By MATT PIKE
The St. Louis Cardinals rallied from behind to tie the game in the sixth inning, then win the game in the eighth behind a late solo home run by Jimmy Crooks in a 2-1 win over the Atlanta Braves at Busch Stadium.
While the game started on time, just before the start of the fourth inning it went into a rain delay as rain poured down in St. Louis, flooding Busch Stadium and the Cardinals dugout. The delay lasted nearly three hours, with play resuming around 10:45pm, and in the fifth inning against the Cardinals bullpen, with starting pitcher Kyle Leahy well out of the game, the Braves took the lead on an RBI single by Austin Riley driving in Mike Yastrzemski.
Prior to the sixth inning, the Cardinals were held to just two hits. In the sixth, after a walk to JJ Wetherholt and a single by Iván Herrera with one out, the league leader in RBI's Jordan Walker hit an RBI single to score Wetherholt and tie up the game. The RBI for Walker was his 74th of the season, putting him six RBI's ahead of Houston's Yordan Alvarez and Washington's Luis Garcia with 68.
After a scoreless seventh inning, with the clock just past midnight in St. Louis for the bottom of the eighth inning, Jimmy Crooks put the Cardinals ahead to lead off the inning on a 2-2 count, hitting a solo home run, his second of the season, to center field for a 2-1 lead. Danny Young recovered from the home run to retire the next three batters, but in the ninth, St. Louis closer Riley O'Brien shut down the Braves 1-2-3, striking out two, for his 23rd save.
JoJo Romero earned the win, his first of the season moving to 1-2, pitching a clean eighth inning with one strikeout. At the plate, the Cardinals had five hits overall, Herrera leading the way going 2-for-4. Crooks was 1-for-1 with the home run and an RBI after coming on as a defensive replacement in the seventh inning.
St. Louis and Atlanta continue their series with the middle game of the series on Saturday. Matthew Liberatore (4-6, 5.34 ERA, 82K's) is set to take the mound for the Cardinals against Reynaldo Lopez (4-1, 3.18 ERA, 51K's) for the Braves. First pitch is at 6:15pm, coverage begins at 6:05 on KY 102 (102.5 FM).
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