ATLANTA — Despite a show of force that created and then widened an early lead, the Cardinals still found a way to rely on the bullpen to guide them through the narrowest of spots.
And did so twice.
The Cardinals struck early with homers and then added on late to stay ahead of Atlanta in the night game and win, 9-5, on Saturday at Truist Park to split the doubleheader. Both games hinged around late-game appearances by a rookie reliever trying to hold fast to a slim lead for the Cardinals. In short, the second half begins a lot like they spent the first half. What Ryan Fernandez could not do in the Cardinals’ Game 1 loss, Kyle Leahy did deftly in Game 2 — shepherding a one-run lead through the eighth inning and into the first big-league save of his career.
The evening half of the doubleheader featured a leadoff triple for both teams in the first inning and got wilder from there. A total of six home runs were hit in the game. The Cardinals opened up a four-run lead and within three swings against their No. 1 starter Sonny Gray, most of that lead was vaporized.
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Thrust into the eighth inning of a one-run game, Leahy went from the Cardinals’ 27th man to their most important man for three outs. Added to the roster between games, the rookie right-hander got the assignment because Fernandez and Andrew Kittredge, the usual setup men, had thrown in Game 1. All Leahy had to do was get through Atlanta’s Nos. 2-3 hitters, with Marcell Ozuna looming if the inning got that far.
It did.
But Leahy, having retired two All-Stars including a strikeout from Matt Olson, kept Ozuna from his third home run of the game. Leahy got a groundout to end the inning and preserve the lead. Alec Burleson’s third RBI of the game and fourth of the day helped the Cardinals expand their lead in the ninth. That allowed Leahy to finish the game and the Cardinals to avoid a save situation for closer Ryan Helsley.
The Cardinals’ fifth doubleheader of the season and third in the past 10 days welcomed them back from the All-Star break.
Both teams had rest on their side.
With the turns the night game took, they needed it.
Kyle Gibson gave the Cardinals a superb start in Game 1 with 6 2/3 innings, during which he did not allow a runner to reach second base while he was on the mound. Two pitches after he turned a two-run lead over to the bullpen, the Cardinals misplaced a two-run lead and would lose, 3-2, in the 10th inning. Eddie Rosario had the game-tying hit off Fernandez in the seventh inning. In Game 2, Gray (10-6) followed Gibson’s lead with a longer start of seven innings and 10 strikeouts, though his evening was spent navigating through home runs.
The Cardinals built an early lead that allowed Gray to withstand a flurry of four homers, including two by Ozuna and three by the Braves in one inning. The Cardinals hit their homers first. Nolan Gorman lifted a two-run shot as part of a four-run second inning, and Brendan Donovan followed in the fifth with a solo homer that gave the Cardinals a 6-2 lead.
Atlanta starter Bryce Elder had a stretch of seven strikeouts in eight batters before Donovan shattered that streak with his ninth homer of the season.
Atlanta taps into Battery power
Before the rains came Friday afternoon, each team took batting practice and one of the team officials looking on noted how the “ball is already flying.â€
A day didn’t change the nature of the ballpark in The Battery development.
It just took a game for it to warm up.
In the span of 10 pitches, the Braves hit three home runs off Gray to hoist themselves back into the game. By the end of the sixth inning, Atlanta had hit four home runs off Gray, two of them by Ozuna. The former Cardinals cleanup hitter clearly had power in mind when he hit against Gray in the fourth inning. As the right-hander readied to deliver the pitch, Ozuna rocked back onto his right foot to ready the timing for his full-body surge into his swing. When he connected the ball traveled 424 feet.
He did the same thing in the sixth inning and drilled the first pitch from Gray 431 feet.
Ozuna’s 22nd career multi-homer game and fourth this season was part of Atlanta’s shove to dent what had twice been a four-run lead for the Cardinals.
Gray started the sixth with the Cardinals lead 6-2. Three swings later, the Braves had cleaved that lead down to a run. Austin Riley started the scoring with a solo homer. Gray mixed in a strikeout and then in the span of three pitches allowed two more homers. Ozuna’s 28th of the season was followed by Eddie Rosario’s second of the day.
Arenado launches into 2nd half
In the weeks leading up to the All-Star break, Nolan Arenado described how he wanted to do what he could through arm injuries and some soreness to provide for the team — and then bank on rest and a second-half revival.
He called it a “tide turning.â€
That finish he wanted is off to a good start.
Midway through Game 2 of the doubleheader, Arenado had two hits, two other hard hits robbed, two runs scored, two superb plays in the field, and a solo home run that he has been chasing for most of the season. Arenado led off the seventh inning of Game 1 with his 10th homer of the season, pulling a ball over the left-field wall and into a corner of the Cardinals’ bullpen.
“It’s a point of emphasis for him being able to get the ball in the air on the pull side,†manager Oliver Marmol said. “He’s been working on it all year. To be able to do that in the first game back from the break is good. Hopefully we can continue that.â€
In Game 1, Arenado fielded a hard groundball pulled down the line by Ozuna. From foul territory, Arenado spun and started a double play that ended the inning for Gibson. In Game 2, Arenado again ranged into foul territory to make a throw that took away a base hit from Sean Murphy. Arenado was just balancing the scales, too. In the top half of that same inning, he laced a line drive to left field that shortstop Orlando Arcia snared with a leaping jab to his right.
Replay reshapes 1st inning
As noisy as the home runs hit later in game were against Gray, it was a home run taken away that shifted the momentum in the game first.
An exchange of leadoff triples in the first inning by Masyn Winn and Jarred Kelenic had claimed a lead for the Cardinals and erased it just as quickly. Kelenic’s RBI single past second baseman Nolan Gorman left Gray with no outs and Riley at the plate. Atlanta’s No. 3 hitter lifted an opposite-field homer that hooked as it neared the foul pole. The initial call from the umpire was home run, and Riley made his way around the bases for a 3-1 lead. By the time he got home, however, there was already a review underway.
The review overturned the call on the field.
Within moments, a home run on a 2-1 pitch became a long foul ball and a 2-2 count. Gray turned that into his first strikeout of the game by spinning a slider past Riley. Gray got 11 outs from the next 11 batters he faced while the Cardinals packed on the runs.