The Atlanta Braves have been one of the best teams in the National League for the first half of the 2026 season, but the St. Louis Cardinals have shown they can compete and Tuesday night was no exception at Truist Park at least for the first 7 innings. Michael McGreevy kept the Cardinals close through the first half of the game. However, the Cardinals bats were deadly silent and the bullpen let the game escape in the late innings.
The St. Louis Cardinals grabbed an early lead starting in the top of
the 1st inning. After JJ Wetherholt flied out to deep center, Iván Herrera turned a 95 mph four-seam fastball into a ground rule double. Two batters later, Jordan Walker hammered a sharp single to right scoring Herrera who made a great slide into home getting his hand over the base just before the tag making it 1-0 Cardinals. Spoiler Alert: it would be quite awhile before the Cardinals would have any more hits after the 2 in the top of the 1st inning. St. Louis could just not spark any kind of real rally against Braves starter Reynaldo Lopez. Would you believe these would represent the only Cardinals hits of the game?
That lead would not last long unfortunately. The Atlanta Braves answered in the bottom of the 1st inning a single from Drake Baldwin who scored on a double by Ozzie Albies tying the game at 1-1.
The Braves took the lead in the bottom of the 3rd inning and it was Ozzie Albies fault again. He ripped a 92 mph four-seam fastball from Michael McGreevy into a 380 foot home run to right-center making it 2-1 Braves and that’s the way it would remain until the late innings.
Michael McGreevy overall had a solid outing as he gave the Cardinals 6 full innings allowing just 3 hits, 2 earned runs while striking out 3 and walking just 1. He simply had no run support from the Cardinals offense. Max Rajcic entered the game in the bottom of the 7th inning. He walked Mauricio Dubon to lead off the Braves 7th, but was then able to get Smith to ground out and he struck out the slumping Austin Riley. Dubon advanced to third on a wild pitch by Max before Rajcic walked Mike Yastremski to give Atlanta runners on first and third. Fortunately, Mateo would pop out to Blaze Jordan at third to end the scoring threat and keep the Cardinals within a run.
José Fermín would ALMOST tie the game in the top of the 8th inning off of Braves reliever Dylan Lee as he came within an eyelash of homering to left field, but left fielder Dubon made a leaping grab against the wall to deny him. Dang.
Justin Bruihl entered the game in the bottom of the 8th inning with the sole purpose of keeping Atlanta from adding an insurance run. He would not be successful. The defense behind him was not supportive of his cause either. After Bruihl walked Drake Baldwin, Blaze Jordan botched what looked like an easy groundball from Ozzie Albies that could have been a potential double play starter. Instead it was E5 with Matt Olson at the plate with runners on first and second with nobody out. Olson flew out to deep right which allowed Baldwin to advance to third, but Albies did not advance to second even though Jordan Walker’s throw went to third instead of second. Michael Harris II made Bruihl (and the Cardinals) pay for that leadoff walk as he singled into left-center scoring Baldwin and giving the Braves a 3-1 lead. That would cause manager Oli Marmol to remove Bruihl and bring in Gordon Graceffo to stop the bleeding. He sadly couldn’t. Dubon executed a sacrifice squeeze that Alec Burleson made a great effort on, but his throw was too late to home as Albies slid home safely making it 4-1 Braves. It nearly got worse when Smith singled to right, but Jordan Walker threw a laser beam to home and Pedro Pages made a great tag for the second out. It wasn’t enough to stop the Braves from continuing to pile on. Austin Riley would single to left on the first pitch he saw scoring Dubon and giving Atlanta a commanding 5-1 lead. That would be the score going into the top of the 9th.
The St. Louis Cardinals 9th inning would feature the top of the order starting with JJ Wetherholt. He would end the game 0-3 with a weak groundout off of Braves reliever Iglesias. Iván Herrera then struck out and then Alec Burleson ended the game with a weak flyball to left field representing one of the Cardinals poorer offensive efforts of the season so far.
The St. Louis Cardinals will wrap up their visit to Atlanta with a Thursday night game against the Braves. Dustin May will make the start for the Cardinals. Atlanta has not yet named their starter for Thursday’s game. First pitch is scheduled for 6:15pm central time with the game TV broadcast being handled by Cardinals.tv.
