The five best Atlanta Braves wins from a magical first half of 2019

5. May 26th – Braves 4, Cardinals 3 (10 innings)

Here’s your setup: Sunday Night Baseball on ESPN, so national eyes on a couple of teams with two of the largest fanbases in baseball: the Braves and the St. Louis Cardinals.

Things weren’t going well early for Atlanta.

In fact, after 8 innings, the Braves had been completely bogged down offensively, held to 0 runs on just 4 hits by the St. Louis pitching, most of which done by Jack Flaherty.

The score stood 3-0 in favor of the Redbirds, and three little outs in the 9th would’ve finished the job.

To the average observer, there was but little hope for Atlanta.

But as they’d done times before, the Braves had other plans in mind.

It started when the first four batters reached base in the 9th, including RBI hits from Josh Donaldson and Austin Riley, closing the gap to 3-2 and setting up the heroics of Ozzie Albies.

The Big Moment

Let’s be clear: you’d be hard-pressed to find a more impressive “stay with it” at-bat so far in 2019 than the one Ozzie Albies put up in the 9th in a one-run game.

Jumping ahead in the count 3-0, the Braves second baseman then proceeded to foul off six consecutive pitches, preserving hope that Atlanta could continue its comeback.

On the tenth pitch of the at-bat, Ozzie delivered with a single to right to tie the game.

The clutch hit extended things into the 10th, where patience paid off for Atlanta.

The Braves had the bases loaded with two outs, when grizzled veteran Brian McCann stepped in and watched ball four go by, scoring Freddie Freeman and giving Atlanta a 4-3 lead in front of the incredulous St. Louis fans.

The Braves had no business winning this game: the Cardinals dominated up-and-down for 8 innings.

But as the old baseball saying goes, there’s 27 outs, and those last three are often the hardest ones to get.

Atlanta flat-out stole this one from the jaws of defeat – plain and simple.