Late bullpen collapse leads to 10-4 loss to Cardinals

The Braves were forced to use an opener in a bullpen game. The Braves used six relievers – newly acquired Scott Blewett, Aaron Bummer, Rafael Montero, Dylan Lee, Enyel De Los Santos, and Nathan Wiles – and the relief corps gave up St. Louis’ 10 runs on 12 hits and they walked seven batters.

“The walks hurt throughout the whole game,” Snitker said. “It’s not just one guy. We had some key walks. You can’t do that. It’s just tough to survive doing that. In the four-game winning streak that bullpen was nails, solid. It’s [going to] happen. We’re [going to] have games that are not going to go our way. We’ll bounce back tomorrow and try to win a game.”

Blewett, who was traded from the Orioles for cash on April 20, made his Braves debut as an opener. Blewett allowed two earned runs on four hits with two walks and one strikeout over three-plus innings. He gave up a two-run home run to Lars Nootbaar in the top of the third.

“I think he did a pretty good job,” Snitker said. “Any time he gets us into the fourth inning in that situation, I liked what I saw.”

Credit: AP

Credit: AP

The Braves walked two batters in the sixth (one intentional), and St. Louis scored two runs. Atlanta tallied two more walks in the eighth (one intentional) and Nolan Gorman broke the game open with a three-run triple. Willson Contreras’ walk to load the bases garnered some controversy.

A called ball on his check swing was appealed by the home plate umpire and the first base umpire said he did not swing, which resulted in ball three. Contreras subsequently drew ball four to load the bases for Gorman.

“I think a lot of those, some get called, some don’t,” Snitker said. “I wish there was an avenue in that replay-type thing. That would just delay it more, so they probably won’t go for that.”

Atlanta called upright-handed Nathan Wiles prior to Tuesday’s game and Wiles was roughed up in his MLB debut. Wiles allowed three earned runs on four hits in the top of the ninth inning.

Braves catcher Sean Murphy, who hit his sixth home run in 12 games since returning from the injured list to start the season, described what he saw from Atlanta’s pitching staff.

“I thought our guys battled,” Murphy said. “They did what they had to do and they didn’t give in. It was going well and they were just able to get a couple of timely hits there. That’s how it goes.”

 Bummer was effective with two scoreless, hitless innings in which he struck out three batters.

“It was really good,” Snitker said. “I’m kind of liking the fact that they’re tasting two innings because we need that out of these guys. [De Los Santos] has been good with that. Montero kind of lost his command again but he’s good to go tomorrow too.”

Credit: AP

Credit: AP

Snitker looked ahead to Wednesday afternoon’s series finale in terms of how he’ll manage the bullpen.

“We’re okay,” Snitker said. “Some of them that pitched today are kind of aware of [the possibility of having to pitch Wednesday. Other than De Los Santos, who went a little farther than I would have hoped. We have Pierce [Johnson] back. Daysbel [Hernández] is good. Bummer will be down. We’ll probably stay away from [Raisel Iglesias]. We need a good start. We need Bryce [Elder] to be efficient and chew up some innings.”

One positive for the Braves was Marcell Ozuna, who drew four walks in the game which – a career-high.

“I’m just not getting good pitches to hit,” Ozuna said. “I’m not chasing it like I used to in the past. I used to chase too much and get too many strikeouts.”