STREET. LOUIS — Spencer Schwellenbach was one out away from another good outing. He just couldn’t understand it.
The Cardinals scored their four runs on a two-out rally in the third and held on to hand the Braves a 4-3 loss in the first of a three-game series Monday night at Busch Stadium. As a result, Schwellenbach’s final line was four runs in five innings, and the eight hits he allowed are the most he had allowed in the first five starts of his career.
“It’s hard to say I pitched well, giving up four runs and eight hits, but seven singles, like I was doing my job throwing strikes,” said Schwellenbach, ranked by MLB Pipeline as the Braves’ No. 3 prospect. “I couldn’t seem to get them out today.”
After striking out Brandon Crawford to lead off the third, Michael Siani singled and took second on a wild pitch. Schwellenbach (1-3) still looked set to get out of the inning after convincing Masyn Winn to ground out for the second out, but Alec Burleson began a four-hit streak with an RBI double.
Willson Contreras followed with an RBI single that barely slipped under the glove of Braves shortstop Orlando Arcia, and after a Nolan Gorman single, Brendan Donovan’s RBI single made it 3-0 Cardinals.
The fourth run actually ended with the last one out of frame, as Donovan was caught stealing. But Donovan was able to get trapped in a run before being tagged out, allowing Gorman to score from third.
Braves manager Brian Snitker said he thought Gorman simply made a great read on the play, allowing him to score what ended up being the winning run.
“A lot of things, just little things, you know, today was nothing big or anything like that,” Snitker said. “We just couldn’t get anything to work out in our favor.”
A closer look shows several positives from Schwellenbach’s start. He struck out six, his second-most strikeouts in five career games, and for the first time in his career, he didn’t walk a batter.
“One bad inning, one pitch away from three or four guys with two outs,” Schwellenbach said. “I just couldn’t seem to make the shot. But other than that inning, I thought I did well and made pitches. But at the end of the day, I had to get better at throwing two-strike balls and missing at-bats that way instead of allowing them to stay in the at-bat and put something on the line.”
Snitker liked Schwellenbach’s response after the third.
“You know, he wasn’t hit hard or anything and maybe a couple of two-strike pitches didn’t get them where he wanted them, but they didn’t square it right,” Snitker said. “And he bounced back and did a great job, he pitched five innings. You know, he’s still learning and as we continue to see, things are really good.”
Austin Riley’s eighth home run of the season put Atlanta on the board to lead off the fifth. Riley’s 421-foot laser to center field left his bat at 104.3 mph.
The Braves threatened in the eighth when Forrest Wall and Zack Short drew consecutive walks and then took second and third with a double steal. But Cardinals reliever Ryan Fernandez struck out Jarred Kelenic for the second out and Ozzie Albies flied out to deep center to end the inning. Albies’ 398-foot drive would have been a game-tying home run at Truist Park, but it landed in Siani’s glove at the base of the wall at Busch Stadium.
“I put my hands up thinking I got it,” Riley said. “He was, you know, a little tall. It’s a big park and, you know, we were there. One inning beat us, and you know, we were right there towards the end and we just couldn’t get it done.”
The Braves loaded the bases and scored a pair in the ninth on Ramon Laureano’s RBI single and Travis d’Arnaud’s sacrifice fly, but Cardinals closer Ryan Helsley struck out Short to secure his 27th save of the season. season, leader of the Major Leagues.
“There are a lot of positives there,” Riley said. “Right there in the eighth and then again in the ninth, I had some good at-bats. You know, I feel like at the beginning of the season, we weren’t really doing that, and now we are.”
