Braves rally, stun Cardinals in 10th
The visiting Atlanta Braves erased a three-run deficit in the ninth and took the lead when Brian McCann drew a bases-loaded walk in the 10th to stun the St. Louis Cardinals 4-3 on Sunday night.
The Braves had runners on the corners against reliever Tyler Webb (0-1) with two outs in the ninth, and the Cardinals opted to intentionally walk slugging rookie Austin Riley to face McCann. But the cagey veteran catcher drew a walk to give the Braves the lead.
Atlanta won two of three games in the series and finished the season 4-2 against the Cardinals.
The winning pitcher was Jacob Webb (3-0), with Luke Jackson pitching a scoreless inning, striking out two, to earn his seventh save.
The Cardinals' dependable late-inning relief duo of Jordan Hicks and Andrew Miller blew a 3-0 lead in the ninth, wasting six shutout innings from starter Jack Flaherty and a combined two shutout innings from ex-Brave John Gant (1 1/3 innings) and Carlos Martinez (2/3 of an inning).
Freddie Freeman led off against the ninth Hicks with a double and scored on Josh Donaldson's single. Nick Markakis nursed a walk, and Riley singled to drive in Donaldson.
The Cardinals brought in Miller to face McCann, who struck out. Ozzie Albies singled home the tying run, but was thrown out at second on a well-executed cutoff play. John Brebbia struck out Ronald Acuna Jr. to end the threat.
Atlanta starter Julio Teheran pitched five innings and gave up more than one run (three) for the first time in five starts this month. But only one was earned, and the veteran right-hander allowed just two hits, but walked four. He had only one strikeout.
Flaherty drove in the second run of the game in the fourth inning. Kolten Wong reached on a fielding error by Riley and scored on Harrison Bader's single. Bader stole third base and scored when Flaherty's grounder to third baseman Donaldson was thrown away.
The Cardinals tacked on a run in the fifth. Marcell Ozuna scored on Yadier Molina's sacrifice fly.
--Field Level Media
