Jarred Kelenic drove in three runs and Reynaldo López battled through five innings to help the Atlanta Braves to a 6-2 win over the St. Louis Cardinals in game one of Wednesday’s doubleheader.
The Braves went down quickly against Kyle Gibson in the first but got the bats going in the second. Matt Olson worked a leadoff walk and then advanced to second on a single by Austin Riley. Sean Murphy followed with a walk of his own to load the bases. Ramon Laureano then sent a high chopper to Masyn Winn at short who threw to second for the first out. Laureano hustled down the line and beat the relay throw. Olson scored on the play to give the Braves an early lead.
Atlanta’s offense wasn’t finished. Gibson walked Forrest Wall to reload the bases and Zack Short punched a single to center that brought home two more runs to make it 3-0.
That would bring up Kelenic who stayed hot with a single to right center that scored Wall easily to extend the lead to 4-0.
Lopez needed just six pitches to dispatch the Cardinals in the first but had to work hard in the second. Paul Goldschmidt got things started with a double. Lopez then walked Brendan Donovan to put runners at first and second. Lopez got Nolan Arenado to pop out on the infield for the first out, but then loaded the bases with a walk to Nolan Gorman. Matt Carpenter delivered a sacrifice fly to left to cut the lead to 4-1. Lopez struck out Michael Siani to escape with no further damage.
Lopez restored order and retired the side in order in the third. He allowed a two-out single to Arenado but added two more strikeouts in a scoreless fourth.
The Cardinals offense got back to work in the fifth. Carpenter led off the inning with a single and then moved all the way to third on a double by Siani. Lopez then walked Winn on four pitches to load the bases with no one out.
Lopez fell behind to Alec Burleson 2-0 but got him to fly out to deep left. Carpenter tagged and scored to cut the lead to 4-2. He then got a big strikeout of Willson Contreras on a good slider down but followed that with a walk to Goldschmidt that loaded the bases again. However, Brendan Donovan flew out on a first-pitch fastball to end the inning.
The Braves got those runs back in the sixth. Wall reached on an infield single and then came around to score on a two-run home run by Kelenic.
Dylan Lee replaced Lopez to start the sixth. It was the second straight start that Lopez has dealt with a lot of traffic on the bases but he again did a great job of limiting the damage. He would exit having allowed four hits and four walks but just two runs over five innings. He struck out five while throwing 87 pitches.
Lee allowed a two-out walk to pinch-hitter Jose Fermin but got Dylan Carlson to fly out to left to leave him stranded. Pierce Johnson, Joe Jimenez and Raisel Iglesias combined to close things out to seal the win.
Kelenic and Riley combined for five of Atlanta’s nine hits in the game. Kelenic has driven in five runs over his last three games.
The Braves improve to 44-33 for the season. The second game of the doubleheader is slated to begin at 7:15 p.m. ET. Bryce Elder will get the start for Atlanta while St. Louis will go with lefty Matthew Liberatore in what will likely be a bullpen game.
