The Cardinals scored 10 runs in the 1st inning vs the Braves, here's what happened

Oct 10, 2019 2.3M views 6:30

What Happened

In the deciding Game 5 of the 2019 NLDS at SunTrust Park, the Cardinals hung a 10-spot on the Braves before Atlanta recorded a clean out in the first inning. Starter Mike Foltynewicz lost command of his fastball, which ran arm-side out of the zone all inning, while St. Louis hitters laid off his sliders and waited him out. Two of Atlanta's first three outs were essentially gifted to them, including a sacrifice bunt and a Freddie Freeman error on a likely double play. Reliever Max Freed and others couldn't stop the bleeding, and the Cardinals batted around with runs scored by everyone down to the pitcher's spot.

Why This Matters

This was a winner-take-all game, and the Braves were buried before they hit. Ten runs in the first inning of a postseason game is a record, and it happened to a 97-win team that had home field. The breakdown shows the small failures that snowballed: a dropped foul-tip strikeout by Brian McCann, Freeman botching a double play he makes almost every time, and Foltynewicz's fastball running so far that even his strikes were accidents. Atlanta's bullpen couldn't reset the inning either. The Cardinals advanced to the NLCS, where the Nationals swept them. For the Braves, it extended a brutal October run and added another early playoff exit to a young core that kept knocking on the door before finally breaking through in 2021.

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Key Moments

Who / What Is Involved

Players: Freddie Freeman, Ben. Teams: Braves, Cardinals.

Key Terms Mentioned

Full Transcript

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Game five was weird a lot went wrong for

the Braves this one's brought to you by

the sports ladder fall tees on the mound

he's got him with two strikes and

there's strike three