Rampaging Redbirds bury Braves with historic 10-run first inning – STLtoday.com, Stltoday.com

                                            

        

                                 

                                                                                                                                   

ATLANTA– The Cardinals had qualified for 13 National League Championship Series before Wednesday night. And then they scored 13 runs, a postseason record 10 of them in the first inning, as they punched their ticket for a 14^thLCS by dismantling the Atlanta Braves 13 – 1 to win the decisive fifth game in the National League Division Series.

The best-of-seven NLCS will start just after 7 pm Friday (St. Louis time) time either at Los Angeles with the Cardinals against the Dodgers or against Washington at Busch Stadium, depending on the outcome of that division series later Wednesday.

The Cardinals did something in the first inning that they hadn’t done last week in seven innings against Atlanta starter Mike Foltynewicz. They scored. And scored. And scored some more against the slider-throwing Foltynewicz and his relief as Tommy Edman, Dexter Fowler and Kolten Wong all delivered two-run doubles.

         

Foltynewicz had set down 20 of 24 men he faced last we ek. He retired only one of eight in Game 5 as the Cardinals parlayed five hits, four walks, a wild pitch and an error as they charged to their historic lead in what had been a highly competitive series.

The Cardinals captured their 11 (th) ********************************** (division series out of the 14 they have played. They are 7-6 in previous league championship series.

This marked the fourth time the Cardinals had ended Atlanta’s season here in postseason play. They swept the Braves in three games in the NLCS in 1982 and again in 2000. They won the first wild-card game here in 2012.

The Braves’ only retaliation came in 1996 when they walloped the Cardinals 15 – 0 in Game 7 of the NLCS, scoring six runs in the first inning. Somewhere Donovan Osborne is smiling. He started that game for the Cardinals.

This was the third different stadium in which the Cardinals had eliminated the Braves — Fulton County Stadium (1982), Turner Field () 2000 and 2012) and SunTrust Park.

Atlanta hasn ‘ t won a playoff series in 18 years, since beating Houston in the division series in 2001. Since then, the Braves have lost 10 consecutive playoff rounds.

And they were using the Tomahawk Chop – there were no tomahawks in evidence Wednesday –on all of those occasions.

FIVE WILL GET YOU 10

The SunTrust Park crowd, sans the trademark foam tomahawks because Cardinals reliever Ryan Helsley, a Cherokee, had taken offense to their usage last week, didn’t exactly know how to behave. And Foltynewicz was gone after eight batters, only one of which he retired and that was on a sacrifice bunt.

Leadoff man Dexter Fowler, after barely tipping a two-strike pitch to stay alive, worked a walk. Kolten Wng sacrificed and Paul Goldschmidt, hitting. 471 for the series at that point, grounded a ball to the right of shortstop Dansby Swanson, who made a diving stop but had no play elsewhere.

Marcell Ozuna, raising his series average to. 500 as he hit safely for the fifth consecutive game, poked an 0-2 pitch into right field for a single and the first run . The Braves had a chance to escape the inning when Yadier Molina grounded to Gold Glove first baseman Freddie Freeman but Freeman muffed the hop. Not only did Freeman not get two outs on what should have been a double play, he got none.

Molina was safe, loading the bases, which remained loaded when Matt Carpenter walked, forcing in the second run. There would follow a string of two-run doubles.

The first was by Tommy Edman down the right-field line. That brought up Paul DeJong, who was walked intentionally by Foltynewicz as his final act. Lefthander Max Fried’s first act was to walk pitcher Jack Flaherty, forcing in another run to make it 5-0.

Flaherty was the first Cardinals pitcher to draw a bases loaded walk in the postseason since Bob Gibson in Game 4 of the 1968 World Series

Two -run doubles by Fowler and Wong quickly made it 9-0 and Wong scored the final run on a wild pitch as Ozuna struck out.

Catcher Brian McCann, who chased after the ball on that strikeout, slipped after he got to it and then threw wildly at first but Ozuna did not advance.

Molina then hit another infield grounder but the Braves fielded this one.

(The) – run burst in the first is a postseason record for that inning and tied for the most in any inning. And it’s the most in a first inning by the Cardinals since they got 11 against San Diego on May 8, 2005.

Before Wednesday, the biggest first inning in postseason history was seven runs by the Milwaukee Braves a gainst the New York Yankees in the first inning of Game 2 in the (World Series.)

The most runs the Cardinals had scored in any previous playoff inning was nine, which they got in the second inning against the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 4 of the National League Championship Series in 1985 on the night when catalyst Vince Coleman was run over by a runaway tarpaulin before the game.

The Detroit Tigers had 10 runs in the third inning of World Series Game 6 against the Cardinals – on this day– in 1968 in a 13 – 1 win that kept the World Series alive for the Tigers to win it the next day at Busch II. Also, the 1929 Philadelphia Athletics and 2002 Anaheim Angels had 10 runs in a postseason inning.

DEJONG JOINS THE FUN

DeJong, who had had only two hits in the first four games of the series, doubled home a run in the second and singled home another in a two-run third as the Cardinals ran the count to – 0.

Edman had tripled ahead of DeJong in the second and a dropped throw by second baseman Ozzie Albies helped the Cardinals in the third. DeJong’s double was the Cardinals’ 16 th of the NLDS, setting another record.

Josh Donaldson homered over the center-field wall for the Braves’ first run off Flaherty in the fourth. “We won this inning,” chortled one Braves fan in the stands.

FLAHERTY HITS ACUNA JR.

The fans got to do a little pantomime chopping, urged on by the scoreboard music, when the Braves loaded the bases in the fifth. Atlanta didn’t score as Freeman grounded to second baseman Wong, who was playing virtually in right field. But there had been some excitement when Flaherty drilled Braves star Ronald Acuna Jr., in the left shoulder.

Acuna Jr., had irritated the Cardinals, mostly reliever Carlos Martinez, with his actions earlier in the series. And Acuna, who had catcher Molina and home-plate umpire Tom Hallion as escorts on his trip to first base, pointed at Flaherty and yelled something on his way down the line.

Hallion issued warnings to both clubs that further such actions by a pitcher would result in ejections . Flaherty would come out of the game anyway after six innings, having struck out eight while throwing 104 pitches.

BY THE NUMBERS:

CARDS ‘1 (ST) INNING

• 10 runs

• 5 hits(all with runners in scoring position)

• 4 walks

    

• 1 reached on error

• 1 safe at first on wild-pitch strikeout

• 14 batters total

• 26 minutes at bat

SHILDT SLEPT ‘LIKE A BABY‘

Though Wednesday evening’s Game 5 of the National League Division Series probably is the biggest game of his career, to date, Cardinals manager Mike Shildt, asked how he slept Tuesday night, responded, “Like a baby. How did you sleep?

“Had a nice meal, nice air-conditioned room, dark – and out like a light.

“The fact of the matter is if you’re sitting there tossing and turning , figuring out (things) at 2 in the morning, you probably haven’t done your preparation other times, “said Shildt.

“We trust our preparation. It allows us to stay calm and just play the game and be ready for a lot of scenarios. ”

DUVALL GOES INTO LINEUP

Adam Duvall has done enough damage against the Cardinals batting only once or twice a game, so Atlanta Braves manager Brian Snitker is going to give Duvall more chances.

    

The righthanded-hitting Duvall, who hit a key two-run pinch homer off Cardinals starter Jack Flaherty in Game 2 of the series, will play left field and hit sixth, replacing lefthanded-hitting Matt Joyce, who does his best work as a pinch hitter anyway. So far, Duvall is three for seven with five runs batted in over the first four games.

The Cardinals will employ the same lineup they’ve had for the past two games, with Harrison Bader not starting, Tommy Edman in right field, Dexter Fowler in center and Matt Carpenter at third. Paul DeJong will continue to bat eighth as the Cardinals try to break through against Mike Foltynewicz, who blanked them for seven innings in the Braves’ Game 2 win.

“It’s a lineup we’ve run out there and a lineup we’re comfortable with and competed well with, ”Shildt said. “So that’s what we’re going with.”

One scenario should the Cardinals advance is a potential return of Michael Wacha to the roster for a succeeding round. Wacha, who has been out with a shoulder strain, threw a “very highly intensive bullpen today,” said Shildt. “He recovered well from his lighter bullpen two days ago and is in a good spot moving forward.”

(CARDINALS LINEUP:)

1. Dexter Fowler cf

2. Kolten Wong 2b

3. Paul Goldschmidt 1b

4. Marcell Ozuna lf

5. Yadier Molina c

6. Matt Carpenter 3b

7. Tommy Edman rf

8. Paul DeJong ss

9. Jack Flaherty p

ATLANTA LINEUP:

1. Ronald Acuna Jr. cf

2. Ozzie Albies 2b

3. Freddie Freeman 1b

4. Josh Donaldson 3b

5. Nick Markakis rf

6. Adam Duvall lf

7. Brian McCann c

8. Dansby Swanson ss

9. Mike Foltynewicz p ***********************