*Photo from FOX2Now*
St.Louis wins series 3-2
Jack Flaherty pitched a dominant game, the St.Louis Cardinals offense scored 10 first inning runs, and the Cardinals steamrolled the Braves in game 5 by a 13-1 score to punch their ticket to the NLCS and end a promising Braves season. The 10 run inning was the biggest in postseason history, and the Cardinals had their NLCS ticket punched before Atlanta fans took their seats.
In the first, Marcell Ozuna hit an RBI single, Matt Carpenter drew a bases loaded walk, Tommy Edman hit a two run double, Flaherty drew a bases loaded walk, Dexter Fowler hit a two run double, Kolten Wong hit a two run double, and Wong scored on a drop third strike to make it 10-0. In the second, Paul Dejong hit an RBI double. In the 3rd, Dejong and Harrison Bader each had RBI singles to make it 13-0. Atlanta got their run on a Josh Donaldson solo homer in the 4th.
Flaherty went 6 innings for the Cardinals, giving up one run on 4 hits and one walk. He struck out 8 for his first playoff win. Wong said of the team's performance that ''We know we can beat anyone at this point''We know we can beat anyone at this point, we just strung together a bunch of great at-bats." Fowler said that ''We took the crowd out of it, 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.'' Fowler, the leadoff hitter for the Cardinals, hit 3 times before the bottom of Atlanta's order got to bat once.
Mike Foltynewicz only got one out, giving up 7 runs on 3 hits and 3 walks. Atlanta's recent playoff futility continued in a massive way in a home game 5, and Freddie Freeman summed it up very nicely. He said simply "Everything went wrong." The only out Foltynewicz got was on a sac bunt by Wong. Freeman could have made an inning ending double play that would've limited the first inning damage, but the ball deflected off his glove and rolled to second base and the inning continued. Freeman said that ''This one is on me." Seemingly adding insult to injury, Braves catcher Brian McCann announced his retirement following the loss.
The Cardinals will move on to the NLCS, while the Braves enter offseason mode. Atlanta has a good future ahead, but they have some free agents to sign, most notably Donaldson.
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