters at 1-2 with a 4.60 ERA and 42 strikeouts. Ritchie gives Atlanta a young right-handed arm in a game the Braves badly need after dropping the first two of the series. He has enough stuff to compete, but the Cardinals should not let him settle into an easy rhythm.
The approach has to be simple.
Get traffic early. Make Ritchie work from the stretch. Force him to throw strikes. Do not chase him into quick outs. And when he gives the Cardinals something over the plate, do not miss it.
That has been one of the better signs of the weekend. St. Louis has not needed a huge offensive outburst to beat Atlanta. The Cardinals have gotten timely swings, important baserunners and enough run prevention to make those swings stand up. That is a good formula, especially for a club still trying to stabilize the pitching staff.
But Sunday would be a good day to give May more breathing room.
Jordan Walker remains the biggest power presence in the lineup and heads into the break with his Home Run Derby appearance waiting. Alec Burleson continues to be one of the steadier bats on the club. Iván Herrera gives the Cardinals another quality on-base threat. JJ Wetherholt and Masyn Winn can create pressure at the top. Nootbaar gave the lineup a needed jolt Saturday. Blaze Jordan, Jimmy Crooks, Nolan Gorman, Pedro Pagés and the rest of the group have to keep the order from shrinking around one or two bats.
The Cardinals do not need to win Sunday with one swing.
They need to keep applying pressure.
That is how a team finishes a series. Not by assuming yesterday carries over, but by putting the next starter under stress, making the defense handle the ball and giving its own pitcher a lead to work with.
The bigger picture is clear enough.
St. Louis has had an uneven first half. There have been stretches where the Cardinals looked like a club with enough young talent, enough fight and enough offense to stay firmly in the race. There have also been stretches, especially on the pitching side, where the holes have been impossible to ignore.
That is why this weekend matters.
Not because sweeping Atlanta would make everything whole. It would not. The Cardinals still need pitching answers. They still need steadier bullpen management. They still need to decide how aggressive they are going to be before the trade deadline.
But a sweep would send them into the break with a different tone.
It would mean three straight wins over a first-place Braves team. It would mean the Milwaukee series did not become a slide. It would mean the Cardinals answered a rough week by playing better baseball immediately instead of waiting for the break to reset them.
That is what good teams do.
They do not get to skip frustration. They have to respond to it.
The Cardinals have already won the series.
Now they have a chance to make the response louder.
May gets the ball. Ritchie stands in the way. The Braves are trying to avoid getting swept. The Cardinals are trying to finish the first half with one more clean win at Busch Stadium.
The break can wait.
There is still one game left.
Go get the sweep.
Game Information
Matchup: Atlanta Braves at St. Louis Cardinals
When: Sunday, July 12, 2026
First Pitch: 1:15 p.m. CT
Where: Busch Stadium, St. Louis
Probable Pitchers: RHP JR Ritchie vs. RHP Dustin May
Ritchie: 1-2, 4.60 ERA, 42 SO
May: 5-6, 4.55 ERA, 85 SO
Records: Braves 54-40; Cardinals 50-44
Broadcast: Cardinals.TV / BravesVision
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Photo Credit: Dustin May, St. Louis Cardinals | MLB