By MATT PIKE
Ozzie Albies doubled and scored the winning run on Masyn Winn’s throwing error in the ninth inning, allowing the Atlanta Braves to avoid a sweep against the St. Louis Cardinals with a 4-3 win Sunday.
After the Cardinals took the lead against Braves opener Danny Young on Alec Burleson’s RBI double that scored Jordan Walker in the first inning, Atlanta rookie J.R. Ritchie pitched 4.1 innings of hitless relief before yielding Jordan Walker’s leadoff single that started a Cardinals’ rally in the sixth inning.
Prior to the rally by St. Louis though, the Braves took a 3-1 lead. After Atlanta tied the game up in the second inning, Dominic Smith scoring on a wild pitch from Cardinals starting pitcher Dustin May, an overturned out call at home plate gave Atlanta its first lead in the fourth inning as Austin Riley raced home from second on Drake Baldwin’s two-out single to right field, narrowly getting his left hand to the plate before catcher Jimmy Crooks tagged him on the back.
Brewer Hicklen extended the Braves lead in the sixth inning with a double to left-center field for his first major league RBI and extra-base hit, driving in Jim Jarvis. In the bottom half of the inning, to rally the Cardinals back, José Fermín tied the game with a two-out, two-run single, scoring Walker and Lars Nootbaar, but a strikeout by Crooks would leave the go ahead run stranded at third base.
Moments before the decisive run scored in the ninth inning, Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol was ejected after a failed challenge when JoJo Romero hit Michael Harris II with a two-strike pitch with two outs. The ejection was the 23rd of Marmol's career, tying him with Whitey Herzog and Roger Bresnahan for second among Cardinals managers, trailing only Tony La Russa’s 39.
Mauricio Dubón followed the hit by pitch with a routine grounder to shortstop, but the 2025 Gold Glover Winn’s throw to first was wild, allowing Albies to score the go ahead run. All-Star Raisel Iglesias closed with a perfect ninth inning for his 19th save. Romero fell to 1-3 on the season in relief, giving up one unearned run on one hit with one walk in one inning pitched.
May matched his season high with four walks in four innings, allowing two runs and two hits. At the plate, the Cardinals had just four hits with four seperate players each getting one hit. Burleson was 1-for-3 with a double, a walk, and an RBI. Fermín was 1-for-4 with two RBI's.
Following the All Star break, St. Louis will begin a six-game road trip on Friday at the Arizona Diamondbacks.
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