Braves End Losing Streak With Close Win Over Cardinals

The losing streak is over!

The Braves held off a late-inning rally by the Cardinals, and Atlanta's eight-game losing streak is history with a 5-4 victory.

Michael Bourn continued his slugging ways with a leadoff home run in the first off Jake Westbrook. Four of Bourn's last seven hits have been home runs. With two on and two out in the third, Dan Uggla punished a Westbrook fastball, depositing it into the seats for a three-run home run and a 4-0 lead.

St. Louis would immediately cut the lead in half against Randall Delgado in the fourth. A leadoff walk to Matt Holliday and subsequent singles by Carlos Beltran and Yadier Molina plated the first run. One out later, Beltran scored on a groundout by Tyler Greene.

Atlanta would get one of those runs back in the fifth with help from some sloppy fielding. Jose Constanza led off the inning with a single to center, then went to second when Westbrook's pickoff throw sailed wide of first. A fly ball moved Constanza to third and with Brian McCann batting, Westbrook flung a wild pitch past his catcher, allowing Constanza to score Atlanta's fifth run of the game.

The Cardinals wouldn't go away, though. Yadier Molina hit the first pitch he saw in the sixth from Delgado for a solo home run, one of his four hits in the game. Delgado walked the next hitter and left the game after that, allowing six hits while issuing three walks. A struggling Jonny Venters entered in the seventh inning and surrendered three straight two-out hits, including Molina's fourth hit of the game, scoring Matt Holliday to pull within a single run.

That's as far as they would get, however. Craig Kimbrel punctuated the victory with a strikeout of Holliday in the ninth to earn his 14th save.