The Braves knew both their record-smashing hitting surge and season-high winning streak would be ...
The Braves knew both their record-smashing hitting surge and season-high winning streak would be interrupted at some point.
Might as well happen on a night when violent storms briefly made it appear the world might end.
After wind and rain pounded new Busch Stadium, the St. Louis Cardinals pounded the Braves 8-3 Wednesday night, snapping the Braves’ seven-game winning streak and their five-game stretch of scoring 10 runs or more.
Brian McCann homered for the fifth straight game and Chipper Jones went 2-for-4 with a double to run his hitting streak to 19 games, equaling his career high.
But the Braves mustered little else against 2005 Cy Young Award winner Chris Carpenter (9-4), who yielded two runs, five hits and no walks in seven innings.
“We won the series, which is good,” said manager Bobby Cox, whose Braves are 5-1 on a 10-game trip that continues with a four-game series at Philadelphia that begins Friday.
“We had a chance to sweep [the Cardinals], but we were going against Mr. Cy Young tonight, and he looked like Mr. Cy Young to me.”
It was only the third loss in 14 games for the Braves, who swept a series at San Diego and won two of three in St. Louis since the All-Star break. Two of their past three losses have come against Carpenter, beat them on July 4 in Atlanta.
“All in all, six games into the second half I’m extremely happy,” said Jones, who’s been a catalyst for the Braves’ resurgence, with 41 hits, eight homers, 24 RBIs and a whopping .526 average during his 19-game hitting hitting streak.
The start of the game was delayed two hours and 12 minutes by high winds and rain from a storm that hit downtown St. Louis shortly after the national anthem.
About 30 people were injured, including some fans while scrambling for cover when the storm struck with little warning. The winds whipped dust and trash into the air, turned over portable concession stands and blew out plastic sheeting that serves as windows in the un-air conditioned writers’ level of the pressbox.
The field tarp at the new stadium was ripped in half by the sheer force of the winds, and extensive work was required to get the soaked area around home plate in condition to play the game. But field conditions weren’t a factor after the game began.
The Braves countered Carpenter with Jason Shiell, 29, whose Braves debut was his first major league appearance since 2003 and first-ever start in the majors, after he missed most of two seasons recovering from elbow surgery.
The right-hander gave up four runs, four hits and three walks with six strikeouts in four innings, leaving after 81 pitches in the stifling heat and humidity.
“I was pleased with the way I threw, but not satisfied,” said the Savannah native, staked to a 1-0 lead on Andruw Jones’ RBI single in the first inning.
Shiell protected it only until the third, when Jim Edmonds’ three-run homer capped a four-run inning that began with two singles and a walk.
It was the first modest offensive output in nearly two weeks for the Braves, who had hit .382 with 24 homers and 77 runs during their seven-game winning streak, and racked up 20 homers in those five wins since the break.
“You have to understand the situation,” Jones said of Wednesday’s loss. “We called up a guy from Triple-A [Shiell] and we’re facing the defending Cy Young Award winner. Let’s face it, odds aren’t in our favor.
“Chris pitched a great game. You’re going to run into guys who are going to stick it to you from time to time. If you don’t have a pitcher that’s on his game going for you that night, you’re going to get beat.”
The Braves lost a game in the NL wild-card standings to Cincinnati, falling to five behind the Reds.
McCann led off the seventh inning with a homer against Carpenter, giving McCann six homers and 20 RBIs in 13 July games. He’s 15-for-36 (.417) during an eight-game hitting streak, and has five homers and 13 RBIs in his past five games.
Jones, who has hit .405 with 22 extra-base hits in his past 32 games, missed a homer by a foot on his fourth-inning leadoff double off the top of the fence in left-center field.
The Braves’ bullpen problem reared its familiar ugly head in the fifth inning.
Reliever Kevin Barry had his second rough outing in three on the trip, charged with four runs, three hits and three walks while recording just two outs. He also hit No. 8 hitter Hector Luna batter with the bases loaded.
After pitching nine scoreless innings with only two hits allowed in his first three major league appearances, Barry has surrendered seven runs, six hits and four walks in two innings over his last three appearances.