ST. LOUIS – Craig Kimbrel's streak is finished, but the Cardinals aren't.
Albert Pujols’ two-run, two-out single in the ninth off Braves closer Kimbrel sent Friday's game to extra innings, and the Cardinals won 4-3 on Nick Punto’s bases-loaded sacrifice fly in the 10th to take the opening game of an important series at Busch Stadium.
Kimbrel had not allowed a run in nearly three months since June 11, a scoreless streak of 37-2/3 innings over 38 appearances that included 67 strikeouts with only 11 walks.
"You just can’t put people on base for the big boy to come up," Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said of the walks before facing Pujols. "You know what, it happens. It happens to everybody. [Kimbrel's] been really good. Get him back on track and get him back out there as soon as you can.”
The Braves’ wild-card lead is down to 6 1/2 games over the Cardinals and the magic number remains 12. Any combination of 12 Braves wins and Cardinals losses will give the wild-card berth to the Braves, who have 17 games to play. They’ve lost six of their past nine games.
“We’re not comfortable with it by any means," Braves second baseman Dan Uggla said. "We’re looking to clinch this thing as fast as possible. This would have been a pretty good dagger to win this first one here. But we’ve still got two more and a chance to leave here being ahead more than when we got here.”
The Braves are 3-9 against Cardinals over the past two seasons, including 0-5 at Busch Stadium.
"It’s certainly no time to panic right now," said Braves reliever Scott Linebrink, who gave up two hits and an intentional walk in the 10th before Punto's sacrifice fly with one out. "We’ve still got a 6-1/2-game lead, and we have what, 16, 17 left to play?
"It’s been a tough road trip so far, but we’ve still got time to turn it around. Then we get back home and we’re going to play some good ball there and get this thing done.”
The Braves are 2-4 on an eight-game trip that wraps with two more this weekend at Busch.
Randall Delgado limited the Cardinals to three hits and one run in five innings, and the Braves gave a 3-1 lead to Kimbrel, who leads the majors with 43 saves and had converted 25 in a row.
Michael Bourn’s two-out RBI triple in the ninth provided an insurance run, which seemed a luxury given the way Kimbrel has pitched. It was the fourth hit of the night for Bourn, who matched a career high he has done four times, including two weeks ago in Chicago.
Kimbrel ran into trouble of his own doing in the ninth. After a leadoff single by Skip Schumaker, he got a groundout and a strikeout, then walked Rafael Furcal and Ryan Theriot to load the bases.
"Whenever you put guys on for free, it seems like it always comes back to get you," Kimbrel said. "And I just hung a pitch there at the end [to Pujols] and he kept it inside the line. It wasn’t where I wanted to throw it. I just made a mistake, and he made me pay for it.”
Pujols turned an 0-1 slider into an opposite-field liner just inside the first-base line. The ball skipped down the line and drove in two runs, erasing the Braves’ lead.
“Kimbrel’s been a bulldog all year long," Uggla said. "He just had one of them nights. You know, first guy gets on, he made some good pitches and got two outs. Made some close pitches, but they weren't strikes. Then he came back, threw two nasty pitches to Pujols, and Pujols happened to put the barrel on one and it found a hole."
Before walking two Friday, Kimbrel had last walked two batters on June 14 in the game that started his scoreless streak. He had issued nine walks in 37 appearances since.
In the 10th inning, the Braves turned to Linebrink (4-3), who surrendered singles by Matt Holliday and Lance Berkman to start the inning. After a sacrifice bunt and an intentional walk, Linebrink faced Punto, whose fly out to center field was enough to easily bring in the winning run.
Linebrink has a 6.75 ERA and .429 opponents' average in his past 13 appearances, allowing 15 hits, seven runs and five walks in 9-1/3 innings.
The Braves are 64-3 when leading after eight innings, with two of those losses coming against the Cardinals. Kimbrel blew a 3-2 lead in the ninth inning April 29 and the Cardinals won 5-3 in 11.
One night after Julio Teheran got his first major league win in his third start, Delgado was in position to get his first win in his third start. He gave up three hits and three walks with three strikeouts, and held the Cardinals scoreless after the first inning.
After being swept by the Phillies in a three-game series to begin a difficult eight-game, seven-day week with a lot of travel and rain delays, the Braves were going for their third win in a row behind three rookie starters. Mike Minor and Teheran won both ends of a doubleheader Thursday against the Mets at New York.
Brandon Beachy pitched 5-2/3 innings of two-hit, one-run ball for no decision Wednesday at Philadelphia to begin a stretch of four consecutive games started by rookies for the injury-depleted Braves.
None of the three pitched more than 5 1/3 innings, but Braves relievers had allowed one run in 10 2/3 innings of those three games, until the Cardinals broke through against Kimbrel.
The Cardinals stranded a runner in scoring position in the seventh inning against rookie reliever Arodys Vizcaino and in the eighth against Jonny Venters, whose nickname is “Every Day Jonny” and who is showing signs of fatigue.
Venters gave up a leadoff single in the eighth before Pujols grounded into a double play. Venters then hit Matt Holliday with a pitch and Lance Berkman singled to put runners on the corners before Venters struck out David Freese to protect the 2-1 lead.
Venters has allowed nine hits and five runs in seven innings over his past seven appearances, after giving up just eight hits 22 2/3 scoreless innings over his previous 24 appearances.
Delgado allowed a run in the first inning and piled up 93 pitches in five, but the 21-year-old right-hander showed poise in working out of sticky situations in the third and fourth innings.
After former Brave Furcal drew a one-out walk in the third, Delgado struck out Jon Jay. Furcal stole second before Delgado coaxed a pop-up by Pujols to end the inning.
In the fourth, he gave up a one-out walk and a single before getting a pair of groundouts to end the inning and preserve the 2-1 lead.
Opponents have hit just .148 against Delgado in his past three starts. He allowed eight hits, five earned runs and seven walks with 11 strikeouts in 16 innings in those games.
Delgado pitched a no-hitter through six innings against the Giants in his second start Aug. 16, before giving up a Cody Ross homer to start the seventh. He left the game at that point with the score 1-1 and got no decision in the 2-1 Braves win.
He got no decision in another Braves win in his next start Sunday against the Dodgers, allowing three runs in five innings, all on a Matt Kemp homer in the third. The Braves overcame a 3-0 deficit to win 4-3.
The was staked to his biggest and earliest lead Friday when the Braves scored two runs in the first inning on RBI doubles by Brian McCann and Freddie Freeman, the latter with two out. Bourn led off the inning with a single.
