THURS: Atlanta Braves finally reach the .500 mark after sweep of Cardinals

The Atlanta Braves had struggled all season to get over the .500 mark but were finally able to reach that milestone on Thursday as they swept St. Louis. 

It was all smiles for the Atlanta Braves on Thursday evening as they won their third game in a row. That streak coming thanks to a three-game sweep over the St. Louis Cardinals.

Things looked bleak for Atlanta as they began to fall in the division standings but they somehow found a way to tread water and now find themselves just 1.5 games behind the division-leading Mets.

Thursday’s game started with an early lead but eventually, the Cardinals came back and led Atlanta by two in the late innings.

It looked as if a curse was keeping the Braves from getting above .500 during the 2021 season but thanks to yet another swing from Austin Riley (who is currently enjoying an 18-game on-base streak) and horrific pitching by the Cardinals, Atlanta would score six runs in the eighth inning to complete the sweep.

The Cardinals walked five consecutive batters in the eighth inning to help Atlanta pad their lead. That’s typically something that we Braves fans are unfortunately used to being on the wrong side of.

This was also the first three-game winning streak for the Braves since July 10th and it took them a little over 100 games to get themselves over .500 this season. Let’s hope this streak doesn’t end at three games.

Touki Toussaint started the game for Atlanta and struggled most of his outing to keep the breaking ball down in the zone and the Cardinals took advantage of that.

Eventually, Touki figured things out and got himself through 5.1 innings of work allowing just 2 runs on 5 hits with 2 walks and 3 strikeouts.

The Braves bullpen had a bit of a rough start to their evening as St. Louis was able to score two runs and take the lead late in the game.

Fortunately, the Cards bullpen was much worse and once Atlanta took the lead, the bullpen held the rest of the way.

Newly acquired Richard Rodriguez took the mound in the bottom of the eighth and looked fantastic as he had a 1-2-3 inning. His fastball looked very sharp and had the hitters fooled at the plate.

Will Smith then came on to close things out and propel Atlanta to a 55-54 record.

Freddie Freeman, Austin Riley, and Dansby Swanson accounted for six of Atlanta’s seven hits and are proving to be a tough middle-ground for pitchers to navigate through.

The Braves begin a 7-game homestand on Friday as the Washington Nationals come to town.  This is the perfect time for the team to go on an extended winning streak.