Braves, Cardinals playing long game of consistency to reach playoffs

The St. Louis Cardinals and Atlanta Braves, each in second place in their divisions, are expected to be in the thick of the playoff race during the second half of the season. The clubs open a three-game series in Atlanta on Friday.

The Braves begin the second half 8 1/2 games behind Philadelphia in the National League East. St. Louis is 4 1/2 games behind Milwaukee in the NL Central. Atlanta currently holds the top wild-card spot, 3 1/2 games ahead of St. Louis.

The Cardinals won two of three from the Braves in their first meeting in St. Louis in June.

The starting pitchers for the series opener will be St. Louis right-hander Sonny Gray (9-6, 3.34 ERA) against Atlanta right-hander Spencer Schwellenbach (3-4, 4.43).

Gray has gone 0-2 with a 6.06 ERA over 16 1/3 innings in his last three starts. In his last appearance on Friday, he pitched seven innings and allowed three runs on nine hits with six strikeouts in taking a 5-1 home loss to the Chicago Cubs.

Gray is 0-3 with a 3.38 ERA in six lifetime starts against the Braves. He lost to Atlanta last season, allowing three runs in 6 2/3 innings.

Schwellenbach has won his last two outings to snap a personal two-game losing streak and post a 1.38 ERA so far in July.

He allowed one run on seven hits with six strikeouts in six innings of a 5-1 victory over visiting Philadelphia on July 6. Schwellenbach went one better in his most recent start, going seven innings of a 6-1 win at San Diego on July 12. He yielded one run and three hits with one walk and three strikeouts.

In the rookie's lone outing against the Cardinals, he allowed four runs and eight hits with six strikeouts in taking a 4-3 loss on June 24.

The Braves, who still want to catch the Phillies, have changed their mindset. Instead of hoping to run off a long winning streak, they're looking to make incremental gains and carry the approach into the postseason.

"Truthfully, it's focusing on more of a series at hand, just try to win every series," Atlanta catcher Travis d'Arnaud said. "That's what playoff baseball is, is winning the series to get to the next series. You're going to win one, lose one.

"There's been teams who have lost three and come back and win the series, and ended up winning the World Series. It's more of a focus of trying to win every series and just keep going forward."

Atlanta has had to deal with the loss of 2024 MVP Ronald Acuna Jr. (knee surgery) and Cy Young candidate Spencer Strider (Tommy John surgery). The Braves have won behind excellent pitching while the offense has struggled.

"I think we've done a good job of just grinding this thing out and staying relevant," manager Brian Snitker said. "I like where we are. I'd like it to be more, yeah. But under the circumstances, we've done a really good job of battling through the adversity and hanging in there. I'll just continue to say it. I still think our best baseball is ahead of us."

St. Louis has rebounded from a 15-24 start and have gone 35-22 since.

"We're as good as anybody in the league," St. Louis manager Oliver Marmol said. "We started off poorly and there's no secret that we dug ourselves a hole. But for the last two months, we've played the style of baseball we expect moving forward.

"It's not, ‘We're hot right now.' This is our game, our style of play and what we're capable of doing against anybody on a given day. It's been consistent for a decent amount of time now."

--Field Level Media