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Bust out the brooms. Atlanta got five good innings from Tommy Hanson to go along with more than enough offense to finish off the Cardinals 7-4 on Sunday.
Early on, it looked like Sunday wasn't going to be Hanson's day. The right-hander walked Rafael Furcal to start the game, and then he stole second and advanced to third on a throwing error by David Ross. Hanson then walked Jon Jay, who immediately stole second to put runners on second and third with no outs.
However, Hanson recovered quickly and used a really good breaking ball to strike out the next three hitters in a row to escape the jam.
Atlanta finally broke open the scoring in the top of the third inning against Cardinals starter Lance Lynn. With two outs, Martin Prado singled to right field and advanced to second on a passed ball. Walks to Freddie Freeman and Dan Uggla loaded the bases for Jason Heyward.
Heyward had the plate appearance of the game, fouling off pitch after pitch until he cleared the bases on the tenth pitch with a double into the right field corner. That gave Atlanta an early 3-0 lead.
Carlos Beltran (who else) got the Cardinals on the board with a solo home run in the bottom of the sixth off of Hanson, making it a 3-1 game. Hanson lasted only two more batters, leaving with a line of 5 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 9 K.
The Braves added three more runs in the seventh, as Tyler Pastornicky started things off with a single. He then stole second, which was the first stolen base of his young major league career. A single from Prado scored Pastornicky. Back-to-back doubles from Freeman and Uggla brought in two more runs to make it 6-1.
Michael Bourn completed Atlanta's scoring with a single in the eighth to bring in David Ross.
In the bottom of the ninth, Allen Craig hit a mammoth three-run homer to left field off Cristhian Martinez to bring the game closer at 7-4, but Jonny Venters entered and recorded the last out needed via strikeout.