Cardinals win series in Atlanta

The Cardinals beat the Braves 6-2 on Sunday afternoon thanks to a strong start from Miles Mikolas and four solo home runs.

In the decisive game of the series, St. Louis sent out veteran right-hander Miles Mikolas, who made his 21st appearance of the year, leading the team. The early results were positive, as he pitched two clean innings to start the game.

Mikolas allowed a solo home run by Jarred Kelenic in the third inning, but by that point the Cardinals were already ahead.

On offense, the Cardinals scored a run in four of the first five innings. The scoring started in the second inning with a solo home run by Paul Goldschmidt, his 14th of the year. One inning later, Alec Burleson hit a solo home run of his own that traveled a whopping 435 feet and doubled the Cardinals’ lead. The power continued in the fourth inning when Laars Nootbaar hit another solo home run to give the Cardinals a 3-1 lead.

To top it all off, Alec Burelson brought home an RBI base hit from Michael Siani in the fifth inning to make the score 4-2.

Burleson has been swinging a strong bat of late, posting a .414/.387/.793 batting average over his last seven games while posting 11 RBIs in that span. He’s establishing himself as one of the league’s better run producers, as he’s scored the most runs in the NL with 39 RBIs since July 2.

The Braves came closer in the bottom of the fifth inning when Orlando Arcia singled with two outs to cut the lead to 4-2, but that was the last run Mikolas allowed.

Mikolas finished the day with two runs in six innings, seven hits, one walk and three strikeouts. This gave Mikolas 10 good starts in his last 15 games and earned him his eighth win of the year.

Willson Contreras gave the Cardinals some reassurance in the eighth inning with a solo home run to the opposite end, his 11th of the year. In the ninth inning, a throwing error by Travis d’Arnaud brought Nolan Gorman home from third base and gave the Cardinals a 6-2 lead going into the bottom of the ninth inning.

Even though it wasn’t a save situation, Oli Marmol wanted to make his All-Star closer do some work at the end of the game. After two quick outs, Helsley would score the next two runs and put runners on the corners. The traffic on the base paths didn’t faze the right-hander, however, and he was able to get Laureano out with a strikeout to end the game and win the series.

Ryan Fernandez, Andrew Kittredge and Ryan Helsley followed Mikolas and shut down the Braves in the final three innings. These relievers combined to allow just three baserunners and strike out three, rounding out a great day for St. Louis pitchers.

After winning the series in Atlanta, the Cardinals improve their record to 52-47 in the 2024 season and sit comfortably in the second Wild Card spot, while still within striking distance of Milwaukee at the top of the division.

The Cardinals travel to Pittsburg on Monday and send Andre Pallante to the mount to face Mitch Keller of the Pirates. First pitch is scheduled for 5:40 CST.