Beachy Leads Atlanta To 7-2 Win Over St. Louis

After last night's stressful win, Atlanta jumped out to an early lead and beat St. Louis 7-2 on Saturday night.

The Braves loaded the bases in the first inning against St. Louis starter Adam Wainwright, and back-to-back bases loaded walks to Dan Uggla and Brian McCann scored the first two runs of the game. Atlanta was unable to break open the inning, but left with a 2-0 lead.

Atlanta added another run in the third, as Uggla doubled with one out in the inning. McCann followed with a bloop single to left that brought in Uggla to make it 3-0.

After not giving up a hit for the first three innings, Braves starter Brandon Beachy finally allowed a hit in the fourth inning.

In the fifth, Atlanta added to its lead. Two singles and a walk loaded the bases, and after a Jason Heyward strikeout, Tyler Pastornicky grounded to third base. Pastornicky beat the throw, and Uggla came in to score and made it a 4-0 Braves lead. Beachy then helped himself out by singling into right, upping the advantage to 5-0.

Beachy struggled for the first time in the sixth, allowing a single and two walks to load the bases for Allen Craig. Craig hit a sacrifice fly into deep left, which brought in Furcal from third to score. Beachy escaped the inning by coaxing a double play ball from David Freese. He left after the sixth inning with a 6-1 lead. Beachy finished with a line of 6 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 6 K.

In the eighth, Michael Bourn hit his first homer of the year, a no-doubter to right field off Cardinals reliever J.C. Romero. That upped the Atlanta advantage to 7-1.

In the bottom of the frame, Daniel Descalso tripled to lead-off the inning. He came in to score on a Rafael Furcal single to make it a 7-2 game.

Cristhian Martinez entered and pitched a scoreless ninth to close things out. Atlanta goes for the series sweep tomorrow afternoon.