ST. LOUIS – The Braves looked like they might ambush the Cardinals on Friday at Busch Stadium, but after jumping out to a 6-2 lead, they had to hold on for a 6-5 victory.
Sean Murphy, the designated hitter on this hot and muggy night on the banks of the Mississippi River, belted two home runs and drove in three. It was his sixth multi-homer game of his career and second of the season (April 12 vs. the Rays), and also his first three-hit game since June 19, 2024.
Ronald Acuna Jr. had two doubles on a three-hit night, and Jurickson Profar and Drake Baldwin had two hits each. The Braves bullpen was called upon to throw six innings, a curious development considering the team hasn’t announced a starter for Saturday or Sunday of the weekend series.
Enyel De Los Santos (3-2) pitched two scoreless innings of relief, and Austin Cox logged a 1-2-3 sixth before starting the seventh with a four-pitch walk. Rafael Montero kept the Cardinals off the board in the seventh by stranding two, and Pierce Johnson worked a 1-2-3 eighth (thanks to a one-out pickoff).
Raisel Iglesias set down the Cardinals in order in the ninth to pick up his 10th save of the season and first since June 24. The Braves improved to 12-23 in one-run games.
Atlanta did something in the first inning Friday that it had never done in four previous chances against Cardinals starter Matthew Liberatore: score a run. Acuna led off the frame with a double, went to third on a wild pitch and came home on Austin Riley’s RBI single to center.
Murphy stepped in and took an 0-2 slider 437 feet out to left into the Braves’ bullpen, his 14th dinger of the year, making it 3-0.
Alec Burleson’s RBI double into the right-field corner put the Cardinals on the board in the bottom half. An RBI single by Wilson Contreras after that made it 3-2.
Acuna struck again in the second, lining an RBI single over third to score Michael Harris II, who had doubled with one out.
Murphy’s second homer of the night came on the 13th pitch he saw from Liberatore to start the third inning. Murphy sent a fastball 440 feet to dead center.
Baldwin’s RBI single to right center later in the frame gave the Braves a 6-2 lead. They wouldn’t score again, and they didn’t need to.
Liberatore (6-7) lasted three innings and was charged six earned runs on nine hits. It was the most runs he had allowed since being touched up by the Royals for seven on June 5.
Braves starter Grant Holmes couldn’t quite settle in, either, giving up a two-run, two-out single to light-hitting catcher Pedro Pages and an RBI single to Victor Scott II in the bottom of the third.
The Cardinals got to Holmes for five earned runs over three innings. The outing was the shortest start of the season for him, and his one strikeout was a season low. He forced only seven swings and misses.
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