Skidding Braves finish worst trip in 61 years

ST. LOUIS -- In his 29th and final season as a major league manager, Bobby Cox endured a new level of abject road failure Thursday.

His Braves lost 10-4 against the St. Louis Cardinals to finish an 0-7 trip, the franchise's worst in six decades, and lost two players -- pitcher Jair Jurrjens and shortstop Yunel Escobar -- to injury while extending a nine-game losing streak.

"I don't think I've ever been on one like this," Cox said of the futile trip against the New York Mets and the Cardinals. "Probably have, but it's not going to be in our memory, that's for sure. It was a lousy trip.

"We did some things great, but we didn't get one win, so. ... Horrible, horrible experience to endure."

It's the worst start to a season under Cox for the Braves (8-14), the only team with a losing record in the National League East.

"I don't know what's going on," second baseman Martin Prado said. "It's unbelievable. Never happened. Never been through this. Whatever it takes, no matter what, we're trying hard, man. We're trying."

Their hopes of salvaging a win on the miserable trip were dashed in one inning Thursday when Jurrjens was replaced after he favored a left hamstring that he  strained two days earlier. He gave up a two-out, three-run homer by David Freese that hit the right-field foul pole.

"We got unlucky and he kept it fair, hit the foul pole," said Jurrjens (0-3). "Cost us two runs. I think that's the game right there."

He said the hamstring wasn't aching, but Cox and pitching coach Roger McDowell decided to use caution after Jurrjens told them he altered his delivery a bit in the first inning to protect the hamstring.

"Not a good way to win a ballgame," said veteran Eric Hinske, who started at first base in place of slumping Troy Glaus. "Nothing against the bullpen, but you're hoping to get six, seven innings out of your starter, and he leaves with a hamstring and we're down 3-nothing, so … you know, what are we going to do? We just go out there and battle."

Jason Heyward's seventh-inning home run snapped an eight-game Braves homerless streak, but their losing jag went unabated. The nine-game skid is the longest for the Braves since a 10-game slide in June 2006.

Kris Medlen, who was told before the game to be ready in case Jurrjens' hamstring acted up, kept the Braves in it by limiting the Cardinals to two hits and one run over the second through fourth innings.

The 4-1 deficit ballooned to 8-1 in the fifth inning when reliever Jesse Chavez retired the first two batters before giving up four runs on four two-out hits, including Freese's three-run double after Colby Rasmus was intentionally walked.

"That's the most frustrating part of it, that I took us out of the ballgame," Chavez said. "I gave us no chance. Not no chance, but at that point my job is to keep it at four, and I didn't do that. That took us out of the ballgame and kind of deflated our bubble."

The Braves hope to restore some confidence and stop the spiral during a brief three-game homestand against Houston that starts Friday.

They begin another nine-game trip Tuesday.

Hinske has played on three different teams in the past three World Series, including the World Series champion Yankees in 2009.