ATLANTA – Before he could win the game, Dylan Carlson had to save it.
Two innings after his leaping catch in deep center field helped force a tie game into extra innings Thursday at Truist Park, Carlson put the Cardinals ahead with his third hit in a game he did not start. Carlson’s single in the 11th inning scored Nolan Arenado to take the Cardinals’ third lead of the game, and this one held. Packy Naughton closed out the 11th for a 3-2 victory against the Atlanta and his first save of the season.
Twice the Cardinals got a sacrifice fly to take a lead and attempt to leave Atlanta with a souvenir other than a losing streak. Each time, the tenacious Braves answered in the same inning.
By rule, Arenado started the 11th on second base. He reached third when Nolan Gorman singled to right, and that brought up Carlson to send Arenado home as the go-ahead run. The Cardinals’ outfielder pinch-hit in the seventh inning to take part in the Cardinals’ first rally, and by the end of the game he had gone 3-for-3 with a pivotal catch.
The first half of the game was dictated by one young pitcher finding his footing in the majors and another who has announced his arrival with dominance.
Atlanta rookie right-hander Spencer Strider got his first 10 outs of the game by strikeout, and he finished the game with 12. The Cardinals struck out 18 times in the first 10 innings of the game. They got a flare double in the first inning off Strider and then not another baserunner to second base vs. the young right-hander. His fastball defied their swings, and a few times when they didn’t swing. Strider’s first and eighth strikeout of the game came on fastballs at 98.5 mph and 99.9 mph that were taken for a called strike 3.
In a solid rebound outing, Cardinals rookie Matthew Liberatore pitched four scoreless innings to take the tie game to the bullpen.
And there it stayed deep into the Georgia night.
Before the teams swapped runs in the 10th inning, they did the same in the seventh ad each had their chances in the ninth. The Cardinals evaporated quickly. The Braves’ vanished dramatically.
Michael Harris II, who tied the game with a solo homer in the seventh, appeared to have the game-winning hit in the ninth when he tagged a pitch to deep left center. Carlson gave chase and made a jumping catch near the track. Harris’ liner was hit with such authority that his teammate Phil Gosselin broke from first and rounded second as Carlson made the catch. Carlson threw to Tommy Edman, and Edman’s relay beat Gosselin to first for the game-saving double play.
It was the second leaping catch in as many nights by Carlson near that same part of the field, and it was one of several defensive plays that kept the Cardinals in a game their offense could not close. In the ninth, Edmundo Sosa gloved a hotshot to third for the first out. Gorman had a spin-around throw to start a key double play in the eighth.
Pujols starts an exchange of runs in seventh
The script flipped for Albert Pujols 24 hours after being pinch-hit for with the bases loaded late in Wednesday game. With lefty Will Smith on the mound for Atlanta and two teammates on base, Pujols got the chance to change the game with a swing – and did, with the help of a rookie’s baserunning. The first Cardinal to hit without Strider on the mound, Gorman, opened the seventh with a double off the center-field wall.
