Braves’ struggles continue with 10-0 loss to Cardinals

Mike Foltynewicz struggled as the Atlanta Braves suffered another blow out loss this time to the St. Louis Cardinals.

SunTrust Park hasn’t been kind to Atlanta’s pitching staff in the early going. The Braves entered Friday’s game dead last in the National League in home ERA and things didn’t get any better with this performance.

Foltynewicz came in having allowed just four earned runs over his last three outings but he was hit hard early and often by the Cardinals. St. Louis struck for one in the first, four more in the third and two more in the fourth before chasing Foltynewicz from the game.

All told, he allowed nine hits and seven earned runs with the big blows coming on home runs by Tommy Pham and Matt Carpenter.

The Cardinals added a pair of runs off of reliever Josh Collmenter in the sixth and a single run off of Sam Freeman in the seventh.

Meanwhile, Lance Lynn was able to keep Atlanta’s bats at bay allowing just four hits over six innings to pick up the victory.

Ender Inciarte was the lone offensive bright spot for Atlanta going 3-for-4 with a triple. Atlanta went 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position. Aledmys Diaz finished 4-for-4 and drove in three runs for the Cardinals while Pham was 2-for-4 with a homer and two RBIs in his first major league appearance this season.

Julio Teheran will try to stop the bleeding for the Braves on Saturday. He will be opposed by St. Louis right hander Mike Leake.