Dustin May did not have the kind of start that Chaim Bloom would likely have wanted him to have as the St. Louis Cardinals approach the upcoming trade deadline, however he kept the team in the game despite walks and a costly wild pitch. The St. Louis Cardinals would eventually make a game of it, but it would slip away in the 9th inning.
Jordan Walker showed off his defense skills that are now borderline elite as he tumbled into the netting for the final out in the top of the 1st inning.
The St. Louis Cardinals offense had a decent start to Sunday’s game versus the Braves before the bats went silent. In the top of the 1st inning, After his fine defensive play in the top of the 1st, All-Star Jordan Walker drew a two-out walk and stole second to get into scoring position. Alec Burleson made that pay off when he drove a 94 mph sinker off the left field wall for a double scoring Walker and giving St. Louis an early 1-0 lead.
The Atlanta Braves would pull even in the top of the 2nd inning as Dustin May would be punished by walks to the first two batters of the inning, Smith and Riley. Jarvis laid down a sacrifice bunt to move both runners into scoring position. May struck out Hicklen for the second out, but then threw a wild pitch past catcher Jimmy Crooks scoring Smith and tying the game at 1-1.
While the St. Louis Cardinals bats went quiet during the middle innings, Atlanta took the lead in the top of the 4th inning when Dustin May hit Austin Riley with a pitch. Two batters later, Hicklen singled moving Riley up to scoring position at second. He would then score on a single by Drake Baldwin giving the Braves a 2-1 lead. That would end Dustin May’s outing as he only lasted 4 innings while walking 4, striking out 4 giving up just 2 hits and 2 earned runs.
Justin Bruihl would enter the game in the 5th inning when he would keep Atlanta from scoring, but that would not be true of his time in the 6th inning when he would give up back-to-back doubles to Jarvis and Hicklen increasing the Braves lead to 3-1. The fact that the Cardinals only had one hit through the first 5 1/2 innings didn’t help the St. Louis cause.
The Cardinals second hit of the game would be a screaming single off of the bat of Jordan Walker two pitches after he was knocked down by Braves reliever Dylan Dodd in the bottom of the 6th inning. Alec Burleson flied out to right for the first out, but then Lars Nootbaar walked and Masyn Winn singled to load the bases for St. Louis with just one out. Oli Marmol chose to pinch-hit Bryan Torres for Blaze Jordan, but he unfortunately struck out on 4 pitches. That left José Fermín as the man with the make-or-break at-bat and fortunately he chose “make” with a clutch 2-strike single into center driving in Walker and Nootbaar tying the game 3-3 after 6 innings.
Gordon Graceffo had entered the game to get the last out of the top of the 6th inning and also handled the top of the 7th inning against Atlanta. It would take him a grand total of 5 pitches to get three groundouts and shut down the Braves in the 6th. Can’t ask for anything more efficient than that. Ryne Stanek was handed top of the 8th inning responsibilities. He gave up a two-strike hit to White who hit one of the end of his bat barely landing past JJ Wetherholt in right-centerfield. Ryne then coaxed a harmless pop-out from slumping, but still dangerous Austin Riley. Stanek then struck out Jarvis and got a weak groundout from Hicklin to end the Braves 8th keeping the score tied.
After the Cardinals failed to grab the lead in the bottom of the 8th inning, it was JoJo Romero brought in to keep the game tied in the top of the 9th inning. He faced the top of the Braves lineup and got Drake Baldwin to fly out to deep center. Ozzie Albies turned on a 93 mph Romero sinker that didn’t sink enough and drove it into the left field corner for a one-out double. JoJo was able to nurse a weak groundout from Matt Olson for the second ou t, but Albies advanced to third on the play. Michael Harris II sold the umpire that he was hit by an 0-2 Romero pitch which was somehow upheld on a challenge even though the replay looked like the ball clearly did not hit Harris II. Great acting job, though. Oli Marmol got tossed for giving the umpires an earful. The replay officials saw something, so I guess we have to trust that they saw something many of us didn’t. Unfortunately, Dubon grounded out to Masyn Winn who’s errant throw sailed past Alec Burleson that allowed Albies to score giving (literally) the Braves a 4-3 lead in the top of the 9th. Romero walked White which loaded the bases for Austin Riley who flew out to Nootbaar in center to end a top of the 9th that could have been worse, but sure should have been better.
The Cardinals could manage nothing in the bottom of the 9th inning which resulted in a very disappointing way to enter the All-Star break even though it was a series win against the NL division-leading Atlanta Braves. There will be plenty of Cardinals to keep track of early this week as Jordan Walker will participate in the Home Run Derby on Monday night and three Cardinals are on the NL All-Star roster for Tuesday’s game.
