Cardinals Break Out of Homer Drought with Two Blasts in Beating of Braves

· Yahoo Sports

Roundtable Sports' John Denton breaks down Matthew Liberatore's big bounce-back start and the homers from Nelson Velazquez and Nathan Church in the Cardinals' 5-3 defeat of the Braves in Atlanta.

Stuck in something of a home run drought during their previous six games at spacious Busch Stadium, the Cardinals hit the road and hit some much-needed big flies at Truist Field to support bounce-back starter Matthew Liberatore on Tuesday night.

The Cardinals used a towering solo shot by Nelson Velazquez, a three-run homer by blossoming rookie Nathan Church and five-plus shutout innings from Liberatore in a 5-3 defeat of the Braves in Atlanta.

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"(Liberatore) did a really good job, giving up just one hit and one run," Church said to Cardinals.TV after hitting his sixth homer of the season to give Liberatore some run support. "To be able to come back from his last outing and do this against the Braves (in Atlanta), it was a really good start."

After the Braves clawed back within 5-3, Ryan Fernandez -- who was recalled from the 15-day Injured List on Tuesday -- closed out the Braves in the eighth and Riley O'Brien pitched the ninth for his 21st save.  

The victory was a good start to one of the Cardinals’ most grueling stretches of the season between now and the break for the MLB All-Star Game. The Cards play two more in Atlanta and then travel to Chicago to face the Cubs over the Fourth of July holiday weekend. They then return home to face the National League Central-leading Brewers in five games over a four-day stretch. The Cards conclude the stretch by hosting the Braves at Busch Stadium prior to breaking for the MLB All-Star Game.

Velazquez, who got the start with Braves lefty Martin Perez on the mound, singled in the first inning and then blasted a 444-foot homer to straight away center on a 3-2 pitch. Velazquez hit a cutter that tailed back over the plate, and Velazquez’s smash left his bat at 107.8 mph.

The Cardinals kept going to make the fourth inning a big one. After singles by Masyn Winn and Lars Nootbaar, Church turned on a low-and-in changeup and drove it over the wall in right field to give the Cards a 4-0 lead. His sixth home run of the season traveled 391 and left the bat at an impressive 106.5 mph.

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Big bounce-back night for Liberatore

Liberatore came into Tuesday having surrendered 18 earned runs over his previous four starts, creating questions as to whether the Cardinals should make a change. The club stood by the 26-year-old left-hander and he rewarded their faith in his with his best outing since shutting out the Cubs over 5 1/3 innings on May 31.

After an easy, breezy first inning, Liberatore looked to be ripe for trouble in the second inning. He walked Michael Harris II and Mauricio Dubon and went 3-0 on Eli White, meaning he threw 10 balls in an 11-pitch stretch. However, Liberatore tallied and struck out White tight slider below the zone. He then struck out struggling slugger Austin Riley with another slider after falling behind 3-1 and he got Joey Bart looking to end the inning.

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Liberatore, who has seen his strikeout numbers spike in recent weeks after making changes to how hard he throws his slider, fanned nine and allowed just one earned run in five innings. He did walk four, but he was able to get enough swing and miss to pitch around the traffic. One of those walks came against Matt Olson – the final batter Liberatore faced and one he thought he had struck out before the Braves slugger was spared by a check-swing ruling.

Rookie Blaze Jordan helped the Cardinals add an insurance run in the sixth inning when he drilled a sacrifice fly to the warning track to score Winn and make it a 5-1 game.

Things got sticky in the eighth inning when JoJo Romero allowed two singles and gave way to Fernandez, who was activated off the 15-day Injured List on Tuesday following back troubles. Fernandez struck out Austin Riley with a 95.5 mph fastball, but he walked pinch hitters Rowdy Tellez and Dominic Smith to load the bases for firing a wild pitch for Atlanta's third run. However, Fernandez pitched out of trouble by getting Drake Baldwin to ground out to second base.    

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