Atlanta Braves stun Cardinals with 9th inning comeback, take series lead

The Penultimate Chapter

Let’s not overlook the bottom of the 8th inning.

Max Fried came in to pitch and for the first time in this series, he did not have his best stuff:  he walked the first 2 hitters he faced.

After Paul DeJong flied out, Fried was lifted for Darren O’Day.

I still don’t really know want Harrison Bader had in mind.  He was the runner on second base.  I suppose he thought he saw an opening and raced for third base.  This would have put him in position for a possible sacrifice fly play with Jose Martinez pinch hitting, but he was already in scoring position.

In any event, Bader took off for third base without O’Day having started his motion.  Brilliantly, O’Day was alerted to this, did not panic, did not balk, and threw out Bader at third base.

Then Martinez singled.

That probably should have been a second run for the Cardinals, which certainly could have changed some things later on.

But the score remained 1-0.

The Boss Battle

St. Louis made their defensive adjustments and then brought in Carlos Martinez to close out the game.

The second pitch he threw – middle in to Josh Donaldson – was ripped at 110.0 mph for a double.  Donaldson was replaced on the basepaths by Billy Hamilton.

It’s on.  Or at least it seemed to be for a moment.

Nick Markakis struck out on a full count.

Adeiny Hechavarria also ended up striking out on a full count, but on the play our fast guy did steal third base successfully.  Clearly, that was a gutsy move since the game was over had Molina been able to throw Hamilton out.

However, the pitch was outside and moving away from Molina and Hamilton is… really fast.  But now there’s 2 outs.

Brian McCann was the next hitter and the Cardinals did something interesting:  they put the potential winning run on base via an intentional walk.

Now this did do a couple of things for them:

• Set up a force play situation for 1st or 2nd
• Avoids a lefty-righty matchup with a highly experienced hitter.
• It got Dansby Swanson’s complete attention.

The very next pitch was scorched into the left field gap at 104+ mph for a double.

TIE GAME / Runners 2nd and 3rd / still 2 outs.

The Braves weren’t done.

Adam Duvall whiffed on 2 pitches (99 and 88 mph), managed to foul another 99 mph heather, and then guessed “slider”… correctly. On a great piece of 2-strike hitting, he took the outside pitch the other way for a single to right-center.

That scored both McCann and Swanson and gave the Braves their first lead of the day.  3-1 Atlanta.

We still weren’t quite done.

Ronald Acuna walked with ball 4 being a 98 mph fastball right in on the center fielder’s kitchen – up and in. 

There was some considerable staring going on and Molina provided Acuna with an escort most of the way to first base.

That may be something to watch in the future – whether in this series or in the future.

But with runners now on 1st and 2nd, Ozzie Albies hit a playable liner to right that finally ended the festivities.

3 hitters reached after 2 were out and all three runs scored after 2 were out.  The Braves had broken through.