Cardinals win series in Atlanta

The Cardinals beat the Braves 6-2 on Sunday afternoon behind a strong start from Miles Mikolas while hitting four solo home runs.

In the series decider, St. Louis sent veteran right-hander Miles Mikolas to make his 21st start of the year to lead off his team. The early results were positive as he pitched two clean innings to start the game.

Mikolas gave up a solo home run in the third inning to Jarred Kelenic, but by that point the Cardinals already had a lead.

On offense, the Cardinals scored a run in four of the first five innings. The scoring started in the second inning with a solo home run by Paul Goldschmidt for his 14th of the season. An inning later, Alec Burleson hit a solo shot, which traveled 435 feet to double the Cardinals’ lead. The power continued in the fourth inning when Laars Nootbaar hit another solo home run to give the Cardinals a 3-1 lead.

For good measure, in the fifth inning, Alec Burelson brought in Michael Siani with an RBI hit to make it 4-2.

Burleson has been hitting hard of late, hitting .414/.387/.793 over his last seven games and racking up 11 RBIs in that span. He’s emerging as one of the league’s top run producers, as he leads the National League in RBIs since July 2 with 39.

The Braves would get a little closer in the bottom of the fifth on a two-out single by Orlando Arcia that would cut the lead to 4-2, but that would be the last run Mikolas would give up.

Mikolas finished the day allowing two runs in six innings while scattering seven hits, issuing one walk and striking out three. That gives Mikolas 10 quality starts in his last 15 games and is good enough for his eighth win of the year.

Willson Contreras gave the Cardinals some insurance in the eighth inning with a solo home run to the opposite field for his 11th of the season. In the ninth, a throwing error by Travis d’Arnaud allowed Nolan Gorman to score from third base, giving the Cardinals a 6-2 lead going into the bottom of the ninth.

Even though it wasn’t a save situation, Oli Marmol wanted to get his All-Star reliever working late in the game. After two quick outs, Helsley was able to get both runners to the corners. However, the traffic on the basepaths didn’t bother the right-hander, as he was able to strike out Laureano on three runs to close out the game and clinch the series.

Ryan Fernandez, Andrew Kittredge and Ryan Helsley followed Mikolas and ended the Braves’ three-inning streak. Those relievers combined to allow just three runners on base and struck out three batters, completing a great day for St. Louis pitchers.

After winning the series in Atlanta, the Cardinals improve to 52-47 for the 2024 campaign and sit comfortably in the second wild card spot while remaining within striking distance of Milwaukee at the top of the division.

The Cardinals will travel to Pittsburgh on Monday when they send Andre Pallante to the mound to face Mitch Keller of the Pirates. First pitch is scheduled for 5:40 p.m. CST.