If baseball isn’t supposed to be overly emotional and “rah rah” doesn’t really have a place over the course of a 162-game grind, then how to explain the Braves’ weekend sweep over St. Louis?
After watching their ace go down with a gruesome ankle fracture, all that awaited the Braves this weekend in Atlanta was season-ending surgery for Tim Hudson and three games against the team with the best record — and statistically the best lineup — in the National League.
Call it a rally cry, dominant pitching or a little of both, but the Braves took out the Cardinals again Sunday 5-2 to complete the three-game sweep.
Kris Medlen, who might have been headed for the bullpen if not for Hudson’s injury, pitched his best game in more than a month, the Braves lineup beat the Cardinals at small ball, the Braves’ defense played one of its best games of the year and the back of the Braves bullpen took care of the rest.
The Braves held the Cardinals to three runs in three games overall.
“Obviously we have confidence going in that we can control their lineup,” Medlen said. “But knowing the kind of lineup that they have and how good of a team they have – I’m trying to avoid saying we were surprised that they only scored three runs this series – but I just think it’s how good we are as a staff. And the bullpen has done a great job when we’ve come out of the game too. Mike and Julio led the way and I just wanted to continue that.”
Asking Medlen to dominate the Cardinals like Mike Minor and Julio Teheran had in the first two games of the series — allowing one run in 14 innings — was a tall order, but the Braves made good use of what became a draw between him and the Cardinals’ young Shelby Miller.
Medlen shut out the Cardinals for four innings before he lost a two-run lead in the fifth and ultimately left game tied 2-2. But Joey Terdoslavich, pinch hitting in Medlen’s spot in the sixth, gave the Braves the lead back with the first RBI of his career.
The rookie joined a host of the Braves who supplied some textbook two-out hitting in the sixth inning, stringing together four straight singles to take a 4-2 lead.
Chris Johnson started it with an opposite field single on the ninth pitch of his at-bat against Miller. Andrelton Simmons blooped a single to right off reliever Seth Maness and Terdoslavich followed by working a single to left field. Jason Heyward, who had homered in the third inning, got in on the small ball with an RBI single up the middle.
Johnson went 3-for-4 to raise his season average to .338, now tops in the NL. Simmons had two hits and two stellar plays in the field. Heyward went 2-for-4 with the homer and two RBIs. Craig Kimbrel racked up his third save in three nights of the series.
“All their guys battle out there; they have a really good pitching staff,” Johnson said. “We just tried to chip away, get one here, get one there. Our pitching staff, Medlen tonight, slammed the door for us.”
Medlen limited the Cardinals to two runs despite allowing eight hits over six innings, thanks in large part to Simmons. The Braves dynamic shortstop made a couple of great plays on groundballs hit by David Freese to start double plays — one play in particular in the hole in the second inning.
“Everybody dreams of hitting that walk-off hit in the World Series and I dream of catching that ball he hit,” Simmons said. And of the highlight double play? “…It’s a pretty neat play, I thought, after I saw it (on video).”
Simmons was the one admiring Freddie Freeman’s play to end the eighth inning when the first baseman nearly toppled over the Braves dugout railing to catch a foul pop-up for reliever Jordan Walden.
“I’ve got to come with something special to beat that,” Simmons said. “That was pretty cool.”
Medlen’s biggest nemesis at the plate was his counterpart Miller. The Cardinals pitcher entered the game 2-for-32 for the season but went 2-for-2 off Medlen, including an RBI double to drive in the first run in the fifth. That broke up a streak of 20 consecutive shutout innings by the Braves going back to Yadier Molina’s solo home run in the second inning Friday night.
Ultimately, though, Miller’s hits just provided fodder for some funny post-game text messages from Hudson, providing the Braves all the more assurance that Hudson was back to himself on his first night home from the hospital.
“Well if you’re wondering how Huddy is,” Medlen said after the game, pulling out his cell phone to read the message verbatim. “Besides the ‘good job’ text messages, he said ‘Shelby Miller really ripped your (behind), just like I would.’ I think he’s feeling a little bit better than he was the other day.”
