WASHINGTON – Sunday was another bad day for the Braves, and a great day for an ex-Braves shortstop who helped St. Louis trim Atlanta’s wild-card lead to one game with three to go.
After Michael Morse hit a two-run homer in the seventh inning to give the Washington Nationals a 3-0 lead over the sputtering Braves, Cardinals fans in St. Louis roared as video of the homer was shown on the Busch Stadium scoreboard.
An hour later, those Cardinals fans cheered wildly again when former Brave Rafael Furcal homered in the eighth inning to lift St. Louis to a 3-2 win over the Chicago Cubs.
After mustering just four hits in Sunday’s 3-0 loss at Nationals Park, the Braves have lost 10 of their past 15 games and the surging Cardinals have slashed Atlanta’s National League wild-card lead from 8-1/2 games on Sept. 5 to 1 with three games left.
“This was a very brutal loss for us, but we have to come back tomorrow,” Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman said. “Can't feel sorry for ourselves and expect to win tomorrow. So we’ve got to come in tomorrow with a positive attitude and try to take care of business.”
The Braves (89-70) finish with three games against NL East champion Philadelphia (99-60), the team with baseball's best record. The Cardinals (88-71) finish with three at Houston (55-104), the team with baseball's worst record.
The Braves’ magic number to clinch the wild card remained stuck at three, meaning any combination of Atlanta wins and St. Louis losses totaling three would give the Braves their second consecutive wild card.
If the Braves and Cardinals finish with the same record, the teams would play a one-game playoff Thursday in St.Louis, the location decided by the Cardinals’ 5-1 record against the Braves this season.
The Braves lost Sunday on a pair of two-out, two-strike home runs by Washington’s Wilson Ramos, who took rookie Mike Minor (5-3) deep in the fourth inning, and Morse, who crushed an 0-2 pitch from Cristhian Martinez in the seventh.
Just as critical, if not more, were early wasted scoring opportunities chances by the Braves, who have stranded busloads of runners this season and been particularly inept with runners in scoring position and less than two outs.
“If we capitalized, it might be a little different story," said manager Fredi Gonzalez, whose Braves went 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position "Of course it gets magnified. We’ve got three games left and you’re leading in the wild card by two games. I’d be lying to you if I said it wasn’t magnified.”
The Braves loaded the bases with none out in the third inning and failed to score, and had runners at second and third with one out in the fifth and failed again. Both times, the top of the order couldn’t drive in any runs.
“It sure makes it harder on our pitchers, where you feel like you can’t make a mistake or you’re up against it the whole game,” Gonzalez said. “Also I think it adds confidence to the other pitcher, if he gets out of that jam he feels pretty good about himself.
“I feel like those guys, those [Braves] hitters, at any given time are going to be able to do that again. Really, I feel that positive and that confident about our hitters. They’re too good to be going through long stretches like this without scoring runs.”
But they are going through it, and time is running out to get things turned around.
Minor was asked if he felt any pressure pitching in such an important game and knowing the Braves offense has struggled mightily in recent weeks.
“I mean, they’re could be a little bit of pressure,” he said. “But all the pressure’s on St. Louis, because if they don’t win, they can’t get in. Even if we do lose, they have to win. So that’s how I look at it, and I think that’s how everybody else looks at it, too.”
The problem for the Braves is, the Cardinals keep winning. And the Braves do not.
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