By Zachary McMahon –
The Atlanta Braves played a day-night doubleheader against the St. Louis Cardinals on Wednesday after Tuesday’s game was postponed due to rain. The Cardinals took the first game of the series on Monday after a comeback attempt in the ninth inning of that game.
On Tuesday, the Braves called up utility player Luke Williams from Triple-A Gwinnett in response to Brian Anderson landing on the 10-day injured list with a bacterial infection. Orlando Arcia was taken out of Monday’s game with dizziness in the sixth inning, and did not play in either game of the doubleheader.
So, at shortstop for the Braves, Zach Short played at the position in the first game, and then Luke Williams started the second game at the position. Game 1: Reynaldo Lopez started for the Braves, while Kyle Gibson started for the Cardinals.
The Braves made a splash with a four-run second inning, which was highlighted with a two-run single by Short, and a RBI single by Jarred Kelenic. The Cardinals got their first run on a Matt Carpenter sacrifice fly that scored Paul Goldschmidt, who hit a double earlier in the second inning.
The Cardinals also did a sacrifice fly in the fifth, when Alec Burleson scored Carpenter home to make it 4-2. Kelenic extended the Braves lead with a two-run home run to make it 6-2 in the sixth inning off Kyle Leahy.
Lopez pitched five innings, allowed four hits, two earned runs, four walks, and struck out five batters. Starting with the sixth, the Braves used four relievers and they did not register a singlevhit, and Dylan Lee and Pierce Johnson both walked a batter each. Raisel Iglesias closed out the ninth on a non-save opportunity as he struck out two batters to seal the 6-2 Braves win.
Game 2: Bryce Elder was called up from Triple-A Gwinnett to start in Game 2 of the
doubleheader, as he made his first major league start since the 9-1 loss to the San Diego
Padres on May 19. Meanwhile, Matthew Liberatore started for the Cardinals in this game.
Burleson struck first with a two-run double in the third inning, as the Cardinals held a 2-0 lead through most of the game. Liberatore pitched six innings for the Cardinals, where he allowed only two hits and one walk,
while delivering eight strikeouts.
Chris Roycroft, who was called up from Triple-A Memphis as the 27th man, pitched a shutout seventh inning where he gave two strikeouts to the Braves batters. Andrew Kittridge relieved Roycroft in the eighth inning, as he allowed a double to Ramon
Laureano and Sean Murphy, who pinch hit for Williams, hit an infield single to third.
After that, JoJo Romero came in for Kittridge with two outs in the inning, and gave up an RBI single by Kelenic for the Braves to break the shutout. The Cardinals struck back in the bottom half of the inning, scoring two runs off RBI singles by Goldschmidt and Brendan Donovan to make it 4-1 off Grant Holmes.
Ryan Helsey earned his 28th save of the season, as he left Matt Olson and Travis D’Arnaud on base after he struck out Adam Duvall to end the game, as the Cardinals split the doubleheader with the Braves, and take the series two games out of three. The Braves will be playing one game in Chicago on Thursday as they play the Chicago White
Sox in a makeup game from April 3, as it will be Chris Sale going for the Braves.
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