Cards Score 8 Unanswered to Beat Braves 10-4

Losing streak: snapped

Thanks to scoring eight unanswered runs, and six over the final two innings, the Cardinals (10-14) snapped its five-game losing streak by beating the Braves (9-14) 10-4 Tuesday night at Truist Park.

The Cards’ offense owes a big debt of gratitude to the bullpen tonight. The combination of Matz, Leahy, and Helsely only allowed one hit over the game’s final 4.2 innings and the trio kept the Braves off the board long enough for the bats to score eight runs from the sixth inning on.

St. Louis drew first blood in the third inning, when Lars Nootbaar went deep to right field and gave the Cards a 2-0 lead. Noot’s fourth long ball of 2025 went 365 feet and ended up a few rows shy of Atlanta’s Chop House.

Atlanta wouldn’t wait long to flip the game on its head however, as the Braves tagged Andre Pallante for three runs in the fourth and pushed another run across in the fifth.

Sean Murphy got Atlanta on the board with a solo shot to left field. Murphy, who opened 2025 on the Injured List after cracking a rib in Spring Training, has been mashing since being activated two weeks ago. Murphy’s homered six times in his first 12 games.

Jarred Kelenic followed up Murphy’s homer with a double, and was brought home two batters later when Alex Verdugo doubled to tie the game at 2. Things went from bad to worse for Pallante when Austin Riley, who had three infield hits tonight, singled to the mound and Pallante airmailed the throw over to first.

With the momentum clearly on its side, Aaron Bummer retired the Cards 1-2-3 in the fifth inning, and then Matt Olson went opposite field off of Pallante to give the Braves a 4-2 lead in the home half of the inning.

Pallante would retire Ozzie Albies to ground out to second base and was then lifted for Matz, who proceeded to slam the door on Atlanta. Matz was credited with the win and threw 2.2 scoreless innings of relief. He only allowed one hit and had two Ks versus one walk.

While Matz threw up zeros, the Cardinal offense got going late and tied the game in the sixth inning. Alec Burleson led off the inning with a single to right, and Jordan Walker followed that up with a walk. Victor Scott walked to load the bases and then Masyn Winn, back in the lineup after missing time because of back tightness, hit a single to left to get the Cardinals back to within a run. The Cards were able to tie the game thanks to a wild pitch by Dylan Lee.

St. Louis had some really nice situational hitting in the eighth inning and made life difficult for Enyel De Los Santos, who took the mound for Atlanta in the eighth inning. Scott hit a one-out double and advanced to third off of a wild pitch. De Los Santos was able to K Winn for the second out, and Atlanta elected to intentionally walk Noot and take its chances with Contreras. Contreras battled back from an 0-2 count, fouled off a couple of sliders and a fast ball, and was able to draw a hard-earned walk to load the bases. That’s when Gorman came through and blew the game-open with a three-run double to give the Cards a 7-4 lead. In a touching tribute to this week’s episode of The Last of Us, Gorman delivered the killshot just like [REDACTED] did to {SPOILER!!!!!!!!}

Not merely content with a three-run lead, St. Louis went on to double its lead in the ninth inning with another three-spot. Nathan Wiles made his MLB debut in the ninth inning for Atlanta, and the Cardinals made sure to spoil it, roughing the rookie reliever up for three runs off of four hits. Scott had the highlight of the inning with an RBI double to the left field corner that gave the Cards an 8-4 lead. Scott had a big night at the plate, going 3-4, drew a walk, and also scored three runs.

Helsely entered the game in the ninth inning after not pitching in the previous five games. He ended up walking a pair but otherwise did not allow a run, and recorded the game’s final three outs.

Atlanta and St. Louis will play the rubber match bright and early Wednesday, with first pitch scheduled for 11:15 C.T. Miles Mokalas will take the mound opposite of Bryce Elder.