Atlanta gave it all they had and made another vintage late-game comeback. This time, sadly, it wasn’t enough.
A four-run inning for the St. Louis Cardinals ended up being enough for their pitching staff to just about hold onto in this one. The Atlanta Braves made a serious rally in the ninth inning in order to make a comeback but ultimately they fell short and ended up suffering a 4-3 defat in the series opener in St. Louis.
The first inning served as a dark omen for the Braves and Marcell Ozuna in particular. Atlanta’s leading slugger on the season hit one a ton towards left field but instead of being rewarded with a visit to one of the bases, Ozuna was left making the U-turn to the dugout after Michael Siani made a diving catch to end the inning right then and there. That was the first time where a Braves player would hit one deep while coming up empty-handed but it wouldn’t be the last time, either.
Both teams stayed quiet for the first two-and-a-half innings of this one and unfortunately for us Braves fans, it was the Cardinals who came through in a big way in the third inning. While Michael Siani would find himself on second base with one out following a wild pitch, it seemed like Spencer Schwellenbach would be able to mitigate the damage and even escape any serious trouble after getting to two outs on the board.
Sadly, that didn’t end up being the case as the Cardinals got to work with two outs on the board. Alec Burleson was given the gift of a middle-middle cutter that he proceeded to shoot up the left field line for an RBI double that put the Cardinals on the board first. Willson Contreras marked his return from the IL with a chopper (on an 0-2 count, mind you) that got past Orlando Arcia and into the outfield for an RBI single that made it 2-0 Cardinals. Schwellenbach got to two strikes once again on Brendan Donovan but Donovan looped one out of the reach of Ozzie Albies’ glove for another single to make it 3-0.
Schwellenbach got to two strikes once again but the next run he conceded wasn’t really due to getting beat by the batter. Instead, Sean Murphy attempted to catch Donovan stealing second. Arcia took the catch and Donovan proceeded to initiate a rundown. During the rundown, Nolan Gorman snuck down the line and scored before Donovan was tagged to end the inning 4-0 in favor of the Cardinals. Just like that, this game quickly went from being a budding pitchers’ duel to St. Louis suddenly feeling a bit comfortable in the lead.
It didn’t take too long for the Braves to respond, though. While it sure would’ve been nice to see this solo shot somehow magically turn into a grand slam, instead we all had to settle for Austin Riley’s deep fly in the fifth inning simply getting the Braves on the board in this one. The Braves went down in order following the home run but at least things were starting to look a bit more manageable for Atlanta in order to pull off any comeback needed.
Both teams stayed quiet for the next couple of frames and both teams were using their relievers by the time the seventh inning was over. In fact, Marcell Ozuna came up to the plate to face Lance Lynn in the seventh inning and Ozuna got a pitch he really liked on the edge of the zone. Ozuna swatted at it and sent it flying through the warm sky in St. Louis. If it had been hit in 18 other ballparks (Truist Park not included), the Braves would’ve made it 4-2. Instead, it was yet another loud out for Ozuna and while Lynn didn’t finish the seventh inning, Ryan Fernandez took care of Sean Murphy to end the seventh in order to make sure that this was a much-needed quality start for Lynn.
Atlanta got another chance to get back on the scoreboard in the eighth inning and this was their best chance of the game so far. Forrest Wall and Zack Short both walked with one out in order to get something going and then suddenly the Braves had a bit of a stew going on the basepaths when Wall and Short pulled off a double steal with one out. After Jarred Kelenic struck out, Ozzie Albies was the last big hope for the Braves.
Ozzie was up for the task, as he took a poorly-placed slider and put an absolute charge into it. Instead of the ball landing in the seats and making it a tie game like nearly everybody in the ballpark figured it would after Albies made contact, the ball landed in Michael Siani’s glove on the warning track to end the inning and give Atlanta another moment of frustration when it came to hard-hit fly balls this evening.
Once the ninth inning rolled around, the Braves were now faced with the daunting task of dealing with Ryan Helsley while being down three runs. For what it’s worth, Atlanta did get the tying run up to the plate in short order after Marcell Ozuna led off the ninth with a walk and then Matt Olson followed that up with a single. Sure enough, the Braves got the bases loaded and suddenly had the winning run coming up to the plate after Sean Murphy coaxed a walk out of Helsley with just one out. Ramón Laureano ingratiated himself to Braves Country by smacking a base hit to right to make it a 4-2 game and make things really interesting by bringing the sizable portion of Braves fans still in the ballpark back into the game.
A sacrifice fly from pinch-hitter Travis d’Arnaud made it a 4-3 game, which meant that this was going to come down Zack Short either continuing the game or Ryan Helsley ending it right there. Sadly, Short was unable to turn the game completely upside down as Helsley eventually got Short to strike out swinging to doom the Braves to a defeat.
While the Braves were mostly quiet in this one and Spencer Schwellenbach once again fell victim to one bad inning throwing his start sideways, this definitely felt like a vintage Braves game near the end as Atlanta embarked on their furious comeback attempt. This was a great try on Atlanta’s part but ultimately they fell short and that’s just the nature of baseball. They’ll be back at it tomorrow night at 7:45 P.M. E.T. with Reynaldo López getting the opportunity to help the Braves in their attempt to bounce back from tonight’s defeat. Also, hopefully Orlando Arcia is okay after he was forced to leave tonight’s game due to dizziness.