Spencer Schwellenbach, Braves lose to Cardinals

ST. LOUIS — Spencer Schwellenbach was an out away from another strong outing. He just couldn’t get it.

The Cardinals scored all four of their runs with a two-out rally in the third and held on to give the Braves a 4-3 loss in the first of a three-game series on Monday night at Busch Stadium. As a result, Schwellenbach’s final line was four runs in five innings, and the eight hits he allowed are the most he had given up through the first five starts of his career.

“It’s hard to say that I threw well giving up four runs and eight hits, but seven singles, like I’m doing my job throwing strikes,” said Schwellenbach, ranked by MLB Pipeline as the Braves’ No. 3 prospect. “I just seemed to not be able to get them out today.”

After he struck out Brandon Crawford to lead off the third, Michael Siani singled and took second on a wild pitch. Schwellenbach (1-3) still looked poised to get out of the inning after coaxing Masyn Winn into a groundout for the second out, but Alec Burleson began a series of four straight hits with an RBI double.

Willson Contreras followed with an RBI single that just snuck under the glove of Braves shortstop Orlando Arcia, and after a Nolan Gorman single, Brendan Donovan’s RBI single made it 3-0 Cardinals.

The fourth run actually ended with the final out of the frame, as Donovan was caught stealing. But Donovan was able to get caught in a rundown before being tagged out, which allowed Gorman to score from third.

Braves manager Brian Snitker said he thought Gorman simply made a great read on the play, which allowed him to score what ended up being the game-winning run.

“A lot of things, just little things, you know, today wasn’t anything big or anything like that,” Snitker said. “Just couldn’t get anything going our way really.”

A closer look shows several positives from Schwellenbach’s start. He struck out six, his second-most strikeouts in five career games, and for the first time in his career, he didn’t walk a batter.

“One bad inning, one pitch away to three or four guys there with two outs,” Schwellenbach said. “I just couldn’t seem to make the pitch. But other than that inning, I thought I did well and executed pitches. But at the end of the day, I got to get better with throwing balls with two strikes and kind of missing at-bats that way instead of allowing them to stay in the at-bat and put something in play.”

Snitker liked the way Schwellenbach responded after the third.

“You know, wasn’t hit hard or anything and just maybe a couple of two-strike pitches didn’t get them quite where he wanted, but they didn’t square him up good,” Snitker said. “And he rebounded and did a great job, threw five innings. You know, he’s still learning, and the stuff’s really good as we continue to see.”

Austin Riley’s eighth homer of the season got Atlanta on the board to lead off the fifth. Riley’s 421-foot laser to center field left his bat at 104.3 mph.

The Braves threatened in the eighth as Forrest Wall and Zack Short drew back-to-back walks and then took second and third on a double steal. But Cardinals reliever Ryan Fernandez struck out Jarred Kelenic for the second out and Ozzie Albies flied out to deep center to end the inning. Albies’ 398-foot drive would have been a game-tying home run at Truist Park, but it landed in Siani’s glove at the base of the wall at Busch Stadium.

“I threw my hands up thinking he had got it,” Riley said. “It was, you know, a little high. It’s a big park, and you know, we were right there. One inning got us, and you know, we’re right there toward the end and just couldn’t get it done.”

The Braves loaded the bases and scored a pair in the ninth on an RBI single by Ramón Laureano and a sacrifice fly by Travis d’Arnaud, but Cardinals closer Ryan Helsley struck out Short to nail down his Major League-leading 27th save of the season.

“A lot of positives there,” Riley said. “Right there in the eighth and then once again in the ninth, having some good at-bats. You know, I feel like early on, early in the season, we weren’t really doing that, and now we are.”