ST. LOUIS — The Cardinals wrapped up the first home stand of the season by losing their third straight game to an impressive Atlanta Braves ballclub, 5-2, in front of an announced crowd of 36,300 at Busch Stadium on Wednesday afternoon.
Rookie phenom Jordan Walker provided the lone bright spot on a damp and dreary day by going 2 for 4 with a double and his first major-league home run.
The sweep at the hands of the Braves marked the first for the Cardinals in St. Louis since the Braves swept them on August 3-5, 2021.
The Braves also snapped a streak of five consecutive games to start the season with 10 hits or more by the Cardinals.
Braves continue their fast starts
The Braves continued their trend of scoring in the first inning of each game of the series, though Wednesday marked the first time they did so without the help of a home run.
Ronald Acuna Jr. (infield single), Matt Olson (RBI double) and Austin Riley (RBI single) gave the Braves three hits and two runs before Cardinals starting pitcher Miles Mikolas recorded an out.
The Braves plated three in the first, the third came on a sacrifice fly by Ozzie Albies.
Mikolas did not completely escape the home run barrage that hit his rotation mates Jake Woodford and Steven Matz in the previous two games of the series. Matt Olson lofted an 0-1 changeup 410 feet to center field for a solo home run in the second inning to give the Braves a 4-0 lead.
Olson bounces back at Mikolas’ expense
Olson, who played all 162 games last year in his first season with the Braves, went 0 for 5 with three strikeouts on Tuesday night and all three strikeouts came against Matz.
Olson responded with three hits, three RBIs and two runs scored on Wednesday afternoon, including his second-inning homer and an RBI double into the right field corner in the fourth inning. That double gave the Braves a 5-0 lead.
Lightening the load on the bullpen
Mikolas became the first Cardinals starter to pitch six complete innings in a start this season.
The previous longest outing for a starter had been Matz’s 5 1/3 innings on Tuesday night. Mikolas didn’t make it through the fourth in his Opening Day start against the Toronto Blue Jays.
Mikolas allowed five runs on nine hits and one walk in six innings. He struck out six and tossed 98 pitches (71 strikes).
He gave up three runs on four hits in the first inning, and allowed two runs on five hits in the last five innings.
The Cardinals will have a day off on Thursday before they begin a stretch of 13 consecutive days with a game.
Mikolas going six innings allowed the Cardinals to only use two relievers on Wednesday, left-hander Packy Naughton and right-hander Chris Stratton.
Cardinals bats quiet against Braves starters
Bryce Elder, who entered the day having made nine previous starts in the majors (all in 2022), held the Cardinals scoreless for six innings.
Collectively, Braves starting pitchers Charlie Morton (three runs), Dylan Dodd (one run) and Elder allowed one fewer run in the series than Mikolas allowed on Wednesday.
Elder allowed just two hits, one came on a fly ball by Nolan Gorman that dropped after the third baseman, Riley, appeared to have it lined up in shallow left field. Elder walked three and struck out six.
The Cardinals had just one at-bat with a runner in scoring position against Elder, and that came in the sixth inning. Elder struck out Nolan Arenado, swinging, with runners on first and second after a single by Alec Burleson and a Paul Goldschmidt walk. The Arenado strikeout concluded the inning and the outing for Elder.
Walker ends the drought
Rookie outfielder Jordan Walker, who had an outstanding spring training to earn his place on the major-league roster out of camp, hit his first home run in the seventh inning and assured the Cardinals did not get shut out.
Walker, who skipped the Triple-A level of the minor leagues, crushed a 2-2 slider from Braves reliever Michael Tonkin into the left field stands with two outs in the inning.
The crowd at Busch Stadium kept cheering until Walker popped back out of the dugout for a brief curtain call.
Walker, the organization’s first-round draft pick in 2020 (21st overall), entered the spring ranked the No. 4 overall prospect in baseball by both Baseball America and MLBPipeline.com. Last season at Double-A Springfield, he hit 19 home runs in 119 games.
O’Neill enters the game late
After Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol questioned Tyler O’Neill’s effort running the bases on Tuesday night and O’Neill pushed back and insisted he gave full effort despite being thrown out at the plate, O’Neill entered Wednesday’s game as a pinch hitter in the eighth inning.
O’Neill batted for catcher Andrew Knizner and stayed in the game in left field. Willson Contreras also pinch hit in the inning and went to catcher the following inning. O’Neill hit a fly ball to center field in his lone at-bat.
Not only did O’Neill and Marmol disagreed about O’Neill’s effort on Tuesday night, but O’Neill said on Wednesday morning that he felt the discussions should have been kept “in house.”
