The St. Louis Cardinals ended up winning this series not just in the most important column but also on the aggregate as well. 17-13 ended up being the final aggregate score during this series and of those 17 runs, 11 of those St. Louis runs were scored in just two of the 27 innings that were played.
I’m not going to say that the Braves were the better team across these three games (if they were, we’d be about to talk about some good results instead of the bummer that we’re about to discuss) but it
is a sign of just how quickly things can get away from you in this sport. It’s also a sign of just how rough of a go the Braves are having right now where it feels like nothing can go right on a consistent basis for this squad. If you dare to continue, I’ve got the details on this series ready for you. Let’s get into it.
Tuesday, June 30
Cardinals 5, Braves 3
With both Matthew Liberatore coming into this game struggling on the mound and the Braves as a whole entering this game on a bit of a collective nightmare run at the plate, it seemed like something had to give and someone was going to break out of their funk in this one. Unfortunately, it ended up being Liberatore who came out of this one looking golden as he ended up frustrating the Braves for the five innings he spent on the mound. Atlanta coaxed four walks out of him but it took a monstrous effort from the squad just to get a sacrifice fly pushed across home plate in the third inning.
That sac fly actually gave the Braves the lead but it didn’t last long as the bottom fell out for Martín Pérez in the fourth inning. Nelson Velásquez cracked one out for a solo shot that tied things up and then just when Pérez was a strike and an out away from getting out of a jam with the game still tied, he was unable to fool Nathan Church with a changeup and he pulled it into the Chop House to make it a four-run inning for St. Louis.
With the way Atlanta’s offense had been running in recent times in the lead up to this series, it would’ve been perfectly reasonable to think that that was basically the ballgame for Atlanta. The next three innings at the plate did nothing to dispel that thinking for Atlanta but they did eventually come back to life in the seventh and eighth innings. Ozzie Albies delivered an RBI single in the seventh inning and then Ryan Fernandez’s second wild pitch of the eighth inning brought in another run to cut it to 5-3.
Matt Olson got into scoring position with a ninth-inning double so the Braves had the tying run at the plate but sadly, Ryan O’Brien kept it steady for St. Louis and the nasty run of form continued for Atlanta.
Wednesday, July 1
Braves 5, Cardinals 1
Earlier on Wednesday, the English national football team advanced to the Round of 16 of the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup with a clutch 2-1 victory over the Democratic Republic of Congo. That match took place in downtown Atlanta and some of the lads decided to take their victory celebration over to Cobb County for a night at the baseball.
They ended up getting treated to the Braves offense continuing to show some signs of life, as Atlanta actually looked to be in control of this one for the most part. Reynaldo López gave up one run in the first inning and that was as good as it got for St. Louis as he and the rest of the bullpen clamped down from that point forward. The strong pitching performance provided the Braves an opportunity to establish themselves at the plate and continue to attempt to revive themselves.
Fortunately, Atlanta took the opportunity and was able to produce enough at the plate to where this was a rare win that wasn’t a nailbiter. Ozzie Albies homered in the third inning to give the Braves the lead and then new English football cult hero Michael Harris II delivered an RBI single in the eighth inning that gave the Braves a much-needed insurance run. They weren’t even done there either, as Mauricio Dubón found yet another way to get it done at the plate as he laid down a bunt that ended up plating Ozzie (who ended up having a pretty nice night, himself) and then Austin Riley made it three runs in the inning and five for the day for the Braves with his capper of an RBI single.
Raisel Iglesias got some work for once in the ninth inning and that ended up being the perfect end to a great day on the mound for Atlanta and a lovely night at the ballpark for the Knights of Money Mike’s Roundtable.
Thursday, July 2
Cardinals 11, Braves 5
For maybe an hour or so, the Braves were feeling good and a series win was within grasp. Despite the Cardinals going three-for-three for first-inning runs in this series by adding three more in this one, Hurston Waldrep calmed down after that while the Braves immediately responded with five runs of their own in the bottom of the first. Things were fine after the offense had a big inning for once and the Braves were carrying a 5-3 lead heading into the seventh inning. Considering how the bullpen has performed all season, it was reasonable to expect that they could make those two runs stand up
Then the seventh inning happened and it felt less like July 2, 2026 and more like October 9, 2019. The Cardinals didn’t make it to 10 runs in one inning this time but they got pretty close as Atlanta’s bullpen had an uncharacteristically nightmarish inning. St. Louis went single-homer-walk (pitching change)-single-single-single-fielder’s choice out (pitching change)-single-double-fielder’s choice RBI (where Jordan Walker executed a bewildering swim move on the slide home in order to evade Drake Baldwin’s tag) before a double play mercifully ended the inning for Atlanta.
Once the smoke cleared, the two-run lead was now a five-run deficit and all the energy at an oppressively Truist Park had been well and truly drained from the building. The Cardinals ended up making it a six-run victory in the end and the Braves were left a bit bamboozled as the most reliable part of the team finally had an off-night at such an inopportune time.
I suppose that the one positive to take away from this series is that the offense didn’t look completely moribund. Considering how the offense looked for the entire month of June, this lineup looked downright potent against the Cardinals over the course of the three games. While their plate performance was absolutely mortifying last month, it was still reasonable to believe that the players in this lineup (particularly the core players like Matt Olson, Ozzie Albies, Drake Baldwin and Michael Harris II) could eventually turn it on and get things going at the plate. The jury is still out on whether or not they’re ‘back’ (and the power certainly hasn’t returned yet) but the offense didn’t make me depressed like it did over long stretches during June.
Instead, this just felt like one of those series that’s indicative of where things are at right now as far as this team’s fortunes go. Martín Pérez has usually been reliable but he ended up having one bad inning and it doomed the Braves. Right after they got a feel-good win to even up the series and looked to be on their way to taking the series win, the bullpen has their worst inning of the season and the Braves ended up dropping the series, instead. When seemingly nothing is going right, you have stuff like that happening in the two losses that the Braves had in this series. One problem gets solved only for more problems to pop up in the process.
Somehow, the Braves remain in first place despite their woeful form at the moment and now they’ll be gearing up to face off against a Mets squad that has been running just as cold for the past month or so. I would say that this could be a bit of a get-right series for the Braves but first off, this Mets team actually toppled the Braves in a three-game series last month and then when you consider the form that the Cardinals were in heading into this series, this should’ve been the get-right series for the Braves. It did end up being a get-right series — for Nathan Church and the Cardinals, that is.
Now, we’re likely going to see an intense fight between a Mets team looking to have something or anything go right for them and a Braves team that is looking more and more desperate to get back going on the right track before they end up in second place before long. It was nearly unthinkable with the way April and May went for this Braves team but baseball is a funny ol’ sport and right now, the joke is on our Braves.
