ST. LOUIS — For a while Friday night it looked as if a misplayed fly ball in center and a two-out wild pitch might be decisive factors for the Braves and pitcher Ervin Santana.
But things came unraveled in a three-run Cardinals fifth inning, after which no one play or errant pitch could be blamed for the Braves’ 5-2 series-opening loss at Busch Stadium.
It was just a bad night for Santana (4-1) in his first loss as a Brave. He pitched a season-low five innings and allowed season-highs of 10 hits and five runs, with one walk, three strikeouts and two wild pitches.
“It’s a little different when he gives up some runs, because he’s been so good for us,” Braves third baseman Chris Johnson said. “But we knew at some point he was going to give up some runs. He’s allowed a tough start. So we’ll bounce back and try to take the last two.”
Santana coughed up two leads in the first four innings and gave up three runs on four consecutive hits and a sacrifice fly in the fifth inning, when the Cardinals took a 5-2 lead. After going unbeaten in 14 games when they scored first, the Braves have now lost consecutive games after scoring first.
“It is a little bit frustrating, because every time we have the lead we have to put zeroes on the board,” Santana said of giving up a pair of one-run leads. “It’s frustrating, and that’s my fault.”
The loss was the 11th in 16 games for the first-place Braves (22-18). They haven’t had double-digit hits in any of their past 18 games and have batted .214 and totaled 56 runs in their past 22 games. Manager Fredi Gonzalez was asked if he were concerned and if he had any possible solutions.
“What do you want me to do, hit the pitcher fourth?” said Gonzalez, who batted his pitcher eighth in eight of the past nine games. “No, you know what, we’ve got a talented club. Teams go through this stuff. I don’t even know what our record is, but it’s above .500 obviously, and we haven’t even swung the bats like we’re capable of. And we just keep hanging around.
“Sooner or later we’ll start swinging like we’re capable.”
The Braves are 1-3 on a six-game trip and their lead is back to a half-game over Washington in the National League East standings.
Santana began the day with a 1.99 ERA in six starts, and he had allowed one or no runs in four of those games and only once allowed more than six hits. He has been the best starting pitcher on a Braves team with the best overall ERA and best starters ERA in the majors, and he was staked to a 1-0 lead in the second inning and a 2-1 lead in the fourth.
Neither lead lasted through the bottom of the inning.
“The shutdown innings,” Gonzalez said of not shutting down the opponent after your team scores, something the Braves harp on with their pitchers. “If we get one or two of those shutdown innings it’s a little different game, maybe it’s a 3-2 game, a 4-2 game. Those are the things that are so important over the course of the game, when your teams scores you’ve got to try to do your best – and it wasn’t like he wasn’t trying to do his best, just gave up a run.
“When you’re struggling scoring runs, you’ve got to get those shutdown innings. It’s really, really important to do it.”
Meanwhile the Braves offense continued doing what it’s done best this season: Waste scoring opportunities. The Braves failed to score after getting two hits in the first inning, and settled for a single run on three hits in the second inning against Cardinals right-hander Lance Lynn (5-2).
Johnson hit a leadoff single in the second and Andrelton Simmons singled with one out. With runners at first and second, Santana bunted into a force at third base. Tyler Pastornicky salvaged the inning with a two-out single up the middle to put the Braves ahead 1-0.
The lead didn’t last three batters in the bottom of the inning after a couple of hits and a shaky defensive play by center fielder B.J. Upton.
Following consecutive singles by Allen Craig and Yadier Molina to start the inning, Matt Adams lined a ball to center that Upton raced back and caught up with, but had it bounce off his glove as he approached the warning track in stride. It was ruled a double and the score was tied, 1-1.
The Braves regained the lead in the fourth after Johnson led off with an opposite-field double, giving him multiple hits for the sixth time in nine games. He’s 15-for-34 (.441) in that span. B.J. Upton followed with a single and Johnson scored when Simmons grounded into a double play, putting the Braves back ahead, 2-1.
Again, the lead lasted less than a half-inning. The Cardinals again got consecutive singles from Craig and Molina to start the fourth. It looked like Santana might get out of the inning after inducing a double-play grounder from Adams, but he bounced a slider past catcher Evan Gattis for a wild pitch that brought in the tying run.
“It was tough for me because I was fighting (command issues) the whole game,” Santana said. “I was behind in the count for the most part. I just did not execute a pitch.”
After Peter Bourjos struck out to end the Cardinals fourth, he and manager Mike Matheny were ejected for arguing with home-plate umpire Shean Barber. Matheny creating a scene rarely seen anymore in the replay-review era, poking a finger at Barber and being held back by another umpire.
The Cardinals continued the fireworks in the fifth. With one out, Matt Carpenter and Kolten Wong singled before Matt Holliday’s RBI double gave St. Louis a 3-2 lead. Craig followed with another run-scoring single and Molina added a sacrifice fly to push the lead to 5-2.
After failing to take full advantage of early scoring opportunities, the Braves didn’t advance a runner past first base after the fifth inning.
“We’ve just got to keep going,” Johnson said of the ongoing offensive malaise. “It’s tough obviously. We’re frustrated. We want to put some crooked numbers up there. But can’t force it. Got to stay the course and keep working, and hopefully we can get going.”
