Behind 10run 1st, St. Louis advances
ATLANTA — With a stunning outburst their first time up, the St. Louis Cardinals scored 10 runs for the biggest opening inning in postseason history and dealt the Atlanta Braves another playoff heartbreak with a 131 rout in decisive Game 5 of the NL Division Series on Wednesday.
Before many fans had reached their seats, the Cardinals were already booking their plans for the NL Championship Series, where they will face the Washington Nationals in a bestofseven set beginning Friday.
It will be St. Louis’ first NLCS trip since 2014.
“We know we can beat anyone at this point,” Cardinals second baseman Kolten Wong said.
For the Braves, it might take a while to get over this.
After pitching seven scoreless innings in a Game 2 win, Mike Foltynewicz retired only one hitter before getting yanked. First baseman Freddie Freeman made an error on a potential double play ball that could have limited the damage. The Cardinals scored their final run of the inning on a strikeout — a wild pitch in the dirt that skipped away from catcher Brian McCann.
“We just strung together a bunch of great atbats,” Wong said.
It was Atlanta’s 10th straight postseason loss since its last victory 18 long years ago, tying the mark set by the Chicago Cubs between 1908 and 2003.
“Everything went wrong,” Freeman said.
St. Louis leadoff man Dexter Fowler batted three times before the bottom of Atlanta’s order got its first looks. The Cardinals made several changes after their 10spot in what might’ve been the first set of defensive changes ever made by a team before its opponent had batted. There was no need to worry about more offense to back pitcher Jack Flaherty, coming off one of the great second halves by a pitcher in baseball history.
“We took the crowd out of it,” Fowler said. “We knew Folty would try to get ahead of us. We were trying to get some good pitches to hit. It was a little easier to see the ball today.”
Flaherty, 23, had not given up more than three runs in 15 starts after the AllStar break, posting a 0.91 ERA. The righthander wasn’t going to let the lead get away, though Josh Donaldson — in perhaps his final game with the Braves — gave the fans a brief reason to cheer in a 130 game when he homered over the centerfield wall in the fourth.
Manager Mike Shildt let Flaherty throw 104 pitches over six innings.